Horror movies are immensely popular. Many often revolve around ghosts, zombies, vampires, or other creatures that were once human but have been altered in some way. However, others are more creative and come up with their own distinct and chill-inducing creatures. Not only are these entertaining, but they’re also downright terrifying.
Of course,some movie monsters are scarier than others. While some are mildly creepy, others are completely horrifying and often result in weeks of restless nights for many. While these creepy creatures might be scary, they certainly make the movies they’re in a whole lot better.These scary movie monsters will keep audiences awake at night, thanks to their striking designs and suitably chilling roles in their respective movies.
10Grey Widowers
‘The Mist’ (2007)
Spiders are a common phobia for many; maybe it’s because of how fast they are, or maybe it’s their dozens of eyes or eight legs. The upside is that spiders are typically pretty small; sure, some species can be as large as a human hand, but that’s about as far as they go in terms of size. However,imagine they were the size of a dog. That’s basically the Grey Widowers fromThe Mist.
On top of that, unlike most regular spiders,Grey Widowers are highly aggressive and typically feed on human flesh. While many dangerous and terrifying monsters roam in the mist,these creepy crawlies are among the scariest for the simple fact that they are enhanced versions of a rather common human fear.The Mistis already a gut punch of a horror movie, and its creative and dreadful creatures only add to its now-legendary prestige.
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‘It Follows’ (2014)
Now, the entity fromIt Followsisn’t that scary on its own; in fact,It Followsis an idealmovie for those getting into horrorbecause of its lack of visceral visuals. The creature at its center doesn’t really look like anything other than a person, albeit with a deadpan, determined expression. What makes it terrifying is its nature: the entity relentlessly hunts one particular person. The only way to get rid of the thing is to pass it on to someone else via having sex with them.
The problem with this being is it’s nearly unkillable. On top of that,it will stop at nothing to get to the person it’s following. It is always walking at a near-constant pace, and no matter how far the person runs, it will always find its way to them soon enough.This unique shapeshifting ability makes the creature fromIt Followsprofoundly unsettling; it can be anywhere and anyone, adding a layer of unexpectedness that not many other movie monsters have.
It Follows
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8The Empty Man
‘The Empty Man’ (2020)
The titular Empty Man by itself is nothing short of horrifying. It appears as a tall, thin humanoid with a translucent complexion, long limbs, a skeletal head and torso, and multiple appendages sticking out from its back. What’s worse is its predatory nature: it stalks its prey over three days, and most times, there is nothing they can do about it other than wait for their brutal end with terrified anticipation.
The creature originates from a cave deep in the mountains of South-Central Asia. It first lures its victims towards it by making an eerie whistling sound before allowing them to see it. But it doesn’t do the dirty work itself.The Empty Man then puts people in a trance to kill other people for it. In many ways,The Empty Manis scary because it explores human cruelty, but that doesn’t mean its mystical creature is any less terrifying.
The Empty Man
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‘Sinister’ (2012)
The Bughuul is the signature monster of 2012’sSinisterand is pretty darn creepy. He looks vaguely human but has a pallid complexion along with long, greasy black hair, overshadowed eyes, and only a faint hint of a mouth, represented by a black smear across his face. As for his nature,Baghuul is sort of a demon but also sort of his own type of monster.
He exists in an alternate dimension, although any depictions of him can serve as gateways for him to enter the real world. Baghuul can also possess people, much like demons can. He typically uses this power to possess children and use them as proxies to murder people. While his appearance is decently freaky, Baghuul’s supernatural abilities make him quite a scary creature, too, cementingSinisteras one ofthe best horror movies of the 2010s.
‘The Descent’ (2005)
The Crawlers are a small group of creatures encountered after a cave exploration outing goes horrifically wrong inthe terrifying horror masterpieceThe Descent. The women attending the event find themselves at the mercy of the Crawlers. On top of that, Crawlerscan see things far better in the dark than ordinary humans can since they’ve adapted to it, and their lightning-fast speed and ability to pop up where least expected makes them even more formidable.
What Crawlers are and where they come from remains largely a mystery in the film, adding to their effectiveness as movie monsters. Being lost in a dark cave is a terrifying enough premise, but add the Crawlers onto it, and the result is a grueling nightmare that will surely leave audiences traumatized—or at least weary of caves.
