When fans think of horror movies they typically associate them with the Halloween season, but a surprising number of huge horror hits have been summer blockbusters. This summer also has an impressive lineup of fresh new horror. With films from genre veterans like Scott Derrickson's The Black Phone and Jordan Peele's Nope, fans don't have to wait until the foggy fall season to get some real chills.
When faced with a paranormal villain, characters have an especially difficult task at hand. How to fight something that is not of this world. Whether the genre is gothic, slasher, or psychological; paranormal villains are wreaking havoc on viewers.
Sinister – Bughuul
Sinister, a deeply unsettling horror movie of the last decade, is still considered one of the scariest movies of the 2010s, largely in part of the villain Bughuul. He is an ancient pagan deity that consumes the souls of human children and possesses them to act out his evil deeds.
Also known as Mr. Boogie or Devourer of Children, Bughuul is elusive for most of the film. The obscure face first appears in images. One horrifying scene involving a computer screen will haunt viewers. Ethan Hawke as the skeptic author has viewers questioning the supernatural element, so when Bughuul finally appears, viewers are caught off guard.
Annabelle – Annabelle
Annabelle first appears as a haunted doll kept safely behind glass in The Conjuring. By the time fans see Annabelle's full capabilities in her own trilogy, she's become one of the scariest dolls in horror history.
Annabelle: Creation excels at making fans afraid of a small doll, which is no easy feat. It always adds to the creep factor when a story is based on real events. Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren famously had a real Annabelle doll, which they claim was haunted.
It – Pennywise
Clowns are such a dubious character, as they are meant to be funny, yet give them the right amount of menace and a creepy laugh and they become the stuff of nightmares. 2017s adaptation of Stephen King's novel IT, Pennywise terrorizes the town of Derry.
Pennywise the clown is not simply a clown and takes on the form of many things. The clown in IT is an ancient entity made of pure evil and little is scarier than a smiling, giggling face full of teeth. Bill Skarsgard's performance as Pennywise brings an unnerving unpredictable aspect to the character.
Insidious – The Man with the Fire on His Face
Also known as the Lipstick-Face Demon, Insidious introduced one of the most iconic horror villains of the 2010s. Josh and Renai Lambert's son is trapped in an astral plane known as The Further. Trying to gain control of their son's coma-induced body, the demon haunts the Lambert's house.
The demon's archetypal character design is horrifying on its own. But its malevolent intentions of pure pain and chaos give this character a spine-chilling aura. The first shocking reveal of his face brought viewers to tears and is still remembered as a defining moment of the Insidious series.
Hellraiser – Pinhead
Hellraiser introduced the world to Pinhead, whose pale skin and spike-covered head most fans could recognize even if they're unfamiliar with the Hellraiser series. Pinhead is a cenobite in the Hellraiser world, a demon of chaos and sadistic torture.
The body-horror-heavy movie is not for everyone - some might get queasy at just the sight of the mutilated cenobites. And while the practical effects might look dated to some, they are quite effective in the visceral reaction they bring out of audiences. Gore isn't the only terrifying aspect of the film. Pinhead's thought-provoking quotes are at times more menacing than the physical horrors.
It Follows – The Entity
In the 2015 psychological horror film, It Follows a group of teenagers is followed by a sexually transmitted curse that takes the form of a person walking slowly. The target of the entity must have intercourse with someone to pass along the curse to them.
Once each victim is killed, it goes down the line of the last person they slept with. This concept makes beating the entity a real conundrum. A terrifying and unnerving aspect is how the entity sometimes appears as people the victim knows. The characters are never safe from it and even have to fear their own family and friends.
The Ring – Samara
The Ring is about an ominous videotape that once watched the viewer has 7 days to live. Samara, a vengeful spirit, inflicts psychological torture on those she is around. The film follows Rachel as she tries to defy the 7-day curse.
The Ring was revolutionary in the genre and popularized the "stringy-haired ghost girl" archetype. Based on the Japanese film Ringu, The Ring still holds up today. Similar to an onryō, a Japanese wraith ghost, the vengeful spirit Samara was the nightmare of people young and old when it was released in 2002. The image of her crawling out of the television screens scared audiences and was parodied many times.
A Nightmare on Elm Street – Freddy Krueger
In A Nightmare on Elm Street, slasher Freddy Krueger is a murdered man that haunts the dreams of the teens in the town that killed him. Once killed in their dreams, they die in real life.
The list would not be complete without the famous character of Freddy. How do the victims ever get away from something that can get them in their sleep? Without any way to fight back, and sleep is inevitable, this concept has been frightening audiences for decades. Krueger's predatory one-liners have not aged well, and the cringe dialogue can take viewers out of the movie. Despite this Freddy is still nightmare fuel as a concept and character.
The Nun – The Nun
The character of The Nun is teased in The Conjuring universe through photos. Fans got to see the origin story in 2018's The Nun. A priest and a novitiate are seen by the Vatican to investigate an abbey in Romania where tragedies have taken place.
The slow reveal of The Nun built up fear and anticipation. By the time audiences see the scene where a nun is looking at a photo and sees the black-eyed nun standing amongst the other nuns where she's not supposed to be, fans were ready for that backstory. The degradation of what is a holy and innocent image of a nun adds another level of terror.
The Babadook –The Babadook
After finding a grim children's book in their house, The Babadook, a grieving mother and her troubled son start to sense an ominous presence in their house. While the son believes this to be a monster trying to eat them, no one believes him.
The mother's mental health deteriorates as she "let The Babadook in." The Babadook is spine-chilling not just because the character looks like a child's interpretation of the boogeyman, but also because of the different interpretations viewers can take. The mother becomes increasingly violent, and viewers don't know if it is actually her or the Babadook that they should be scared of.