10 MORE Ridiculous Horror Movie Villains That Shouldn’t Have Worked… But Did
Who believed a giant tadpole, a sentient dress and a moody chef would make good horror villains?
Most of cinema's most iconic villains have been spawned by horror. After all, the thing that makes the genre tick is its ability to generate a figure of ultimate fear, capable of being plastered across merchandise and siphoned off into a billion and one sequels. Jason, Ghostface, Hannibal, Chucky, Jaws - you know the name even if you haven't seen the film.
But what of those lesser known horror movie villains? What of the ones that don't translate so well through marketing copy and posters? An imaginary toy bear or a large white worm don't sound like prime material for iconic suspense sequences and sleepless nights to follow. No, some villainous characters don't work on paper and ought not to work in practice either. And yet sometimes they really do.
Christine, In Fabric, The Menu, The Host - all of these films have managed to build their plots around fantastical, absurd or kinda lame sounding bad guys, and yet in every case they have worked just perfectly. Either in spite of their apparent flaws and weaknesses, or because of them, these and the six others films you are about to feast your eyes upon have taken ridiculous villains and made them quite credible.
10. Mayflower Pilgrim John Carver - Thanksgiving (2023)
Built from the B-movie trailer of the same name (commissioned for Tarantino's Grindhouse), Eli Roth's Thanksgiving surprised everyone two years ago by actually being good. Set in the present day and packed with Gen Z stars, but sporting a retro aesthetic, Thanksgiving manages to seamlessly blend old and new into something fresh, shocking and gory in all the right places.
The film picks up one year after a thanksgiving tragedy in which several of Plymouth's residents were trampled by a Black Friday mob, when a killer is stalking the streets seeking 1980s horror-style vengeance. And, of course, the focal point for the '80s vibe is the film's typically OTT slasher villain: umm, John Carver.
So, sure, he's not really the John Carver who made the Mayflower voyage in 1620 and became the first governor of Plymouth - but he is dressed as the guy. The mask is cheap and the clothes old-timey, but while the outfit makes him a deeply improbable horror figure - breeches, stockings, latchet shoes and the iconic capotain hat don't stoke fear in the hearts of many - it only takes a few swings of the axe to turn him into a horror icon.