The Descent
5The Babadook
‘The Babadook’ (2014)
Children’s storybooks are supposed to be places that are safe and happy for children, not where the stuff of nightmares can come to life and prey upon them. The Babadook is a creature that only attacks those who are aware of its existence. As for its appearance, it is a tall, pale figure who wears a black suit and top hat. It also has long, talon-like fingers.
Once the protagonists read the book about the creature,the Babadook begins to mercilessly prey upon them, turning their lives into a living hellto the point where they are constantly exhausted. It doesn’t just look scary—its relentless nature is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.The Babadookis amongthe best horror movies ever, largely thanks to the mysterious and striking monster at its center.
The Babadook
4The Hallow
‘The Hallow’ (2015)
The Hallow is similar to the Crawlers, with a few notable exceptions; whereas the Crawlers developed a sort of bat-like appearance, the Hallow resembles a deep-sea fish, especially an angler fish. A forest-dwelling creature,the Hallow is a mythical figure amongst the local villagers, seen as a sort of fairy-type being but evil. Wherever it goes, it leaves a telltale fungus-like growth reminiscent of the infected fromThe Last of Us.
What’s more, there are multiple Hallow, and they often inject people with this fungus via a stinger to turn them into murderous shapeshifters.Their frightening nature is primarily attributed to the fact that they use the forest, a place that is foreboding to many, to strike. Not only this, but it is often hard to tell whether or not someone has been turned into a shapeshifter or not. It could be anyone, and nobody would even know it.
3The Pale Man
‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (2006)
Pan’s Labyrinthisn’t quite considered a horror movie, but the scene containing the Pale Man (Doug Jones) isso creepy that itnearly crosses the line into the genre. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) encounters the Pale Man when she enters an alternate dimension. Upon arrival, she is instructed not to eat anything from the sumptuous feast laid out in front of her. Being a curious child, however, she helps herself to a couple of grapes.
The Pale Man, who sits unnaturally still at the head of the dinner table, then springs to life. While it looks like he is a fleshy, naked thing with no eyes and slits for nostrils, the first thing he does is to insert two eyeballs into the palms of his hands, giving him sight.The Pale Man moves with the cracking of bones and a stiff, inhuman gait, evoking a corpse.Pan’s Labyrinthcomes from the imaginative mind of horror maestroGuillermo del Toro, so the presence of eerie creatures is a given. However,the Pale Man stands tall among del Toro’s creationsdue to his memorable look and effectively chilling role in the film.
Pan’s Labyrinth
In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
2Slender Man
‘Slender Man’ (2018)
Any kid or teenager growing up in the early 2010s knows exactly just how powerful Slender Man’s icy-cold grip on the internet was.Slender Man is a character that originated on theSomething Awful forumsin the late 2000s. It eventually took on a life of its own, spawning multiple video games and, eventually, a movie. He appears as a freakishly tall, thin, bald, faceless man in a fine black suit. His fingers are long and tentacle-like, and he also sports multiple appendages and tentacles from his back, which he keeps hidden underneath his suit.
Slender Man possesses the supernatural abilities to teleport, tamper with electronics with his mind, and hypnotize children, his primary prey. He typically lures them into the woods, which is when he strikes. Perhaps it’s his nature or appearance, or perhaps it’s the fact that many young adults remember how terrifying he was during their childhood, and those feelings still linger. Whatever the reason,Slender Man is quite a terrifying creature.
Slender Man
1Pennywise the Clown
‘It’ Series (2017-2019)
Clowns are another common fear. Although they are meant to make people laugh, many find them incredibly disturbing. This is probably because their makeup or attire places them deep in the uncanny valley. For many coulrophobes, these fears are only exacerbated by Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) fromIt.Stephen Kingis a master of horror and has created some truly terrifying creatures through his books, including the aforementioned Grey Widowers. However,no beast or being has ever terrified so many people as Pennywise has.
Pennywise looks like just a regular clown, albeit one who lives in the sewer. But it is quickly revealed that he is, quite literally, a shapeshifting monster withrows of razor-sharp teeth, which he uses to tear into the flesh of children. It’s a scary enough thing to imagine in book form, but seeing the killer clown on screen is infinitely more terrifying. It is this perfect combination of taking a common human fear and playing it up to the maximum that makes Pennywise not only one ofthe scariest movie clownsbut one of the scariest monsters ever.
