10 Least Terrifying Villains In Horror Movie History

There's no better way to get the heart racing than a good horror film that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Conversely, there is nothing more deflating than sitting through a supposedly scary movie that makes you yawn. While there are many reasons for this to happen, a lack of a truly terrifying villain is often a central reason.

From characters who make you laugh when you shouldn't be, to those who have been portrayed before only much better through to the bloody wind (!), this list looks at those supposed villainous characters with minimal stage presence and zero scare ability.

For the purposes of this list, we are looking at movies that genuinely wanted you to be scared by the central villain rather than of the more humourous nature. So while the likes of the Goblins in Trolls 2, the titular Gingerdead Man from the Gary Busey franchise (yeah, there's three of them!) meet the criteria, the fact that they were played for laughs gives them a veto despite their awfulness and lack of scares.

There was much anticipation when it was revealed that none other than Robert De Niro had signed on to play the iconic monster in a faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's horror classic for director Kenneth Branagh. If anyone was going to bring the menacing brute of a creature to life, then who better than the greatest actor of the 20th century?

Sadly, it just wasn't to be. Frankenstein's monster is supposed to be a towering, horrific figure who gives people the fright of their lives from his almost supernatural, ungodly appearance... but, De Niro's portrayal just never came across as monstrous at all, being closer to a man who has one too many pints and then got himself into a bar fight than anything Boris Karloff projected.

The other issue is that compared to modern day stories, the 19th century tale wasn't all that terrifying to audiences about to enter the 21st century. Without wanting to tarnish the name of Ms Shelley, the piece was very much of its time and was far more of a character study than an out-and-out horror piece. While other Frankenstein movies have created a truly terrifying monster of a brute, De Niro's interpretation is actually far more faithful to the source material, and suffers accordingly.