When it comes to horror movies, and specifically slasher films, the biggest thrill comes with the kill. People don’t watch Friday the 13th movies to see kids all surviving their night at Camp Crystal Lake. People watch that franchise, and others like it, to see what kind of gruesome and sick kills that Jason Voorhees pulls off in that movie. The crazier the kill, the better.
In classic horror cinema, the fear of the kill ruled the day with tension and terror taking the front stage, but by the time Norman Bates and Leatherface started killing innocent victims, things changed, and a new era of horror icon arrived. Here is a look at the 10 iconic horror villains with the highest kill counts, ranked.
Updated on December 29th, 2020 by Scoot Allan: Over the years, horror fans have found their favorite slashers and killers from all eras of the genre, with new horror stars and classic icons competing for status as the best horror villain. There are many factors that go into determining which iconic horror slasher comes out on top, but one of the most consistent and telling is the kill count, which culminates over a number of franchise films, making some of the newer entries in the horror genre stand out among the classics for their competitive counts.
Norman Bates – 20 Kills
While not considered a slasher movie, many horror film historians consider Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to be the precursor to the slasher movie and the one that set the template for what was to come. Norman Bates was not a faceless slasher monster, but he was a monster nonetheless, killing many people who stopped off at Bates Motel.
The murders on the movie screen were small — but the numbers started to build when Norman’s childhood was explored on Bates Motel, as he killed his father to begin his life as a psycho killer and he ended up with a total of 20 kills between the movies and TV series.
Candyman – 22+ Kills
The urban legend of the Candyman was explored in the 1992 film that launched a franchise, as the tortured ghost of Daniel Robitaille (played by Tony Todd in every film) returned to kill anyone who summoned him by saying his name five times in front of a mirror.
Candyman used his signature hook and dark mystical bees to take down over twenty victims across three films, with even more victims killed off-screen. The kill count of the franchise and the haunting hooked killer will only increase with the release of 2021’s Candyman.
Leatherface – 31 Kills
This list includes just people that the iconic horror villains killed themselves. That means that the other murders by the members of the Sawyer Family do not count here nor do bodies found without the killer proven. This death count is just the total amount of people Leatherface himself killed.
In the eight moves in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series, there were over 85 deaths. However, of those deaths, Leatherface was only responsible for 31 of them. Even more impressive is that the first movie, considered one of the bloodiest of all-time, only saw Leatherface kill four people.
Ghostface – 35+ Kills
The Scream franchise launched in 1996 and introduced horror fans to Ghostface, a masked killer with a love of scary movies and torment, though unlike other iconic horror movie killers, there have been quite a few different killers under the mask.
Individually each killing duo racked up impressive numbers across four films (with a fifth on the way), but when looking at the collected total of kills from Ghostface, they rank up among other classic villains with over 35 kills and even more if the TV series murders were counted.
Pinhead – 35 Kills
Jason, Michael Myers, and Freddy movies oversaturated the market in the ’80s, and the slasher movie genre was getting old, fast. Then, in 1987, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser came along and changed everything. It was fresh, very adult-oriented, and extremely graphic and disturbing.
Much like Leatherface, the iconic villain in this horror franchise was one of many killers, but Pinhead was the leader of the Cenobites and the one that lasted throughout the series. While his chief delight was sadomasochistic torture, he also killed 35 people throughout the franchise, and that number could rise as a reboot is on the way.
Chucky – 38 Kills
He is small and doesn’t look that dangerous, but Chucky from the Child’s Play franchise has a nice large kill count — probably because no one fears him until it is too late. The original movie saw a serial killer gunned down by the police, but he was able to use a voodoo spell to send his spirit into a doll named Chucky.
Through seven movies in the series, with each more absurd than the last, Chucky has killed 38 total people. That number will grow when the Child’s Play reboot hits this year, and shockingly, Chucky will pass Freddy for most kills by an iconic horror villain.
Freddy Krueger – 39 Kills
While Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers were the OG slasher villains, it was Freddy Krueger who stretched the limits of what a true horror icon could be. Forget the lumbering monsters. Freddy was a jerk, someone who waited to kill someone until he could insult them and humiliate them before finally ending their life.
The fact that he lived in a person’s dreams also made him very scary and kept many kids up all night long in the ’80s when he was at the height of his popularity. Through his eight movies and the reboot, Freddy surprisingly has a relatively low kill count of just 39 victims.
