Horror villains have kept audiences on the edge of their seats and fearing for their lives, but some were simply terrible at actually killing their victims. The best horror movies have introduced all kinds of villains to audiences, from the intelligent and sneaky to the brutally violent. These titles became known as the slasher film subgenre, focused explicitly on gruesome deaths, and became a hugely popular subgenre. As unhinged scenes of extreme violence and torture played out on the silver screen, several characters lost their lives at the hands of some of the best horror villains with complicated backstories.
However, not every horror villain was successful in their attempts at killing off those around them. Whether they had one victim or dozens, some villains were simply not cut out to be murderers, but this didn’t stop them. Plenty of villains were inventive with their plots to kill, ranging from being armed with either a simple gun or knife to more drastic violence like setting fires or possessing their victims. Regardless of their weapon of choice, motives, backstory, or who their victims were, multiple evil figures in horror films should have stuck with their day jobs.
The Scream movies were unique because, with each installment, somebody new took on the identity of Ghostface. In the first Scream film, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) and Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) were behind the mask. Considering that Ghostface was never the same person in each film, it was surprising that not at least one of them was a capable murderer. Although each Ghostface was successful in murdering multiple people, they all proved that they’d be awful as professional killers. Throughout the franchise, each Ghostface frequently tripped up or was knocked over.
Ghostface was frequently damaged by their victims, too. For example, in Scream, Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) walloped Ghostface by yanking open a freezer door on them while running away, which sent them flying to the floor. At one point, she also threw bottles of beer at Ghostface, which made them run at her, flip over, and fall into the garage door. Despite various Ghostfaces successfully killing 45 people, they all proved that their murder process was far from smooth.
The haunted Annabelle doll was introduced in the 2013 film The Conjuring and later received her own trilogy of films, which started with 2014’s Annabelle. A real-life Annabelle doll inspired the character, although their appearances were very different, and The Conjuring’s production team decided to update her look to make her scarier. Although Annabelle appeared in several movies in The Conjuring Universe, the doll wasn’t truly responsible for many deaths. A majority of the deaths Annabelle caused were off-screen, so it wasn’t exactly clear whether Annabelle should be held accountable or not.
As various demons were possessing her, Annabelle couldn’t exactly be blamed. Unlike other doll killers like Chucky from Child’s Play, she never moved, which was one of the things about Anabelle that didn’t make sense. Pretty much all of Annabelle’s killing was done through other people. For example, in Annabelle: Creation, the Higgins’ were killed by their possessed daughter, Janice (Talitha Bateman), and not the doll itself. In fact, the only death in the series that Anabelle was physically present for was Evelyn’s (Alfre Woodard), and that was only because the woman killed herself and took the doll with her.
The Babadook struck an incredible fear of children’s stories into the hearts of audiences when released in 2014. The film introduced Mister Babadook (Tim Purcell), the protagonist of a kids’ book and the fictional creation of director Jennifer Kent. Mister Babadook repeatedly terrorized single mother Amelia Vanek (Essie Davis) and her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) but strangely never managed to kill them despite his multiple attempts. For example, at one point, he left shards of glass in Amelia’s food, hoping she’d eat them. Unfortunately for Mister Babadook, Amelia believed that her son was responsible.
Sam constantly claimed that Babadook was real and behind the strange actions in their home, but his mother didn’t believe him. Mister Babadook caused Sam to have a seizure after forcing his image into the young boy’s mind, but this didn’t cause Sam’s demise either. Even when he possessed Amelia, Sam saved both of their lives through the power of their mother-son bond. The only kill Mister Babadook successfully made was Sam’s dog, Bugsy, whom the possessed Amelia technically killed. Although Mister Babadook was undoubtedly chilling and a petrifying figure in horror films, he was a terrible murderer.
What was so great about Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery was that she was an unassuming villain and blended in with her surroundings. These qualities meant that nobody ever suspected her of being up to anything malicious, which made her torment of writer Paul Sheldon (James Caan) even scarier. Kathy Bates was celebrated for her Misery performance, earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1991. The character of Annie was chilling and unnerving for keeping her favorite novelist trapped in her house, pretending to help him recover from a car crash.
Annie was undoubtedly intelligent, so it was odd that she never successfully killed Paul. The film established that she had killed before, as Paul found the newspaper clippings about several dead infants found in her care, so it wasn’t as if she didn’t know what she was doing. However, Annie allowed her love for Paul and his work to get in the way of her killing him. When she realized Paul had been escaping his room, it was the perfect moment for Annie to murder him, yet she broke his ankles with a sledgehammer instead. Ultimately, her one kill failed.
The Leprechaun film series of comedy horror movies followed the unusual Lubdan (Warwick Davis), a mythical leprechaun who resorted to extreme violence to recover his gold from those who had taken it from him. Across eight films, which started with 1992’s The Leprechaun and the last being 2018’s Leprechaun Returns, Lubdan killed several times. In the first film, Lubdan made audiences believe that he was a savage killer after pushing Mrs. O’Grady (Pamela Mant) down the stairs in the first five minutes. Although he successfully killed many, he never seemed to kill the person he aimed for.
For example, in Leprechaun 2, Bridget Callum (Shevonne Durkin) was Lubdan’s primary target. However, she survived the film’s events, even though he had her locked away in his lair. It was a similar story to Sophie Roberts (Stephanie Bennett) in Leprechaun: Origins, who was still alive by the end of the film and was escaping on foot across a field. The Leprechaun film series had plenty of cheesy moments and hilarious situations. Still, Lubdan seemed to enjoy the art of needlessly murdering strangers rather than focusing on the people who stole from him.
The Babysitter movies had several iconic murderers, but Allison (Bella Thorne) stood out as the worst of the bunch. Allison appeared in both 2017’s The Babysitter and 2020’s The Babysitter: Killer Queen, yet fumbled when presented with the perfect opportunity to kill. As a member of the devil-worshipping cult, Allison was part of a group of killers, including babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving). It was through Bee that Allison’s first mistake as a murderer happened, coming face-to-face with Cole (Judah Lewis). In The Babysitter, Cole found Allison pretending to be dead on the floor of his home.
This was the perfect moment for Allison to kill the pre-teen, but she took too long to do it and was then shot by Bee. Allison was resurrected twice in The Babysitter: Killer Queen but failed to kill anyone again. In both films, Allison let her narcissistic personality and vanity take over, which stopped her from focusing on the task at hand. Quite honestly, if it wasn’t for the rest of her satanic group of murderers who were hell-bent on chasing a 12-year-old, it was unlikely that Allison would have gotten as far as she did in The Babysitter movies.
The Poltergeist franchise had four films, but Poltergeist III was the only movie where anyone was killed. The ghost of Reverend Henry Kane (Julien Beck), also known as The Beast, was the main villain in the series but didn’t appear physically in the first film. In Poltergeist, The Beast attempted to kill the Freelings by flooding their swimming pool and blowing up their house, but they still managed to escape its crazed actions. As Kane in Poltergeist II: The Other Side, The Beast briefly possessed Steven (Craig T. Nelson) through a Mezcal worm.
It later tried to drain Carol Anne’s (Heather O’Rourke) life force but was again stopped. It wasn’t until Poltergeist III that the Beast successfully killed Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire) by hypnotizing him into an elevator shaft, where he fell to his death. Although the lack of death in the first film could explained, as the portal restricted the Beast, it was strange that it didn’t use its physical form as Kane to its advantage. For the rest of the series, the Beast spent most of its time wandering around and spouting demonic propaganda rather than actually murdering anyone.