10 Most Terrifying Villains In Non-Horror Movies

There are few films less deserving of the "family-friendly" mantle than Henry Selick's Coraline. This Neil Gaiman adaptation feels like it was designed not to entertain, but to traumatise.

Although the stop-motion feature has a creepy atmosphere throughout, it's the big bad that leaves the biggest impression. While exploring her new home, the titular teenager discovers a passageway to a house identical to hers; a house inhabited by a button-eyed replica of Coraline's mum called Other Mother. This doppelgänger is so cheery, Coraline considers staying in this reality for good.

Over time, Coraline discovers Other Mother is actually a wicked entity called the Beldam, who takes on a friendly appearance to lure children into her realm. 

In itself, that sounds pretty scary, but that's not all, as the Beldam sends dolls to the real world to spy on potential victims. Once kids enter her dimension, the Beldam replaces their eyeballs with buttons. When the time comes, she devours their flesh and steals their souls, preventing them from moving on to the afterlife. When Coraline defies the Beldam, she transforms into a skeletal spider-creature made of needles. 

At a certain point, viewers may wonder if the creators picked up a horror script by accident and tried their darnedest to turn it into a kid's flick. Coraline is so nerve-wracking, it makes innocuous things, like dolls, needles, and buttons spooky. It may be classified as dark fantasy, but Coraline should be deemed a horror, purely because of the Beldam.