10 Most Underrated Horror Movie Villains

This carnivorous creature stalked the highways like a bat out of hell through an uneven, yet entertaining trilogy containing two cinematic releases in 2001 and 2003 and a belated third part pretty much going straight to DVD in 2017.

Originally seeming like a generic serial killer type, we gradually realise that the Creeper is something far beyond human during his pursuit of siblings (Gina Phillips and Justin Long) in the first movie. Exactly how far beyond is only fully revealed in the climax when he invades a police station to gorge himself on cons and cops alike as if he's at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

In the sequel he gleefully chews his way through a bus full of high schoolers while Twin Peaks' bad dad Ray Wise goes Captain Ahab in a quest to avenge his son. Then in the messy part three (confusingly set between the first two instalments) he terrorises a psychic Meg Foster and the ill-prepared task force on his trail.

Although the creeper doesn't speak, Breck manages to convey a lot of personality through all the monstrous make-up. There's a malevolent twinkle in his eye and the way he hungrily sniffs the air to select his prey is always chilling. The unpredictability of who he might choose to devour adds tension and creates interesting dilemmas for those facing him. It's an inspired touch, because if the Creeper were indiscriminate he would actually be less scary. It's the uncertainty that's unsettling, the way that generates a slim hope for a character's survival and the shock caused whenever it is snuffed out. It's a theme never more effective than in the gut-punch climax of the original.