No matter what most pretentious screenwriters will tell you, sometimes pure evil is better when it comes to villains. While it may feel that portraying your main baddie as cartoonishly evil in the vein of a Disney villain puts the chances of creating a well-rounded character in jeopardy, that's not entirely true.
The horror genre of films tends to be stuffed to the rafters with these types of characters, which has helped them maintain a strong fanbase. However, not all of these characters are as pure evil as you would think, and some are even more sinister than at first thought.
Misunderstood: Jigsaw (Saw)
What would you do if you only had a short time to live? Well, John Kramer, also known as Jigsaw, has an answer. Go out of your way to make people not take life for granted and appreciate their lives. In any other situation, Mr. Kramer would be seen as a hero, but his method of putting those people in life-threatening traps kind of makes him a villain.
The thing is, John Kramer's heart is actually in the right place, and he isn't vehemently trying to kill people. While the films would transition from disturbing thrillers to torture porn, Kramer's characterization as sympathetic is mostly consistent. Alas, Kramer's successors in the later Saw movies are far more bloodthirsty.
Evil: Michael Myers (Halloween)
The extent of Michael Myers' evil makes him somewhat inhuman. He isn't out on some personal vendetta, there's no true pleasure or catharsis in what he does, Myers is just out to kill. In John Carpenter's own words, Myers was based on a creepy child he encountered at a mental facility who had no emotion behind his eyes.
Donald Pleasence's Doctor Loomis even refers to Myers as "The Evil" at one point in the original his remake doesn't work at all. You don't give characterization to someone who is the embodiment of unfeeling evil.
Misunderstood: Pinhead (Hellraiser)
While the third movie onwards turns Hellraiser from 1987 portrays Pinhead and his cronies as ive entities from a realm where pleasure and pain are not mutually exclusive, the second film gives Pinhead a fascinating backstory.
In Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Pinhead's true identity is revealed to be Captain Elliot Spencer, a British soldier from World War 2 who discovered the infamous puzzle box that leads to the dimension of the cenobites.
Evil: Herbert West (Re-Animator)
While The Herbert West. However, while the man played by Jeffery Combs could arguably be seen as the hero of the franchise, West is 110% no hero.
Cold, waspish, and devout to his experiments are some of the most accurate ways to describe Herbert West. West is a villain in hero's clothing, as nothing matters to him but the sinister experiments he is working on.
Misunderstood: Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Leatherface, but with that character, we have a case of "always the weapon but never the killer."
See, Leatherface is only doing the bidding of his depraved family and is simply a product of his environment. It's kind of hard to look at him as malicious, especially since Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 shows that Leatherface is capable of emotions like love.
Evil: Chucky (Child's Play)
The Child's Play movies are responsible for a generation of kids being terrified of dolls, and you can probably understand why. The soul of a serial killer named Charles Lee Ray reincarnated into a creepy doll has been creeping cinemagoers out since his debut in 1988. His bloodthirsty, sarcastic evil has resonated with audiences, and the movies haven't bothered to alter that.
There isn't any pathos to the character, just a sinister desire to transfer his soul into the vessel of a child or simply kill people for fun. Chucky is the ultimate bad guy in the body of a "Good Guy."
Misunderstood: Candyman (Candyman)
It might sound like a song from Candyman is far from family-friendly. A slasher film featuring an immortal killer with a hook for a deadly implement on his hand that thrives off his infamy may sound like another famous slasher, but his backstory feels far crueler than that Fred guy from Elm Street.
When Candyman, real name Daniel Robitaille, began a relationship with the daughter of a plantation owner in the late 1800's, he was seized by a racist mob. They then cut off Daniel's hand before covering him with honey and setting bees on him to sting him to death. He then resurfaced as the vengeful spirit who will rip you open if you say his name five times in a mirror.
Evil: Pazuzu (The Exorcist)
Regan MacNeil in the movie, is one of the most terrifying demons in cinema.
The pleasure Pazuzu takes in physically and verbally tormenting Regan, her mother, and the lowly priests who come to save her can be truly disturbing. What makes their evil far more sinister, is that it's being done to and through a totally innocent child.
Misunderstood: Jason Voorhees (Friday The 13th)
It's odd how popular The Jason Voorhees, the man behind the infamous hockey mask (that he only got in the third film), is the only real reason to watch a good deal of the movies, but it appears that there is more to him than most people think.
Jason was a deformed child raised by a protective, mentally unstable mother who worked at a children's summer camp. One day, Jason drowned in a lake while the counselors who should have been watching him were doing the no-pants dance, and he was resurrected as a giant killer motivated solely by the love he has for his mother.
Evil: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare On Elm Street)
Of all the slasher villains, 2010 remake, but let's not talk about that.
Freddy Krueger's whole deal is that he's a murderous pervert whose goal is to kill teenagers in their sleep and have a good time doing it. While that means we can't really sympathize with him, we can certainly have a good time with him, as disturbing as that sounds.
