10 Most Underrated Horror Movie Villains

Forget Pinhead, this wicked stepmother is the real big bad in the first two instalments of the franchise.

Immediately coming off as cold and slightly resentful of her milquetoast husband Larry and the baggage of his daughter Kirsty, Julia coldly flirts with a removal man in her introduction, before going upstairs to pine about her lost and forbidden love - Larry's brother Frank.

When Frank comes back from the grave skinless and largely fleshless it doesn't take much to convince Julia to help him. Before you can say "Come to Daddy" she's luring lonely businessmen to the attic for him to feed upon.

Although marriage to Larry is clearly no picnic writer/director Clive Barker never allows us to sympathise with the aloof yet desperate Julia, whose loyalty for Frank never comes off as more than lust and a desire to escape the boredom of her situation. Her eventual demise at Frank's hand is as cruel as it is satisfying and it's entertaining to see how that affects their relationship in the Hell-set sequel.

In Hellbound Julia is resurrected by obsessed Psychiatrist Dr Channard and promptly seduces him through her obstructive yet iconic bandaged look. Like Frank, she regenerates by feeding on unfortunate patients the doctor brings her and she rewards him by granting his wish for a tour of Hell. Since her death we see that Julia has become more ruthless than ever, in her subsequent treatment of the doctor, of former lover Frank and through her pursuit of stepdaughter Kirsty.

Original plans were for Julia to be the series' antagonist and it shows in both of her appearances. But the popularity of Pinhead encouraged the filmmakers to elevate him from the neutral arbiter of the first instalment, and semi-heroic victim of the second, to the headline horror icon he still is today.