Two popular film genres right now are horror and superheroes. Horror movies and superhero movies are polar opposites. Superhero movies are all about the super powered heroes fighting evil. Horror movies are all about the super powered villains fighting regular people. Unlike superhero films, the villains are the true stars of horror. The list of classic villains is endless: Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, Pinhead, Candyman, Ghostface, Chucky, Leprechaun, Pennywise, and the list goes on. But the villains aren’t the only badasses in horror. There’s some heroes that lead the way as well.
5. Chase Carter (Dead Rising movies)
Jesse Metcaffe made his breakthrough from the shows “Passions” and “Desperate Housewives”. No one could ever have predicted that he would become a weapon crafting zombie killer. Chase Carter starts off as just a wisecracking pretty boy journalist, but it isn’t long until he is single handedly taking on hordes of zombies. And these aren’t the slow Romero zombies, they are fast moving weapon handling strategical man-eaters. The movies try to replicate the gameplay of the “Dead Rising” video games. That means that in both movies Chase crafts his own deadly and creative weapons as well as using everyday mundane objects to cause bloodshed, and he also takes on multiple zombies at a time by himself. In the first movie he is an underdog who jumps out of the frying pan and into the fryer, but in the second movie he is a legendary journalist known for spending time in the dangerous quarantine zones and he is a famous zombie killer. Jesse Metcaffe is a newcomer to horror, but if he keeps this up, he’ll find his way lower in this list.
4. Jack Taggart Sr. (Jeepers Creepers 2)
The only good thing to come out of the “Jeepers Creepers” films was Ray Wise’s performance as Jack Taggart. Ray Wise is a horror legend, with decades of films and TV shows under his belt. The filmmakers behind both of these films somehow got the 1938 song, “Jeepers Creepers”, and turned it into a horror movie. These films follow a creature known as “The Creeper”. This creature hunts every 23rd spring for 23 days to eat. He can track anyone by smelling their fear. He feeds on fear. The Creeper cannot die. There is only one reason that “Jeepers Creepers 2” trumps the first movie, and that is Ray Wise. The second movie takes place three days after the first film and follows a group of high school students on a broken down school bus coming back from a football game. The film also follows a farmer whose son was just eaten by The Creeper as he prepares to go into battle with the beast by fashioning a homemade… harpoon gun. The Creeper traps the kids in the bus and starts to pick them off one by one until Taggart shows up and takes it down with his gun. He then spends the next 23 years in front of The Creeper with his harpoon gun waiting for The Creeper to awaken so that he can take him down again. Jack Taggart Sr. is one farmer you do not want to mess with.
3. Erin (You’re Next)
“The Final Girl”, a horror trope as old as time. The Final Girl is the heroine of most horror films, particularly slasher films. The Final Girl is the only one who is able to escape from or defeat the killer. She usually has a list of characteristics she needs to have. No drugs. No sex. Many times she has a unisex name. She sometimes has a past with the killer. In the film “You’re Next”, The Final Girl has been revolutionized. For the first time ever, The Final Girl is more deadly than the killers. The killers had no idea what they were getting into. Little did they know, Erin grew up on a survivalist compound. She is well versed in combat and survival. She has become the Kevin McCallister of Final Girls. Erin booby-traps the house with brilliant traps left for the home invaders as they enter the house. She even attaches a swinging axe to the front door. This cute girl from Australia packs a punch harder than any Final Girl in history. And she doesn’t take down just one killer, she takes down several. Freddy and Jason better watch out.
2. George Nada (They Live)
“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.” One of the most legendary lines in all of cinema, and that line belongs to George Nada who was played by Rowdy Roddy Piper. Nada is just a drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses that can show him the hidden secrets of the world. The glasses reveal that the higher class is inhabited by aliens disguised as humans who are manipulating society. Roddy Piper’s character is actually unnamed, but listed in the credits as “John Nada”. Therefore, he doesn’t actually have a name. John Nada enlists two other people in his crusade: a construction worker named Frank Armitage and a news director named Holly Thompson. Nada kidnaps Holly. His attempt to get Frank to put on the glasses leaves them beating each other to a bloody pulp. This scene is known as one of the greatest scenes of all time. Frank and Nada end up bringing the fight to the source, and they use an alien teleportation device and a bunch of guns to do so. With just one film under his belt, this alien fighting nameless drifter has gone down in history.
1. Ash Williams (the Evil Dead franchise)
Good… bad… he’s the guy with the gun. They don’t call him “The King” for nothing. For almost four decades, Bruce Campbell has been leaving a trail of demon bloodshed as Ash. He is known as The King. He is known as El Hefe. He is known as the chosen one. He is the only one who stands a chance to defeat an ancient evil hell-bent on destroying our world. And he does it with a shotgun, his chainsaw hand, a demonic book, and an endless arsenal of one-liners. In “The Evil Dead”, he was a wimp who got taken down by bookshelves. In “Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn”, he was the leader of the pack. In “Army of Darkness”, he was a cocky idiot who showed evil who’s boss. Now in “Ash vs. Evil Dead”, he is an old out of shape monster killer who is humanity’s last hope. He has traveled around the country. He has traveled through time. He’s even opened up portals to other dimensions by using the Necronomicon. Ash is the supreme horror movie hero. He was even supposed to go up against both Freddy and Jason, but the script got thrown away. Thirty years has passed since he first fought evil, now he’s back with a brand new TV series doing what he does best. Who knows where he’s going to end up next or what he’s going to kill. Ash is leading a new team of monster hunters. There’s a whole new breed of deadites out there, and Ash is ready with his chainsaw and his boomstick.
