Image Credit: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Krueger, Pinhead, Bateman, Lecter) Everett Collection (3)This month, in honor of Halloween, deranged killers will do battle at Entertainment Weekly. We refer not to the annual EW intern death match (that’s in February). No, we speak instead of our Scariest Big-Screen Psycho Killer single-elimination tournament, in which you get to vote for the movie murderer who most gives you the heebies and, indeed, the jeebies. Our first round of showdowns will see A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Freddy Krueger grappling with Pinhead from Hellraiser; Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) battling Patrick Bateman (American Psycho); Ghostface (Scream) knocking heads (and possibly sharp objects) with Ben Willis (I Know What You Did Last Summer); and Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs) trying to bump off John Doe (Se7en).
Every few nights between now and the Friday before Halloween, you’ll be able to vote in polls to help narrow down the field of 32, split into “HorrorVerse” and “DramaVerse” categories. After the jump, check out the full list of 16 seeded players from both of our brackets, then vote in our first four face-offs. Polls will be open for 60 hours only, so act now while (blood) supplies last!
Image Credit: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Gumb, Doe, Willis, Ghostface) Everett Collection
HORRORVERSE DIVISION
1. Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
2. Michael Myers (Halloween)
3. Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th Part II)
4. Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
5. Carrie White (Carrie)
6. Samara (The Ring)
7. Jigsaw-Amanda (Saw)
8. Ghostface (Scream)
9. Benjamin Willis (I Know What You Did Last Summer)
10. Dr. Heiter (The Human Centipede)
11. Damien Thorn (The Omen)
12. Alex Hammond (Prom Night)
13. Chucky (Child’s Play)
14. Norman Bates (Psycho)
15. Billy Chapman (Silent Night, Deadly Night)
16. Pinhead (Hellraiser)
DRAMAVERSE DIVISION
1. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
2. Jack Torrance (The Shining)
3. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
4. Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men)
5. Col. Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
6. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
7. The Joker (The Dark Knight)
8. Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs)
9. John Doe (Se7en)
10. Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
11. Peyton Flanders/Mrs. Mott (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle)
12. Harry Powell (The Night of the Hunter)
13. Vic “Mr. Blonde” Vega (Reservoir Dogs)
14. Beverly Sutphin (Serial Mom)
15. Tommy DeVito (Goodfellas)
16. Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)
Ooh, this is fun! I love when EW does these.
Freddy is definitely scarier than Pinhead. Freddy gets you in your dreams! I saw Nightmare on Elm Street when I was a kid, maybe just 6 or 7 years old (blame my older siblings who let me watch it when my parents weren’t home) and I was terrified to go to sleep for like a whole month! I had the worst nightmares!
Me too! Freddy still scares the hell out of me! Freddy wins this one hands down.
But after that 1st one, he was more funny than scary. And really, you can’t be killed in your dreams but Michael or Jason can be hiding in your house with a big knife and stab you.
Are you kidding? I rather be killed by Jason. Freddy plays to many mind games with you and slowly kills you. Jason makes it quick. You have too little time to get scare.
I’ll take Jason and Michael over Freddy anyday. You can run from physical serial killers but Freddy will always be in your dreams.
“Don’t go to sleep now…”
*shudders*
I would have to say Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear. Scared the CRAP out of me!!!!!!
OMG! Robert Mitchum was waaaay scarier. I just shuddered thinking about him!
Edward Collins is sexy if yall dont think that yall is crazzzzy!!!!
I don’t care what anybody says, The SCREAM movies are the BEST horror movies. I’m SO EXCITED about Scream 4
I AGREE! Scream is the best series everrrrrr. Kudos, EW, for including Silent Night, Deadly Night!
omg i cant WAIT for scream 4, LOVE LOVE LOVE those movies!
Wow! an E.W poll with NO Twilight characters, some poor soul probably got fired.
But they did include several non-horror movie villains in the “Drama” section. Weird…
Yeah. Beverly Sutphin and Patrick Bateman are from black comedies. Possibly Anton Chigurh as well. I know he made me laugh – in a really twisted way.
The Dramaverse characters are my personal favorites. I’d vote Patrick Bateman over any of the Horrorverse characters. The dramaverse people are more like real people. I know I’ll never ever run into Freddy Krueger or Jason, but a real life Hannibal Lecter might be living just down the street, and I would never know…
twilight isn’t Horror…..
*Thud
Please don’t vote for Freddy Kruger. He was once a contender with the first, original movie and was basically turned into a quippy cartoon character.
@dee123 Yah tell me about it. Edward Collins is so fugly, its scary.
Kathy Bates in Misery was incredible. Well deserved oscar!
I want to see Annie Wilkes vs. Hannibal Lecter. Like, literally. Can they be next to each other in the asylum or something?
Ha! They should bring back Celebrity Death match just for fantasy pairings like that. I’d also love to see Anton Chigurh and John Doe out creep each other and just how Patrick Bateman would handle a psycho like Alex from Fatal Attraction.
YESSS! Kathy Bates!
But Kathy Bates’ character wasn’t a psycho killer per se. She was mainly a fan with a psychotic obsession. So she was mainly dangerous “and scary” to the author. I don’t see her preying on teen-aged kids at camp or killing and eating people like Hannibal Lector.
