10 Creepiest Killers from Wes Craven Films

Until his death in 2015 Wes Craven was always coming up with fun horror ideas for his next projects, giving the genre many original ideas that resonated with fans. One key ingredient to Craven’s films was his villains. As with any horror film, be they slasher or monster, a well-designed killer can make or break the film.

Craven created the role that would make Robert Englund a horror icon in A Nightmare on Elm Street along with many other unique horror villains in his other films. Over the course of Wes Craven’s extensive filmography horror cinema was awarded many creative and creepy killers.

10 Maximillian- A Vampire In Brooklyn (1995)

In Wes Craven’s vampire film, Eddie Murphy plays a bloodsucker who arrives in Brooklyn, New York to find a half-human/half-vampire woman.

While A Vampire in Brooklyn isn’t one of Craven’s more respected films, it has a certain charm thanks to Eddie Murphy’s dedicated performance. For the role of Maximillian, the comedian decided to go old school in his creation of the vampire. His performance is calculated and fine-tuned to near perfection. As the titular vampire, Murphy is seductive and dangerous and his work here pays homage to Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Frank Langella, all of whom gave classic blood-sucker performances.

9 Mars Jupiter- The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

The Jupiter clan is a family of violent savages and cannibals in Wes Craven’s 1977 Drive-In classic The Hills Have Eyes. One of the most vicious is Mars, a bearded nearly mute psychopath who kills with glee and is as sexually depraved as he is violent.

The character has a scene in a trailer where he attacks a pregnant woman that is one of the most vicious and hard to watch moments in any Craven film. The Jupiter clan is one of the vilest groups of killers in horror film history and the moments with Mars are gruesome proof.

8 Horace Pinker- Shocker (1989)

Mitch Pileggi starred as serial killer Horace Pinker in Wes Craven’s Shocker. Pinker is a murderer who is executed in the electric chair but comes back from the dead to seek revenge on those who caught him.

The film is certainly not one of Craven’s finest hours but the character of Horace Pinker is an exciting villain. Pileggi plays him with gusto and gives a terrifying performance using every inch of his face and body to send chills through the audience. While the film was to be the director’s next big horror franchise it never came to be, as fans were disappointed and the film was a financial flop.

7 Jackson Rippner- Red Eye (2005)

With 2005’s Red Eye, Wes Craven had a mainstream Hollywood hit both commercially and critically. Rachel McAdams is terrorized on a flight by Cillian Murphy’s Jackson Rippner (get it?), a killer who has threatened to murder her father if she does not help him kill a politician.

While Rippner isn’t a monster or anything supernatural, the fact that he is a human makes him all the more frightening. He makes his play in front of people. This is one of the actor’s best roles, as no one suspects this handsome man in a suit to be the maniac he truly is. Murphy plays him as cool and calm and the actor’s piercing blue eyes are used to great effect. This time, there is something deadly behind them and by the film’s finale, the audience bears witness to the psychopath within.

6 Ghostface- Scream (1996)

Wes Craven ushered in a new breed of self-aware horror with his Scream franchise. The director also gave horror fans what would become one of the most recognizable slashers of all time, Ghostface.

The catch this time is that there is not one killer under the ghostly mask and black cloak. In each film, it is a different character (sometimes more than one) who takes on the persona of Ghostface, and Craven turns each film into a murder mystery as well as a bloody slasher film. The costume is scary enough but the fact that no one ever knows who is behind the mask makes Craven’s creation all the more frightening.

5 Pluto Jupiter- The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

The great horror mainstay actor Michael Berryman played Pluto, the most dangerous character of the Jupiter clan in Wes Craven’s hillbilly horror classic. Pluto is the worst of the clan due to his pure joy in killing, dismembering, and eating his victims. With every kill, we see the glee on his face as he terrorizes his victims before they meet their demise.

Berryman was born with Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia, a disease that causes no hair, fingernail, or teeth growth. His unfortunate condition adds to the aura of his character, making Pluto the role for which he is most associated.

4 Man And Woman- The People Under The Stairs (1991)

The People Under the Stairs is Wes Craven’s most underrated film and one that has grown in stature as the years go on. Everett McGill and Wendy Robie star as Man and Woman, two twisted siblings who live in a creepy house full of stolen children.

McGill and Robie make a great on-screen team. They both go for broke with their performances. This brother and sister pair of murderers will kill adults and children alike and take pride in the way they kill, often complimenting one another. Barbaric, insane, and incestuous, these two characters are absolutely chilling.

3 Dargent Paytraud- The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988)

The Serpent and the Rainbow was a critical hit for Wes Craven and holds a most frightening killer. Dargent Paytraud is a voodoo priest who feeds evil spirits and creates a village of zombies to help with his supernatural viciousness.

Zakes Mokae plays Paytraud as a man who becomes the demon-eyed host to centuries-old evils. The character is frightening, as he keeps macabre rule over the living and manipulates the dead, burying people alive just to torture their living souls. Bill Pullman was praised for his performance as an archeologist who falls prey to Paytraud’s black magic.

2 Krug Stillo- Last House On The Left (1972)

There is no Wes Craven film more disturbing than Last House on the Left and no killer as vile as David Hess’ Krug Stillo, the leader of a gang of brutal rapists and killers who commit both acts for no reason other than boredom and a lack of respect for society.

The film’s depiction of violence disturbed even Craven himself but critics praised the film’s undeniable effectiveness. Stillo is an unrelentingly disturbing maniac who walks hand in hand with death itself, welcoming every scream of terror from his helpless victims.

1 Freddy Krueger- A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Robert Englund and Wes Craven crafted one of the horror genre’s most iconic killers. Freddy Kreuger was the “bastard son of a hundred maniacs” who kills children and is burned alive by vengeful parents. Freddy comes back for revenge by killing his victims inside their dreams

Sleep should be the safest place, but when your own dreams betray you and Freddy stands waiting for your slumber, this makes him the most frightening killer Wes Craven ever created.