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Horror films are designed to evoke in the viewer a feeling of fear and anxiety, a premonition of the irreversible and an adrenaline rush. This is a whole genre of feature films with its own rules and canons of the genre, legends and cultural value.
Horror movies have a fairly wide audience. Someone loves an abundance of blood, someone loves masterful work with the frame and forcing the atmosphere.
But even if you are not a fan of this genre, there are a number of heroes that you know about or at least heard something about. It is about them that we will tell in this collection.
10 Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th
Many people know this hockey mask, even if they have no idea who it belongs to. And it is worn by Jason Voorhees, a maniac who kills his victims with a machete. He first appeared in the movie “Friday the 13th” already in 1980 and was not supposed to become the main character, but the viewer fell in love with him so much that 11 more films were made about him, including a remake.
This anti-hero is one of the most recognizable along with Freddy Krueger. He has firmly entered popular culture, appearing in books, comics, TV shows, and his hockey mask is one of the most recognizable attributes.
9. Freddy Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street
Frederick “Freddy” Krueger is a cult cinematic character who appeared on the screens in the film A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. His image is familiar to many: a burnt face, a red-and-green striped sweater, a brown leather hat and a glove with claws.
Freddy Krueger comes to the victims in dreams, where he is practically invincible and is able to resurrect every night, but the dead person dies in reality. Sometimes he manages to sneak into the real world, where he most often has the same appearance, but sometimes looks like he looked before death.
Another “calling card” of films is a counting rhyme. It is pronounced by children who dream of a future victim, and are a formidable sign.
8. Chucky, “Children’s Play”
Chucky is the doll that became the main villain of the 1988 film Child’s Play. In the story, a man who is fond of voodoo magic runs away from the police and hides in a toy store. There he is attacked by law enforcement officers and mortally wounded. Having reached the shelves with toys, the man grabs the first doll he comes across, casts a spell, and his spirit moves into the toy.
The image of Chucky is quite famous: a red-haired boy with a mop of unruly hair, in a striped blouse, blue overalls and red sneakers. It was called the Good Guy Doll, which plays great in contrast to the evil that the sorcerer began to do in the form of a toy.
7. Pennywise, “It”
Clowns are one of the most common objects of phobias. Knowing this, master of psychological horror Stephen King made the clown the main villain of one of his most successful novels, It.
Pennywise is an ancient demon who came from beyond the boundaries of the universe. He appears in the town of Derry every 27 years, brings disaster with him and takes small children to where they “fly”.
The adaptation of this work was only a matter of time, and the first version was released in 1990. By modern standards, Pennywise of the 90s is almost cute, but for his time he was truly the epitome of horror in front of clowns. The second version of the legendary clown was performed by Bill Skarsgård in 2017.
6. Jack Torrance, The Shining
Jack Torrance is the protagonist of Stephen King’s novel The Shining and Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name. Jack suffers from alcoholism and temper tantrums and has lost his job as a teacher and has agreed to become caretaker of the remote Overlook Hotel for the winter. This was supposed to help him get things right.
He went to the hotel with his wife Wendy and son Danny. But something goes wrong in the hotel, and Torrance is gradually losing his mind. He is played by Jack Nicholson in the film.
5. Ghost mask, “Scream”
If we talk about the mask of a villain from horror films, the mask from the movie “Scream” is first of all remembered. This classic slasher was released in 1996 and drew both the love of the audience and fierce criticism for explicit scenes of violence.
The director specifically emphasized the bloodthirstiness of the antihero, even using the furnishings of the rooms for this. As a fan of classic horror films, Wes Craven used many references to other films, and the mask itself has become a cult attribute at all costume parties.
4. Pinhead, Hellraiser
Pinhead is a fictional character, a figment of the fantasy of Clive Barker, who directed Hellraiser. He calls Pinhead a cenobite, a demon into which a man who has forgotten his past and is eager to do evil has been reborn.
Pinhead was once a captain in the British army, but after going through the war, seeing the cruelty of mankind, he became disillusioned with people and tried to drown out the emptiness inside with vices.
As a result, the world of demons opened before him, in which the captain was able to become a new creature with cut skin and pins driven into the skull.
3. Valak, The Conjuring 2
Valak is the main antagonist of the second part of The Conjuring. He took the form of a hunchbacked dwarf, but this character gained the greatest popularity due to the appearance of a demonic nun. Her image turned out to be so frightening that many horror fans liked it, and in 2018 the spin-off “The Nun’s Curse” was released, which told the story of a demon.
2. Samantha, “Call”
The image of a little girl who has become a haven for an evil spirit is a very popular topic. This includes Samantha Morgan, a girl in a white dress with long black hair, able to stop the heart of the victim with one look and posthumously imprint on the faces of the poor souls an expression of extreme horror.
Trying to get rid of the demonic child, the foster mother tried to strangle her and threw her to die in the well, so Samantha now lives there. With the help of paranormal abilities, she managed to record a cassette with frightening content, after watching which, calls to the victim began with a countdown to the moment of death. Seven days…
The image of a girl in a white dress from a well is one of the most recognizable in cinema, and the chips with a video tape and calls have been used more than once in other films, references and shows.
1. Hannibal Lector, The Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal Lector is one of the iconic characters in world cinema. Brilliantly played by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, decades later, he leaves those who watch the film or just footage from it dumbfounded.
This character was created by writer Thomas Harris as a gifted forensic psychiatrist, maniac, murderer and cannibal. He is a very intelligent, intelligent, educated man, a talented doctor and, at the same time, a cold-blooded and ruthless killer. The combination of these qualities fascinates and terrifies. Hannibal Lector is truly one of the iconic villains in art.