Hannibal Lecter is the #1 villain of all time.
totally agree…just thinking about him in that cage creeps me out
I know, really tough draw for Patrick Bateman… I would have picked him to go far but really, there’s just no question that Lecter takes the whole thing.
I was hoping they’d go with Patrick Bateman vs. The Joker. Bale and Ledger, kinda sorta reunited.
Is it just me who thinks Hannibal is a villain that hasn’t survived the test of time? When I rewatch the film today I think he seems parodical and simply cannot fathom why Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for this exaggerated performance.
I think it seems that way in retrospect only because it’s been parodied so many times since then. At the time, it was fresh.
Anthony Hopkins was fabulous in that role. But I think the killer in “Red Dragon”, the novel that first introduced Hannibal Lector, is even scarier than Hannibal himself. I read that novel at least twice and it still horrified me.
That guy in SOTL that dresses up like a lady and takes the skin off of portly young women. FREAKING FRIGHTENING. I’m so glad that lesbian from Grey’s Anatomy was able to get out of that giant hole he had in the basement! lol ; )
Amazing how that creepy dude became Captain Stottlemeyer in Monk.
ohh my god you are right I can’t believe I hadn’t made the connection!!! Eww can’t watch Monk ever again
Totally agree. When I found that out Monk became really hard to watch. *shudder*
It’s awkward to vote though when you think about the fact that Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, and Norman Bates are all characters based on the same person who was a real serial killer.
@California – what real serial killer are you referring to? I wasn’t aware of that fact!
@California – never mind – I Googled it. Ed Gein! Thanks for the info!
It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again…IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN OR ELSE IT GETS THE HOSE AGAIN.
Michael Myers in a walk. The music from that film itself still creeps me out just hearign it, but the character, the original character…just the stuff monsters are made of. He’s a human being…isn’t he?
I agree, Michael Myers is still the scariest thing I’ve ever seen…I guess you just had to be in that movie theater for it to make that impact, but nothing compares to the first “Halloween”
True horror! But I gotta go with Freddy Krueger. At 27 years old, I still have nightmares about him. I mean, you can’t escape him! You have to sleep sometime!
Totally agree!! Just thinking about the music and that mask gets me freaked out! And I still cannot to this day use or even look at butcher knives. Still the best horror movie hands down! Pardon me while I go lock my doors and windows….
Oh please let this not be another cover like the sexy beast thing….
Agreed. I hope this doesn’t end up as a cover. Though I fear it will be. . .
What would be so wrong with a scary psycho killer making the cover just in time for Halloween?
****I love Halloween so much, I would kill to have an EW cover of all the Horror Villains on it. You must be duranged to say such a thing, or you dont know good horror it it hit you.
this is stupid the out come is obvious. Hannibal lector will win the entire thing, even though there are more interesting killers.
I don’t really see how Hannibal winning is such an obvious outcome. I think Michael Myers will certainly give everyone here a run for their money.
if he wins, perhaps it’s obvious for a reason. greatest villan of all time. heloooooo
I don’t know; I just watched “Psycho” the other night for the first time and Norman Bates is still pretty freakin’ creepy!
Don’t count out the Joker, man.
Maybe if it were Mark Hamill’s version.
Pinhead always made me laugh, I never got that at all. Michael Myers on the other hand–I agree with Mike N, even that great music still give me shivers.
Shame Patrick Bateman has to go down so early. He should have at least made it another two rounds. But up against Lecter, he doesn’t stand a chance.
I was thinking the same thing. Sad…
Exactly. Nobody’s gonna win against Lecter.
Well – when you think about it – Bateman didn’t actually DO anything, except in his mind. According to the movie.
Totally agree. Bale was brilliant.
I also hate that either John Doe or (probably) Jame Gumb won’t be around for round 2. (It casts a vote for Jame Gumb, or it gets the hose again.)
I agree. He should have gone farther.
Yeah, I know. I was kind of hoping he’d last for a while too. They could have thrown him up against a pointless one like Serial Mom for the first round. He should have gotten a pass to the semi-finals just based on the running around naked with a chainsaw scene alone.
Hellraiser was such a terribly lame movie. I absolutely hated it and never understood how it could be considered a classic horror movie. And I never had any motivation to see any of the sequels, even though I’ve heard they’re better than the first, I still won’t watch them.
Michael Myers from Halloween #1 and The Shark from Jaws #2.
The Shark doesn’t count… It’s not a true test of acting.
Count Orlok from Nosferatu????
ANYBODY???
He’s the original boogeyman
he should be number one
I hope you all are referring to Carpenters Michael and Halloween. You put yourselves to shame if you even consider Zombies remakes. Michael is no hillbilly trash, coming from a home with profanity up the wazoo. And that Music is so chilling on its own. Lecter is so creepy. I cant look at Anthony Hopkins and not think of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake was only decent, but not anywhere near as great as Carpenter’s original. And don’t get me started on Zombie’s Halloween II. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. A complete piece of garbage. I don’t know what he was thinking, trying to mix Michael Myers with Jason Voorhees, and making Laurie and Dr. Loomis completely unlikable and unsympathetic. Not to mention turning Michael Myers into a sexual deviant.
Completely agree. To this day I can’t watch the original Halloween without covering my eyes. Rob Zombie’s version wasn’t the least bit scary, he turned a psychopathic monster into just another slasher-type. Of course, if this ends up Hannibal Lector vs Michael Myers, I have no idea who I’m going to vote for.