20 Greatest Horror Villains Of The 2020s (So Far)
The horror villains of the decade (so far) you won't ever forget.
Though we're only about halfway through the 2020s so far, it's already been one hell of a decade for the horror genre.
All the way through the challenging pandemic years, horror remained fertile and lucrative - a testament to how the genre connects with the masses and has fostered a global community of fans.
But how great can any horror film really be without an equally great villain?
The problem, inevitably, is that it's tough to come up with a genuinely unique and memorable horror antagonist these days, considering we've all seen dozens, even hundreds of renditions of ghosts, monsters, masked killers, and so on.
But these horror movies all proved there's still plenty of room for villains who are either original or in the very least extremely strong iterations of well-worn archetypes.
From all the horror movies released since 2020, these are the villains who folks are likely still going to be talking about at the end of the 2020s and perhaps years, even decades beyond.
From instantly iconic murderous mascots to eerily believable serial killers, gross monsters, and everything in-between, these are the 20 horror antagonists from the 2020s who can stand tall with the genre greats...
20. Pearl - X & Pearl
Ti West's X introduced the world to Pearl (Mia Goth, under heavy prosthetics) - an elderly, unrelentingly horny woman who, with her husband Howard (Stephen Ure), preys upon the young, attractive folk who rent out their farmhouse to shoot a porn film.
Pearl is implied to be jealous of their youth and sexuality, and so she and her hubby go about wiping the lot of them out - which they almost succeed at, save for sole survivor Maxine Minx (also played by Mia Goth).
And West cemented Pearl as an all-timer horror villain in her self-titled prequel, where Mia Goth dives into Pearl's earlier life as an angry young woman living a cloistered existence in rural Texas.
Fascinating though it is to see Pearl become the serial killer we later know her as, it's Goth's Oscar-worthy performance that well and truly pushes the character over the top, cemented by a mesmerising long-take monologue that few are likely to forget.