Lubdan The Leprechaun – 50+ Kills
1993’s Leprechaun introduced fans to the evil, gold-obsessed Lubdan (played by Warwick Davis in six of the eight films), who sadistically killed, maimed, and tortured anyone who dared to steal his treasured pot of gold.
Lubdan’s killing spree has spread from the city to the hood and even to space before the franchise was rebooted twice, which wracked up an impressive body count that gives the demonic Leprechaun over 50 kills with a variety of weapons and dark magical abilities.
Angela Baker – 55 Kills
After a wave of murders led to a huge twist in 1983’s Sleepaway Camp, the killer was not only revealed as camper Angela Baker, but Angela was also revealed to really be Peter Baker, who had survived a childhood accident to be forcibly raised as his deceased sister.
Baker would return in new identities and at other camps for the next four movies to continue her killing spree, and while the following movies in the franchise focused on more comedic elements, Peter/Angela/Maria still racked up over 50 kills across five films.
Victor Crowley – 59 Kills
One of the newer entries in the horror slasher genre was Adam Green’s 2006 Hatchet, which introduced the cursed repeating spirit Victor Crowley AKA the Bayou Butcher as he haunted his home in Honey Island Swamp.
Late-night tourists through the swamp became some of Victor’s earliest victims as he gorily tore through anyone who dared come near his home, though his body count only increased with each film’s bloody new attack on Victor that culminated with almost 60 kills across four films.
Jigsaw – 60 Kills
The most recent iconic horror villain on this series is Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. While often miscategorized as “torture porn,” Saw was instead a series that played into the same genre as the slasher movies from the ’80s, with Jigsaw’s victims being part of a morality tale, where the sinners were the ones usually put down — in very graphic ways.
What made Saw different was that the victims ended up causing their deaths by Jigsaw’s diabolical designs. However, since it was his traps set up to punish the guilty, he was still responsible for the deaths of 60 people before all was said and done. This count does not include the copycat killers that arrived throughout the series.
Hannibal Lecter – 98 Kills
In Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter was in prison for murder and cannibalism, but his crimes all took place in the past. He was instead a person that the FBI came to for help in stopping a new serial killer, so for much of that movie, he was not the main villain at all. However, when he started killing to escape prison, it showed his savagery and that was just the start.
There were more kills for him in Hannibal, but neither Manhunter nor Red Dragon (which told the same story) saw the doctor kill anyone. Then, the NBC series hit, and Hannibal saw him kill so many people in three seasons that his kill count reached an impressive 98 victims.
The Invisible Man – 123 Kills
The one iconic horror villain that might shock some by appearing so high on the kill list is the classic Universal Horror monster The Invisible Man. Arriving in the same era as Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf-Man, and The Mummy, Dr. Jack Griffin killed more than all four of those monsters combined.
See, not only was the Invisible Man a “monster” but he was a cold-blooded serial killer. When he achieved invisibility, he went insane and started killing anyone who got in his way. He even murdered a train full of people along the way, and his kill count racked up a total of 123 deaths.
Michael Myers – 133 Kills
Thanks to the 2018 Halloween reboot/sequel, Michael Myers finally pulled ahead of The Invisible Man in the kill count. Michael is considered the first real slasher killer, a deranged man who escaped from a mental asylum and returning home to kill on Halloween. Outside of the third movie in the series, every other effort added more to Michael’s kill list.
One of the most iconic horror villains in history, Michael killed in seven movies in the original franchise, two that ramped up the kills in Rob Zombie’s remake of the series, and then even more in the 2018 film that was a direct sequel to the first Halloween. All total, Michael Myers killed 133 people.
Jason Voorhees – 151 Kills
While Michael Myers was the first famous slasher movie villain, Jason Voorhees became the king in short order. This rise to the top happened even though he wasn’t even in the first movie until a jump scare at the end. After his mom killed a bunch of teens in the first movie, Jason showed up in Friday the 13th Part 2, and eventually put on the hockey mask and killed teenagers consistently, almost becoming a zombie by the end.
Jason killed in eight of the nine movies in the original Friday the 13th franchise. He then showed up in outer space in 2002, fought Freddy in 2003, and later appeared in a reboot in 2009. By the end, Jason Voorhees sat on top of the iconic horror villain throne with 151 kills.
