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You Look So Absurd, You Look So Obscene: The Most Memorable Movie Psychopathic Characters (Masked, Maimed and in Make-Up)

By Cindy Davis | Posted Under Seriously Random Lists | Comments (34)

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There are those who would say that portraying a monster in costume is easy—just put on the mask and become the character. But make no mistake, there is method (acting) behind the madness. It takes a certain skill to make a killer seem both sympathetic and frightening, or vengeful and soulless. Some petrify us with their gleeful grunts and groans, others, with their terrifying silence and stillness. All of these fine actors have left their marks on their victims, and upon our collective psyche.


10. Peter Cowper as Harry Warden in My Bloody Valentine (1981)

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9. Ari Lehman as Jason Voorhees (child) in Friday the 13th (1980)

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8. Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis aka Ghostface in Scream

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7. Robert Englund as Fred Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

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6. Rory Calhoun as Vincent Smith in Motel Hell

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5. Doug Bradley as Pinhead in Hellraiser

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4. Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight

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3. Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

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2. Tony Moran as Michael Myers in Halloween (1978)

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1. Tim Curry as Pennywise in “It”

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Cindy Davis would be smart enough to run if she saw any one of these muthafuckas coming.









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Comments

Pennywise the Clown.

You listed a motherfucking, hateful, painful, godsdamned spawn of every hell CLOWN as #1?

I have to admit it's the right decision.

Posted by: The Wanderer at October 16, 2011 3:10 PM

I was nodding right along, thinking about and generally liking your choices and then BOOM - - Pennywise. I can't take a nap now, I'll have night-, er, daymares.
Makes me feel like a 8 year old again, can't believe my parents let me watch that on tv...

Posted by: mamoon at October 16, 2011 3:42 PM

OH GOD PENNYWISE

Posted by: Salieri2 at October 16, 2011 3:56 PM

My inner seven year just ran screaming from the bathroom at the thought of Pennywise. My mom let me watch the mini-series with her when I was a kid. I was afraid to use the washroom by myself for months!!!!

Posted by: Jax at October 16, 2011 4:14 PM

Tony Moran played the unmasked Myers, but Nick Castle provided the menace for masked Michael.

Posted by: TylerDFC at October 16, 2011 4:30 PM

Umm...no credit for Nick Castle playing Michael Myers as well?

Pssh, Pennywise? The best?? Puh-lease...

Posted by: Juicy Weatherbe at October 16, 2011 4:31 PM

Also, you have to give it up for Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees.

Posted by: TylerDFC at October 16, 2011 4:31 PM

Tim Curry was IT? How did I not know this?

Never seen it though...

Posted by: Candee at October 16, 2011 4:35 PM

Ummm somewhere on that list should be Kane Hodder as Mr Jason Voorhees the baddest motherf*cker that ever maimed horny co-eds in the woods.

Posted by: blacksred at October 16, 2011 4:54 PM

No Candyman?

...You were right to include Ledger's Joker. He frightened the piss out of everyone I know.

Posted by: Jerce at October 16, 2011 5:05 PM

I meant to add: I think I was too old for Pennywise by the time that silly movie came out. However, apparently there is an entire generation of you out there who have been irreparably and permanently scarred by pudgy middle-aged Tim Curry in discount makeup phoning in his performance. Y'all ought to sue somebody.

Posted by: Jerce at October 16, 2011 5:09 PM

I don't know about Pennywise...

Maybe it's because I never saw IT when I was a child. I rented it a few months ago to see what I missed and it is a horrible movie. I admit that the clown was scary the first few times he attacked, but the movie formula got old so fast that Pennywise lost his oomph.

Honestly, re-watch that movie and tell me that it is even remotely scary. It is literally 1.5 hours of the exact same scare gimmick happening to a bunch of kids one at a time, followed by 1.5 hours of the exact same scare gimmick happening to the same kids as adults one at a time.

