Summary

  • Michael Myers has the highest kill count among slasher villains, with at least 161 confirmed kills.
  • Other slasher villains, like Jason Voorhees and Leatherface, come close to Michael Myers' kill count but fall short.
  • Art the Clown is a rising slasher villain who is quickly gaining kills and could potentially surpass Michael Myers in the future.

The horror genre has seen many iconic slasher villains, and everyone from Jason Voorhees and Leatherface to Michael Myers have giant kill counts to their names. Although movies from the 1960s like Psycho are considered the earliest influences of the slasher genre, the Golden Age of slasher movies started in the mid-1970s and went through the mid-1980s. This period saw the arrival of movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and introduced a new breed of slasher monsters. All have their own methods to kill their victims, but one stands as the slasher with the most kills.

For many years, there was one horror monster who ruled them all when it came to the kill count, and he wasn't a slasher villain. Once upon a time, the Universal Monster villain The Invisible Man had the most kills of anyone in horror movies, with 123 confirmed. Many of these were thanks to a train full of people he was responsible for. However, when the slasher villains arrived, the entire purpose of these movies was creative kills, and the more gruesome the better. While it might seem someone like Freddy Krueger might rank high, he only had 39 total kills in all of his movies. It was nothing compared to the kings of kills, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers.

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Michael Myers Has The Highest Kill Count

Michael Myers Killed 161 Total People

Michael Myers, the slasher with the most kills, has been terrorizing Haddonfield, Illinois, since 1978 (though his very first kill happened in 1963 when he murdered his older sister), and he has even traveled to California to continue killing, as he did in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later when he learned Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) was now living there under the name “Keri Tate.” However, his biggest killing spree took place in Haddonfield, in 2018, as Halloween Kills, the second entry in the reboot timeline, ended up having the franchise’s highest body count, which in turn gives him a higher number than that of Jason Voorhees.

Before Halloween Kills, Michael Myers’ kill count was 133, but now with the deaths of characters like Marion Chambers, Tommy Doyle, Karen Strode, and many other Haddonfield citizens, his kill count has upped to at least 161, making him the villain with the highest horror movie kill count. Only three bodies were added to his kill count from Halloween Ends, as most of the murders were at the hands of Corey Cunningham. Jason Voorhees has no new movies coming in the future, so “The Shape” will continue to reign among slasher villains as the one with the biggest kill count.

Only three bodies were added to his kill count in Halloween Ends.

Other Slasher Villains Close To Michael Myers' Kill Count

Jason Voorhees Killed 151 People

Jason Voorhees attacks Rennie in Friday the 13th.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface is responsible for 31 deaths across all movies in the franchise, while Freddy Krueger’s kill count seems to be between 42 and 48. Jumping to the 1990s, another famous slasher, Scream's different Ghostface killers, have a total of 46 kills. Then there’s Jason Voorhees, whose real killing sprees began in Friday the 13th Part 2, as his mother, Pamela Voorhees, was the real villain in the first movie. Jason Voorhees' total kill count, then, is 157.

Jason's impressive tally is mostly because he has more movies than other slasher villains — a total of 12, including the crossover with Freddy Krueger in Freddy vs. Jason. Jason Voorhees has killed people at Camp Crystal Lake, New York City, and even in space, thanks to Jason X. Given how many movies he appeared in, Jason easily once held the record for the highest kill count of any slasher villain. However, that all changed thanks to Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, giving Michael Myers the highest kill count.

Michael Has Some New Competition - Meet Art the Clown

Art The Clown Killed 44 People And Counting

Custom image of Mike Giannelli's Art the Clown in All Hallow's Eve.

The slasher subgenre is back in a big way with the Scream and Halloween reboots taking the world by storm. However, one slasher killer coming for Michael's spot as the villain with the highest horror movie kill count at a rapid pace is Art the Clown. He first appeared in Damien Leone's short film The Ninth Circle, and followed that up with Terrifier and Terrifier 2, with the latter getting a limited theatrical release. Leone is breaking the mold with his crowd-funded splatter flicks, reinvigorating the audience's fears of killer clowns.

Unlike Pennywise, Art the Clown is entirely in black and white and doesn't speak in any of his big screen appearances, making him all the more terrifying — and at times genuinely funny. Leone mixes humor with unrestrained gore to make a truly terrifying slasher film, and Terrifer 2 even created conversations outside die-hard fans of the genre. Stephen King even gave Terrifier 2 a nod, which is sure to bring Art the Clown even more clout. The killer clown's kill count is rising rapidly, and he not only does his business in creatively disgusting ways but in abundance.

Across his two movies, the anthology film All Hallows Eve, and the 2011 short film that introduced him (also called Terrifier), Art the Clown kills 26 people. Nowhere near 161, but the pace is impressive. It's also worth mentioning the 18 people Art the Clown kills in the notorious Terrifier 2 dream sequence — while technically not real murders, they are still slasher movie deaths, bringing Art's total kill count to 44 as far as grossing out viewers. The newest of the slasher villains on the block is turning heads in a major way, and he might end up beating Michael Myers out in the end with more Terrifier movies.