10 Lesser Known Stephen King Villains

Spoiler alert: Rose isn’t a hat, she just wears a top hat all the time. Have you ever trusted someone who wears a hat when it isn’t necessary? Me neither. It’s clearly a sign of evil.

Rose is a woman who is a sort of telepathic vampire which feeds on the psychic ability known as the shining, which is bad news for young Abra Stone. Luckily, she finds help in Daniel Torrance, a man who as a child spent one winter being terrorised by the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel thanks to his own psychic power.

As leader of the True Knot, she travels the United States in a convoy of motor homes with her fellow monsters, torturing and murdering children who possess the gift of the shining to consume the steam it produces. We learn that Rose has been a member of the Knot since the 19th century, having originally emigrated to the States from Ireland.

Eventually, her obsessive personality is her undoing, and her strategies and tactics aren't enough to best the powerful Abra. But her nature raises a question: is Rose truly evil? After all, the lioness isn't evil for killing a gazelle to feed her cubs.

The answer is yes. Of course she's evil. And delightfully so.