10 Most Underrated Horror Movie Villains

There are certain horror villains almost everyone can recognise. Even your Grandma knows who Freddy Krueger is and it's impossible to ignore the current flood of merchandise inspired by Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise. But now it's time to shine a light on some of the ones who, for various reasons, slipped off the pop culture radar, or never really caused a blip in the first place.

Between them they've appeared in movies from as far back as the sixties right up to present day. A few have featured in well-known series, some have headed trilogies and series of their own. So why aren't they better known?

As you'll see these villains' aren't underrated because they aren't memorable or because they're attached to poorly made movies. Some of the entries on this list have even enjoyed iconic status... for a time. It's just that they've been overshadowed by contemporaries like the big three mentioned above, or because the movies they feature in never reached the audience they deserve.

Although Horror fans reading this may recognise most of the figures here, even they'd have to admit that these are hardly household names...

What could be more terrifying than a Nazi? Try a chemically enhanced Nazi zombie with ten times the strength of an average man and the ability to regenerate almost any wound.

Here we have the most recent villain to appear on our list, from 2018's WWII set horror actioner Overlord. Captain Wafner is a bad guy to begin with, lording it over the village his side have occupied. He's not just a man taking orders, Wafner relishes his job of keeping the locals in line while evil genius Dr Schmidt conducts experiments on their loved ones and neighbours.

Schmidt is attempting to create super soldiers with a new serum he's been testing on the villagers and after suffering a disfiguring wound in a firefight with US troops, Wafner recklessly injects a dose into himself. Immediately the captain goes from a cackling coward willing to use a child as a human shield, to a near unstoppable monster.

With a uniquely grotesque look, achieved through impressive cgi, and a gleefully menacing presence this villain raises the stakes in an already tense situation and the final showdown is a brutal gorefest. Asbaek may have been criticised for his pantomime-ish turn in Game Of Thrones, but this snarling villain is perfectly over the top.