| The Greatest Horror Villains of All Time... | |
 Coming soon after a raft of terrible remakes, The Collector will this week attempt to convince audiences that it is possible to create a new horror villain. Here at MovieVortex, we applaud the decision to pursue originality instead of rebooting a tried and tested format, and in honour of that decision we salute some of our favourite horror villains and, where appropriate, the directors that sullied their memory:NORMAN BATES (Psycho) Yes, it's an obvious first choice, but Hitchcock's Freudian nightmare is one of the father's of the genre (oh the delicious irony!) The film was shot to shock, and made the most of some shiny and new cinema techniques. Pschology, style and cinematic excess combine to make the most critically acclaimed of horror films. FREDDY KRUEGER (A Nightmare on Elm Street) Wes Craven's greatest creation is a mutilated paedophile who stalks the dreams of children, constantly adding to his tally of tormented victims. Admittedly the series saw a few lows after the heady heights of the first Nightmare on Elm Street, but Robert Englund's portrayal of this supernatural super-villain remains a performance amongst the best of the genre. Samuel Bayer's attempt to revive the franchise earlier in the year turned out to be a disappointing waste of time, that failed to capitalise on any of the imaginative potential of this fantastic villain. JIGSAW (Saw) A very different horror protagonist to Mr. Krueger, Jigsaw's own suffering at the hands of a nasty brain tumour inspired him to put ungrateful souls at the mercy of various ironic torture scenarios in order to make them appreciate their lives properly. The original has one of the greatest twists of the genre, and inspired a host of imitators: as did Jigsaw himself in some of the Saw sequels. Though Jigsaw has not directly been destroyed by a subsequent generation of directors with dollar signs in their eyes, he has been allowed to fizzle out in a series of ever-weaker movies that gradually degraded the once-mighty Saw franchise. MICHAEL MYERS (Halloween)  Though you might not have thought it, Michael Myers could well have been as vigorous a social campaigner as Jigsaw. Some have suggested that his targetting of promiscuous teens is a vicious (in many senses) critique of the youth of America. And let's face it, critiques don't come more vicious than violent murder. Regardless of whether you think he was a social visionary or a psychopath, Michael Myers was THE invincible stone-faced killer, the man who epitomised the faceless world of violent crime, and one of the most feared killers of the big screen. Like Saw, the franchise suffered from being cranked out a little too far, and its remake in 2007 by Rob Zombie brought nothing of value save a renewed interest in the murderer's original outings. JASON VORHEES (Friday the 13th) Oddly, this is one example of a studio cash-in paying off. Jason was originally created to ride the wave of popularity that followed the creation of Michael Myers, but he would soon become a consistently frightening character whose epic journey spanned 12 slashers - including a couple where his spirit possessed someone else and made them do all the dirty work. It doesn't come more impressive than that. However, we should discount at least one of those as another nasty reboot, not least Marcus Nispel's painful effort to begin again...  DAMIEN THORN (The Omen)What's more frightening than the devil? His young son. How so? Because he's not a big, red man with horns and goat legs, he's an innocent child. Nobody believes you when you see his horrific acts of evil, nobody is willing to condemn him, he just quietly, consistently, goes about his business of bringing hell to earth. It's a much more frightening concept than the literal, visceral world of The Exorcist, and it is a franchise that, once seen, is never forgotten. DR. HANNIBAL LECTER (Silence of the Lambs) Dr. Lecter has a lot going for him. Aside from the intense performance of Anthony Hopkins, he is a cannibal, he's locked up in a secure facility, and he has impeccable taste in wine. But the biggest achievement of Dr. Lecter is that he managed to be the scariest villain in the film without being the main antoganist. In fact, he even helps the leading lady to catch her man! Subsequent efforts to place him in the main position of villainy were not so successful, but nonetheless he remains an enduring character whose infathomable levels of evil genius are likely to inspire fear for a long time to come. CANDYMAN (Candyman)  One of few urban horrors that weren't laughable parodies, Candyman created a character who made a generation of youngsters frightened to look into mirrors. What's more, his bizarre explosion into bees is considered to be directly responsible for the decline of beekeeping... probably. SADAKO (The Ring) THE Asian horror for much of the Western world, this indestructable Djinn did for TVs what Candyman did for mirrors. The story of a videotape that, once watched, causes you to die at the hands of a malevolent spirit (that's our Sadako) is an utterly terrifying tale of mystery and woe, with some unbelievable twists and turns to spice things up along the way. It's also one of few films that received a makeover without having the soul ripped out of it - so big congrats to Gore Verbinski. GHOSTFACE (Scream) OK, so he's not a mutilated paedophile or a deranged cancer patient, but murderers don't come more schizophrenic than Ghostface: the convention-busting creation brought to life by teenagers Billy and Stuart. A masterstroke by Wez Craven, Ghostface and the Scream franchise are his 'self-destruct' on the slasher genre he so lovingly created. By picking apart every norm build up by Craven and his contemporaries, the film made the horror genre a minefield for aspiring directors: issuing a challenge to re-define the genre. Sadly it was a challenge which wasn't met for a long time...  THE COLLECTOR? (The Collector)Icon's newest franchise might seem like a horror Home Alone on paper, but The Collector not only creates an authentic horror ambience, but introduces a bug-faced killer with the potential to go far. Will he make it to the big leagues of the guys above though? Time will tell.... Words by Michael Edwards
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