Something I’ve noticed as of late that popular horror film icons are popular due solely to oversaturation. Had Jason Voorhees been relegated to three, maybe four films, would his status as horror icon par excellence be as lauded as it is? The same can be said for Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, and a whole slew of other icons. Sadly, they tend to overshadow the lesser known horror villains, whose only crime is not being lucky enough to star in four million sequels. Fed up with the lack of recognition, myself and the always lovely Dive Mistress over at Zombots! have compiled a list of underrated horror villains that deserve a little love. Head over to Zombots to check out her half, and catch my half below.
Simon / The Human Condition from Session 9
Gordon-Session-9
It always comes down to Session 9. In the film, a team of “asbestos abatement engineers” wins a bid to clear out the Danvers State Hospital, an old lunatic asylum with a dark past. As the week presses on, the men begin to break down, with one of them, Hank, disappearing with nary a phone call. Another member discovers a series of tapes that reveal the alternate personalities of a former patient. One of these personalities is Simon, a malevolent entity that compels Mary to kill her brother and parents after falling on a China doll and cutting herself. It is eventually revealed that Gordon, after his wife accidentally spills a pot of boiling water on his leg, allows Simon to enter him, who in turn compels him to kill his wife, new child and dog, and then return to work as if nothing happens. As time wears on, paranoia begins to settle in and the tension among the crew begins to grow. Finally, Simon overtakes Gordon, forcing him to kill his crew.
The underlying supernatural aspect of the film notwithstanding, Simon represents something far more sinister than any monster – human fallibility and the inherent weaknesses of the human condition. Despite our overwhelming desire to succeed and persevere, we are inherently weak creatures, not always capable of resisting the gauntlet that life throws at us each and every day. For Gordon it simply became too much too handle, allowing the pseudo-personification of weakness to take over. For that reason, Simon, and by extension the human condition, is one of the worst villains of all.
The Event Horizon / Dr. Weir from Event Horizon
Dr-Weir
Despite its questionable acting, Event Horizon is listed as a favorite for horror fans and non-horror fans alike. Seven years after the disappearance of the starship Event Horizon, a signal is received on Earth, prompting the rescue ship Lewis and Clark to give it the ol’ looksee. Once arriving, however, the crew, along with Dr. Weir, who designed the technology that allows the Event Horizon to travel through space almost instantaneously, discover that the ship has been to a place worse than Hell. Overtaken by the ship, Weir turns on the rest of the crew, resulting in most of their deaths. A creepy eyeball-less Sam Neill ensues.
Event Horizon is scary as Hell. When the ship returned, it came back with what can loosely be considered a supernatural entity controlling it. This entity causes all the humans aboard to see their worst fears manifest before them, although one of the crew is forced into committing suicide, only realizing what he’s doing moments before being ejected into the black. Throughout all of this, Weir is quickly slipping into madness, and attempts to return the ship to a place where the crew “won’t need eyes to see.” Dr. Weir and the Event Horizon will never reach a level of notoriety akin to that of the classic horror villains like Jason and Freddy, but that’s ok. They’re in a class all of their own.
Megan from Dog Soldiers
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In Neil Marshall’s lycanthrope-laden foray into horror, a team of British soldiers is dropped deep into the Scottish Highlands on a routine training exercise. Megan, played by Emma Cleasby, comes across the team as they’re being torn apart by werewolves, and in turn offers them safe haven at an isolated house in the woods. Eventually it’s revealed Megan is a werewolf and has simply been fighting the curse and delaying the transformation. In the end she causes the soldiers to destroy their only means of escape, leading them into a final showdown with their hirsute attackers.
Simply put, Megan is a raging bitch, and without a doubt the best metaphor for a woman’s period in the history of film. She sabotages any chance of the remaining soldiers escaping, leading them into a false sense of security by regaling them with her tales of lycanthropic interactions and werewolf lore. She forms a bond with Cooper, the second-in-command behind Sergeant Wells, and despite a very brief romantic connection, fails to even give him a little beej before going all werewolf on his ass. Coop gets his revenge, however, with a well-placed in the forehead, thus fulfilling the dream of every man who’s had to deal with a woman on her period.
F. W. Colqhoun from Ravenous
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Cannibalism is awesome. Cannibalism is even more awesome when it involves Robert Carlyle as a Christ-like figure channeling the Wendigo myth to develop near-superhuman like strength and the ability to survive repeated attacks with guns, meat cleavers and giant blocks of wood right in the face. Showing up at the remote outpost inhabited by a motley band of soldiers, F. W. Colqhoun, servant of God, tells them of how he survived months in a cave subsisting on the flesh of his party, murdered at the hands of the deranged Colonel Ives. Under the guise of leading them to the cave where one of the party might still be alive, it is revealed that Colqhoun is Ives, and he simply wanted some fresh meat.
The beauty of this character lies not in his murderous and cannibalistic intent. No, these are merely the stepping stones for the bigger picture, which is to simply add more cannibals to the pack. His plan is to lure unsuspecting travelers looking for new lives into the camp, killing some and feeding their flesh to the others. Beyond this simple act, he’s simply a devious and cunning motherfucker, quick with the one-liners and willing to do whatever it takes to remain alive. When confronted with the moralistic implications of his actions, he simply responds, “Ah, morality – the last bastion of a coward.”
There’s something about a villain that lacks all empathy, eats human flesh, and is human that stands out to me as worthy of recognition.