Which Horror Slasher Villain Has The Highest Kill Count

The horror genre has seen many iconic slasher villains, all of them with high kill counts to their names, but there’s one who has outdone all of them – and here’s who he is. The horror genre has been home to some of the most popular and profitable sagas, of which many have evolved into franchises as they have branched out to other media, such as comic books and video games. Most of the genre’s most iconic slasher villains saw their beginnings in the 1980s, and many of them continue to kill in remakes and reboots.

Although horror movies from the 1960s are considered the earliest influences of the slasher genre, the Golden Age of slasher movies happened from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. This period saw the arrival of movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and with them the introduction of villains who have now become part of pop culture, as are Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. All of them have their own methods and reasons to target and hunt their victims, and though all of them have a big number of kills to their names, only one stands as the one who has killed the most over the years.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface is responsible for 31 deaths across all movies in the franchise, while Freddy Krueger’s kill count seems to be between 42 and 48. Jumping to the 1990s, another famous slasher, Scream‘s different Ghostface killers, have a total of 39 kills, a number that will grow with the arrival of the fifth movie in 2022. Then there’s Jason Voorhees, whose real killing sprees began in Friday the 13th Part 2, as his mother, Pamela Voorhees, was the real villain in the first movie. Jason Voorhees’ total kill count, then, is 157, and it’s mostly because he has more movies than other slasher villains with a total of 12, including the crossover with Freddy Krueger in Freddy vs. Jason, and he has killed people at Camp Crystal Lake, New York City, and even in space thanks to Jason X – however, the spot of the slasher villain with the highest kill count now belongs to Michael Myers, thanks to Halloween Kills.

Michael Myers has been terrorizing Haddonfield, Illinois, since 1978 (though his very first kill happened in 1963 when he murdered his older sister), and he has even traveled to California to continue killing, as he did in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later when he learned Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) was now living there under the name “Keri Tate”. However, his biggest killing spree took place in Haddonfield, in 2018, as Halloween Kills, the second entry in the reboot timeline, ended up having the franchise’s highest body count, which in turn gives him a higher number than that of Jason Voorhees. Prior to Halloween Kills, Michael Myers’ kill count was 133, but now with the deaths of characters like Marion Chambers, Tommy Doyle, Karen Strode, and many other Haddonfield citizens, his kill count has upped to at least 160.

Michael Myers’ kill count will only grow when Halloween Ends is released, while Jason Voorhees has no new movies coming in the future (and even though Leatherface does, there’s no way he will come close to the number of kills by Jason and Michael), so “The Shape” will continue to reign among slasher villains as the one with the biggest kill count, though when it comes to how gruesome their individual methods are, the top spot might belong to someone else.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
(3269 Articles Published)

Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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