20 best movie villains of all time

Ghostface (Scream)

Let’s pause on the animated Disney villains for a second and get to some horror icons, starting with one of the most recognizable masks in the entire horror genre: Ghostface.

Ghostface burst onto the horror scene when he started terrorizing the teens of a small town in California in the movie Scream in 1996. The film was wildly successful for the genre, and ended up spawning three more sequels and a spin-off TV show. But the omnipresent Ghostface was always there, creeping in the background, waiting for his chance to kill.

Ghostface has been portrayed by several different people throughout the film franchise, but originally, the man (or should we say men?) behind the mask is Sidney’s boyfriend Billy Loomis, who creates the character with his dumb buddy Stu. Billy wants to get his revenge on Sidney because of her mother’s affair with his father. It’s not the best motive, but as usual, this villain is powered by revenge, and that’s a motive that follows this character throughout the sequels, even when the mask is being donned by different people.

Ghostface coined the creepy phone call motif in modern slasher films, asking his victims the question “do you like scary movies?” Unlike so many of his predecessors in the slasher canon (many of whom will appear later on this list), Ghostface is not paranormal, he isn’t immune to death, and he’s not some horribly disfigured madman hiding behind a mask. That could be the reason why he has gone down as one of the most iconic villains in film history, because he’s just a regular person in a mask who wants his revenge, no horribly tragic backstory needed. And that is the scariest kind of villain.