Posted by: Pfft at October 16, 2011 5:11 PM

The most disturbing is Ari Lehman as Jason Voorhees!

Posted by: birdie at October 16, 2011 5:31 PM

+1 for Kane Hodder.

Posted by: Peyton Caldrich at October 16, 2011 6:09 PM

Screw Pennywise; how about Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter?
Now that's REAL horror!

Posted by: MadMike at October 16, 2011 6:26 PM

Say what you will, but that clown was damned disturbing.

Posted by: Four Eyes at October 16, 2011 7:42 PM

What? No Breather?

Love Pinhead, but did he ever really do anything? Just a bunch of menacing words.

Still don't get the clown. Not scary at all. Goofy. But, I haven't seen it so I have no context.

Posted by: Protoguy at October 16, 2011 7:51 PM

Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees is the big glaring omission on this list.

Posted by: Fredo at October 16, 2011 9:44 PM

yeah sorry but giving it to the kid for playing Jason Vorhees for what, 2 seconds? Over Kane Hodder?

Posted by: Ben at October 16, 2011 9:56 PM

The real horror in No. 9 is the kid with the '70s hair.

Posted by: , at October 16, 2011 11:01 PM

I won't be sleeping tonight, thank you. I should have known better than to look at this SRL.

Posted by: Jelinas at October 17, 2011 12:08 AM

Pfft: damn right it's because you never saw IT when you were a kid. I saw it when I was six. It done fucked me up forever.

For comparison's sake, I watched Silence of the Lambs a year later (the stuff we got up to when our parents were next door...) and I was all THIS IS AWESOME.

What's scary as a kid isn't necessarily scary as an adult, but it works the other way around too.

Posted by: Zirze at October 17, 2011 3:03 AM

Zirze - Yeah. I'm embarrassingly terrified of Disney's Mr. Boogedy.

Posted by: Pfft at October 17, 2011 3:22 AM

Regardless of what you thought of the mini-series or the acting of Tim Curry in the role of PWTDC, if you read IT, it didn't matter who or what played IT, because knowing it, made IT truly terrifying.

IT.

Posted by: thecloofer at October 17, 2011 7:42 AM

I call bullshit on anybody claiming Kane Hodder belongs on the list. He didn't take over the character until part 7 or 8, when it got completelyfuckingretardedstupidcrazy. Maybe an honorable mention as Uber-Jason in Jason X, but he is properly omitted. Now...if you want to make an argument for Warrington Gillette, or even Dick Brooker (First one to wear the hockey mask for an entire movie)...I'm all ears.

Posted by: PissBoy at October 17, 2011 8:24 AM

It takes lots of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters!

Posted by: Pinky McLadybits at October 17, 2011 9:45 AM

No mention of Linda Blair? That just ain't right.

Posted by: Brian K at October 17, 2011 11:19 AM

You kids and your Pennywise fear. I will reiterate, once again, that no Curry is as Currifying as Curry phoning in his performance, WHILE SINGING, as the Grand Wizard in "The Worst Witch".

Bat bowtie, indeed.

Posted by: lubeg at October 17, 2011 11:28 AM

Boogedy Boogedy Boo!

Posted by: Riles at October 17, 2011 1:05 PM

Waiting for Paddydog to chime in with The Child Catcher.....

Posted by: klingonfree at October 17, 2011 1:39 PM

How about Zelda from Pet Semetary?

Posted by: KC at October 17, 2011 2:35 PM

And she would be right to do so don't you think klingonfree?

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at October 17, 2011 3:56 PM

Damn! I was fine until Pennywise!
I have the strangest attraction to Tim Curry since Legend and Rocky Horror Picture Show. All this character has served is confusion.

Posted by: Daria at October 18, 2011 12:22 AM

I don't know where he should fit, but I think Jack Nicholson in the Shining is pretty freaking terrifying too.

Good list all around though. :)

Posted by: Amandahugandkiss at October 18, 2011 11:37 AM