10 Silly Villains That Ruin Serious Horror Movies

Having a silly villain in a serious film can really affect how that film is going to be received by an audience, take Agent Smith from The Matrix for example. In the horror genre, however, there is nothing worse. Whilst serious films of other genres can get away with a silly villain such as The Warriors, The Crow, or Pulp Fiction, in the world of horror cinema having a silly villain in a serious story is an unforgivable sin as horror is defined by its antagonists.

To have a scary, tense atmosphere ruined by a really dumb villain is infuriating. It spoils everything that the movie had going for it. It doesn’t matter if the movie was effectively scary up until that point, as soon as a silly villain is revealed that’s it: movie ruined, angry audience, poor reviews.

Whilst antagonist silliness can be quite subjective at times – some people still retain that Pazuzu, the demon from The Exorcist, is ridiculous – these 10 examples show how a silly villain can ruin a film entirely despite whether or not that film was good to begin with.

Sinister is one of Blumhouse’s most successful movies. A love-letter to Stephen King and his numerous works, it’s been dubiously paraded and championed as one of the scariest movies of the past decade. However, the villain of Sinister hinders the movie's potential whereas it could have become a horror classic.

The plot of Sinister is incredibly similar to that of Children Of The Corn, where an immortal demon causes children to murder their parents in horrific ways. The movie builds up this monster of ancient mythology and the atrocities that have been committed in his name throughout the first half of the movie. Then, its name is finally revealed: Bughuul; a very silly name that feels more at home in a Monty Python sketch than a mature horror movie.

The look of the Bughuul is based upon death metal bands such as Immortal, Avatar and Godflesh Apocalypse. Thus instead of looking like a monster it looks like a confused rock star who's trying his best to be scary. Add to this the fact that the Bughuul only appears in the form of predictable jump scares, and it becomes a burden to what could have been a terrifying movie. Originally, Robert Cargill, the writer, wanted a demented looking ‘Willy Wonka’ figure for the villain before the director talked him out of it. If done correctly, that idea would have worked so much better than what they eventually went for.