Is Michael Myers the scariest Halloween villain?

The summer is over, folks, and the spooky season is right around the corner. In fact, for true Halloween freaks, the season has already begun. During this time, freaky folks start putting their costumes together, start decorating, and generally try and get in the spirit for that special time of year. One of the best pastimes of the season? Catching up with some of our old friends: horror movie villains.

Halloween brings to mind a special group of iconic faces who have haunted our nightmares since we first heard about them on the schoolyard playground. However, horror movie villains bring up an age-old debate: who is the scariest Halloween villain? We’ve collected a gorey group of horror’s most iconic villains to help settle the debate of who’s scare reigns supreme.

Michael Myers

Halloween brings to mind, well, Halloween. To many, Michael Myers is the crowned king of the holiday, striking fear in the hearts of millions with just a silent look from a spray painted William Shatner mask (IYKYK). 

Why is Michael Myers scary? Well, there’s something terrifying about a silent creeper who shows up in the shadows when you least expect it, but the main reason is simple: Michael Myers just won’t die. He’s an unstoppable force who can’t be stopped and is fueled by his only instinct, to kill. But is he the scariest horror movie villain? It’s hard to say – who could top him?

Freddy Krueger

Freddy Krueger is another OG horror movie villain, and we all know it’s because Freddy rules. The burned up child-killer is truly a thing of nightmares, and it’s no wonder that’s just where Freddy likes to have his fun.

Freddy’s scary because nightmares are terrifying, and can make you feel truly helpless in a realm out of your control. The sheer idea of dying from a nightmare is *chef’s kiss* for horror, and Freddy is the ruler of your dreams. 

On paper, Freddy is a clear win for scariest Halloween villain. However, anyone who has seen any A Nightmare on Elm Street movie knows Freddy is too funny to be truly terrifying. The quip-maker drops “b*tch” more times in a movie than the Chappelle’s Show Rick James sketch, and makes us laugh once for each time he scares us. One of the best horror movie villains ever, but certainly not the scariest.

Jason Voorhees

To many of us, Jason was one of the first Halloween villains we got to know, whether it was from having him pop out at a haunted house, appear as a classmate’s costume, or actually seeing one of the Friday the 13th movies. 

Like Michael Myers, Jason’s scariness shines with his silence. He’s another unstoppable force hell-bent on killing and seemingly nothing will stop or kill him. Furthermore, Jason sort of publicized the “killing partying teens” troupe for a plethora of horror movie villains following. 

However, Jason is only really concerned with rebellious camp counselor-aged folks, so prudes & ancient millennials don’t really have much to fear with the guy anymore. But for gen z? Yeah, Jason may be the scariest Halloween villain around.

Pinhead

Pinhead may have joined the likes of Freddy & Jason in action figure roll outs of 80s horror celebs, but real ones know the Cenobite didn’t start off as a villain per say. 

In the first two Hellraiser movies, Pinhead is merely an inhabitant of the realm of unearthly pleasure & pain which Cenobites come from. He isn’t even named Pinhead until the third film where he really takes on villain status on his own terms.

Pinhead is terrifying, and even scared some of us just by showing up on DVD & VHS covers back in the day. Pinhead may be the scariest villain of all because when you see him, you know things are going to get bad. Like really bad. Like “Jesus Wept” bad. (shutter).

Ghostface

For millennials, Pinhead & Freddy just didn’t hit when we were younger, or at least felt a little outdated. In the early 2000s, there wasn’t a highschool on Halloween without at least one Ghostface. Scream is one of the best horror films of the 90s, and the franchise is one of the most fun horror series ever made. But what about Ghostface?

Ghostface’s image made us curious before we saw any of the Scream films, but what really terrified audiences when the movies dropped was his voice. Could anything be scarier than getting a phone call from an unknown number and hearing that iconic growl on the other end? 

Ghostface’s stalker threats tickle some of our primal fears, but at the end of the day, you’re only a Ghostface target if you’re in Sidney Prescott’s life. Ghostface is obsessed, and it’s not too scary for the average person. It’s just cringe.

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This debate isn’t over (and probably never will be) – who’s your most feared Halloween villain? Sound off in the comments below!