Let's face it, the villain is what makes or breaks a scary movie. No matter how good the plot is if there's not a villain that strikes fear in your heart, the movie your watching will be a dud.

Every horror film fanatic has their favorite villain - the one they love to hate.
The one they'd be the most scared of if they were to come face to face with them in the street. And while I'm not saying that if Predator came around a corner I wouldn't scream and run the other direction, what I am saying is the killers that scare me the most are the creepers that stalk you slowly. They never seem to be in a hurry and they rarely ever move faster than a big step.

For most of us horror film lovers, it's the suspension and anticipation that really gets our motor running. It's knowing something horrible is about to happen without necessarily knowing when, where, why or how. The build up is half the fun! If the movie was so fast paced that we struggled to keep up, the fear might be there, but it certainly wouldn't last into the night making us want to keep our lights on just in case. No, it's the knowing and not knowing that makes us watch cartoons to try to erase the memories of that slow creep, that long held breath, the arm pit sweating waiting for something to jump out and grab us scare.

There are tons of killers that we watch chase our heroes and heroines through dark houses or freaky abandoned buildings. But the scariest killers... they don't run. They are killers that the hero looks over their shoulder and sees stalking them slowly without anything other than unadulterated purpose. They do not rush. They are not frantic. They stalk their prey and they always catch up.

Take for example my favorite bad guy, Michael Meyers. For all intents and purposes he's a pretty basic dude. He doesn't have scary fangs, he doesn't have things popping out of him. He's just a dude, wearing a blank mask in dark coveralls. When we see him on screen he's usually standing still. He's either standing there watching or he's standing there waiting. (That is until of course he starts walking toward you.) He's the guy that you see on the side of the street that makes you cross over to put distance between you two. Or if Michael Meyers isn't enough of an example for you, how about the Zombies in Night of the Living Dead? These are not zombies coming at you in full speed. These are the undead walking towards you knowing that eventually you will have nowhere else to go. They have a mission and they stick to it. Or how about Pennywise from It? We don't see him running through the streets chasing children. We see him waving to us from behind trees luring us to his layer. Or popping up through a drain in a shower. His moves are calculated and he never expends more energy than he has to to trap his subject.

Why is it that these guys are the killers that scare us in the long run?

Simple. They are the killers you know could be anywhere because they always seem to be everywhere. No matter how quickly you run, which rundown car you steal, or what closet you find to hide in, they find you. If they rushed around like our heroes do, there would always be the chance that we could out run them. That if we just moved fast enough they couldn't catch us. In my mind, the killers that scare me the most are the killers that I think may pop up in my dreams. Hell, they even made a killer that does just that - One, two, Freddy's coming for you...

If you are interested in more of my thoughts on movies please find links to some of my previous posts below. Enjoy!

https://steemit.com/film/@ekpickle/the-final-girl
https://steemit.com/film/@ekpickle/haven-t-i-already-seen-this
https://steemit.com/film/@ekpickle/jaws-an-interactive-experience