When most people think of horror films, they think of Halloween, but a surprising number of big-budget horror films have been summer blockbusters. This summer also offers a strong slate of new horror films. Fans don’t have to wait until the foggy fall season to receive some serious shivers thanks to flicks like Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone and Jordan Peele’s Nope.
Characters face a particularly difficult task when dealing with a paranormal enemy. What is the best way to combat something that is not of this world? Whether it’s a gothic, slasher, or psychological film, supernatural adversaries are inflicting havoc on the audience.
A Nightmare On Elm Street – Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger, the slasher from A Nightmare on Elm Street, is a slain man who haunts the dreams of the youths who murdered him. They die in real life after being killed in their nightmares.
Without the well-known character of Freddy, the list would be incomplete. How do the victims ever get away from something that can wake them up in the middle of the night? This concept has terrified audiences for decades because there is no way to fight back and sleep is unavoidable. Krueger’s predatory one-liners have aged poorly, and the awkward speech can pull viewers away from the film. Despite this, Freddy as an idea and character remains nightmare fodder.
Annabelle – Annabelle
In The Conjuring, Annabelle first appears as a cursed doll kept secure behind glass. Annabelle has become one of the scariest dolls in horror history by the time fans realize her full potential in her own trilogy.
Annabelle: Creation is a master at terrifying fans with a little doll, which is no simple task. When a fiction is based on true occurrences, it always adds to the creep factor. Ed and Lorraine Warren were famed for having a real Annabelle doll that they said was haunted.
Hellraiser – Pinhead
Pinhead, whose pale skin and spike-covered head most fans could recognize even if they weren’t familiar with the Hellraiser series, was introduced to the world in Hellraiser. In the Hellraiser universe, Pinhead is a cenobite, a demon of chaos and brutal torture.
The body-horror film is unpleasant for everyone; some people may vomit merely seeing the maimed cenobites. While the physical effects may appear old to some, they are highly effective in eliciting a visceral response from viewers. The film’s gore isn’t the only disturbing feature. Pinhead’s thought-provoking remarks might be just as terrifying as the physical horrors.
Insidious – The Man With The Fire On His Face
Insidious featured one of the most iconic horror villains of the 2010s, the Lipstick-Face Demon. Josh and Renai Lambert’s son is stuck in The Further, an astral dimension. The devil stalks the Lamberts’ residence, attempting to reclaim possession of their son’s coma-induced body.
On its own, the demon’s iconic character design is terrifying. However, this figure has a spine-chilling aura due to its evil aims of utter misery and devastation. The first horrifying reveal of his face moved viewers to tears and remains a classic moment in the Insidious franchise.
It Follows – The Entity
A group of teens is followed by a sexually transmitted curse that takes the form of a person strolling slowly in the 2015 psychological horror thriller It Follows. The entity’s target must have had sexual contact with someone in order for the curse to be passed on to them.
Each victim is killed in the order of the last person with whom they slept. This makes defeating the creature a significant challenge. The entity’s ability to pose as someone the victim knows is alarming and unsettling. It never leaves the characters secure, and they even have to fear their own relatives and friends.
It – Pennywise
Clowns are a questionable character since they are supposed to be amusing, but add enough malice and a scary chuckle and they become the stuff of nightmares. Pennywise terrorizes the town of Derry in this 2017 adaption of Stephen King’s novel IT.
Pennywise The clown isn’t just a clown; he may take on many different identities. Little is scarier than a smiling, giggling face full of teeth, and the clown in IT is an ancient being created of pure evil. Pennywise, as played by Bill Skarsgard, has an unsettling, unpredictable quality to him.
Sinister – Bughuul
Sinister, a disturbing horror film from the previous decade, is still regarded as one of the scariest films of the decade, thanks in large part to the monster Bughuul. He is an old pagan deity that consumes human children’s souls and possesses them to carry out his horrible actions.
Bughuul, also known as Mr. Boogie or Devourer of Children, remains elusive for the majority of the movie. The mysterious visage initially shows in photographs. Viewers will be haunted by a terrifying sight involving a computer screen. As the sceptical author, Ethan Hawke, has viewers questioning the supernatural element, so when Bughuul finally arrives, they are taken aback.
The Babadook –The Babadook
A heartbroken mother and her disturbed son begin to sense an ominous presence in their home after discovering The Babadook, a terrifying children’s book. No one believes the son when he says there is a monster trying to eat them.
As she “allowed The Babadook in,” the mother’s mental state deteriorates. The Babadook is terrifying not only because the character resembles a child’s version of the boogeyman, but also because of the various interpretations that viewers can make. The mother becomes increasingly violent, and viewers are unsure whether they should be afraid of her or the Babadook.
The Nun – The Nun
In the Conjuring universe, photographs hint the persona of The Nun. The Nun, which premiered in 2018, told the origin story. The Vatican is looking for a priest and a novitiate to inspect a Romanian abbey where catastrophes have occurred.
Fear and anticipation grew as The Nun was slowly revealed. Fans were prepared for the backstory by the time they saw the scene where a nun is gazing at a photo and notices the black-eyed nun standing among the other nuns where she isn’t meant to be. The desecration of what is supposed to be a pure and harmless image of a nun adds to the dread.
The Ring – Samara
The Ring is about an unsettling videotape that gives the spectator seven days to live if they watch it. Samara, a spiteful spirit, tortures anyone who come into contact with her. Rachel attempts to break the 7-day curse in this flick.
The Ring revolutionized the genre and established the archetype of the “stringy-haired ghost girl.” The Ring, based on the Japanese film Ringu, is still relevant today. When it was published in 2002, the malevolent spirit Samara was the nightmare of people young and old, similar to an onry, a Japanese wraith ghost. The picture of her crawling out of television screens terrified viewers and was widely mocked.
