10 Most Terrifying Female Horror Movie Villains
2. Mrs. Baylock (The Omen 1976)
The Omen, released in 1976, planned to ride the wave of success generated from The Exorcist in 1973, as by that point occult movies were big business. Directed by the versatile Richard Donner, The Omen is the ultimate creepy kid horror film and has an all-star cast to lend some thespian weight to the proceedings.
Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is the unsuspecting American diplomat who, after a family tragedy, unwittingly adopts Damien, son of the devil, the Antichrist himself. Even little devils need tucking in at night and Thorn and his wife hire a nanny by the name of Mrs. Baylock, who turns out to be a minion of Satan, placed there to ensure the boys survival and whom will do anything to protect the Antichrist from harm.
Baylock is played with creepy, deadpan intensity by English actress Billie Whitelaw, a Royal Shakespeare Company veteran stage actor. Whitelaw's performance is all in the eyes, which burn with a murderous devotion to Satan's little brat, attempting to undermine Thorn at every turn.
After Damien's identity is revealed, Baylock goes head to head with Thorn in a brutal kitchen fight, ultimately succumbing to a fork-in-the-face injury, which seems more than fair after she throws Thorn’s wife Cathy from a hospital window, landing, ironically, on an ambulance. Talk about adding insult to injury.