Just in time for Halloween, it’s time to talk about some of the scary movie bad guys that traumatized you the most growing up (or, now). Like all lists, this is purely objective, but it is also extremely likely that you don’t like these characters either.

1. Pamela Voorhees

Friday the 13th

That’s correct, Jason’s MOM. Not Jason, but his bad-ass, scary, murderous mother. For those of you that aren’t privy to Friday the 13th trivia, Jason is just a boy in the first movie. He drowns at Camp Crystal Lake, and his mom goes on a killing spree, targeting the camp counselors, who she viewed as negligent for letting her son drown. In fact, Jason's mom was always supposed to be the killer, not Jason. All in all, she’s scary because she’s a real-life possibility!

2. Max Cady

Cape Fear

Max Cady is another movie antagonist that’s terrifying because he’s entirely possible; he’s a convict released from prison after fourteen years and seeks vengeance on his former lawyer by stalking his family, namely his daughter, and ultimately trying to kill them all.

3. Hannibal Lecter

Silence of the Lambs

Hannibal Lecter is very scary, largely due to his high intelligence and charisma. Once a surgeon psychiatrist, he is now locked under high security for cannibalism. His job is to assist Clarice Starling in the finding of another monster- but, he escapes.

4. Buffalo Bill

Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs was so truly terrifying to everybody, and that’s probably because the film had not one, but two horrible, horrible antagonists. Buffalo Bill is a character created from bits of the gruesome true-life story of Ed Gein - he kidnaps women with intent to skin them and create a human flesh-suit.

5. Leatherface

Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise

Another horror movie monster developed from Ed Gein, Leatherface is a dim-witted, incestual freak who kills everybody that ventures too near to his home (with a chainsaw - hence, the chainsaw massacring). And, with the imagery that his nickname implies, he has a fancy mask made from the skin of his victims.

6. Dr. Josef Heiter

The Human Centipede

Dr. Heiter is the fictional psycho-surgeon, famous for separating Siamese twins, whose brilliant experiment is to sew his three hostages mouth to anus (that’s right, he wants to make a Siamese triplet!). What’s scarier than the premise of having your lips shoddily sewn to some other guy’s butthole? Absolutely nothing, that’s what. On top of that, he also blasts all their kneecaps to bits.

7. Chromeskull

Laid to Rest franchise

Chromeskull is a disco-ball looking sonofabitch - with a generally high IQ and abundant combat skills, who films and tortures his various victims.

8. Pinhead

Hellraiser franchise

Ahh, Hellraiser. Hellraiser (and Pinhead) are Clive Barker’s gift to us all. Rulers of an alternate dimension, only accessible by opening a puzzle box (the Lament Configuration), Pinhead and his peers seek to inflict “eternal pain and pleasure” on whoever opens the puzzle box. In fact, he intends to give you so much pain and pleasure, that eventually you won’t be able to tell the two apart anymore.

9. Gill Man

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Gill Man is a freaky, Devonian anthropomorphic fish/lizard/man. That alone should be enough to provoke several nightmares, and at least two pant-wetting episodes. His digs are at the bottom of an unexplored lagoon in the Amazon, and he loses his shit when a marine biology institution launches an expedition and find him. Gill Man traps them all and kills a few of them, until he is captured and killed, himself.

Scary movies are my favorite, and a big part of why this time of year is also exciting for me. There’s nothing quite like the horror genre - it’s the only thing in the world that can cause you to shit yourself, no matter how safe you think you are.