Your Favorite Tier For Horror Villains? (Subjective Discussion)

[Angry_Dummy]

I'm tired of talking about science and gigantic numbers that I can't even fathom but everyone else and their dog acts like they can. Time to talk about story-telling and personal opinions!

• applause track and confetti*

Today's topic is, "What is your favorite tier for a horror villain?"

Unlike a VS battle, where higher = better (*grumble grumble spiteful remark about the site overinflating everything grumble grumble*), a horror villain is not made better simply by being bigger and more unstoppable. The monster's tier has to be closely monitored to be exactly as powerful and intimidating as necessary without leaving the viewer certain that everyone's death is guaranteed and that, since they've already discerned the ending, there's no reason to keep watching.

So, with that said, what is your favorite tier for producing nightmarish creatures that give you the willies?

Disclaimer: (OP's opinion is temporarily withheld to allow your decisions to crop up without outside influence.) (This subject is intentionally subjective and opinion-based. Nobody is "wrong" here. State your opinion. Don't bash others'.)

 

[Gemmysaur]

Somewhere in Tier 7 or 8 so it makes for an interesting plot without destroying the world or something. It's also a good enough tier for mind manipulation and summoning, as well as low-level reality warping.

Also, I like it more when the villain isn't so strong but uses mindgames to creep the flock out of the protagonist.

 

[Amelia_Lonelyheart]

Small Building-Building level for me. Theirs just something awesome to see a horror villain able to punch down houses and skyscrapers. If its a Fantasy-Horror film though, I like Small Town, since it gives a grander since of scale while still not being insane.

 

[Angry_Dummy]

Great opinions. I like them.

I'll wait until we have a total of seven before posting mine.

 

[MirthfulDoggedness]

Personally, I prefer the truly unknown, and the truly vast as a horror villain. Giving a feeling of numb, strange, indescribable feeling of terror. So Tier 2 to Tier 1, I'm a huge fan of Eldritch horrors, too.

 

[Angry_Dummy]

Glad to hear a different opinion!

If everyone picks roughly the same categories, it's less fun.

 

[Promestein]

I don't have an exact tiering, but I think horror villains are best when they can't be harmed by anything available within the context of the movie, eg. the alien in the first Alien movie.

 

[The_real_cal_howard]

I'd say 9-B to 9-A, so the heroic sacrificial character could hold them off for a little before dying to help their friends get away. Still needs to be strong enough to not be harmed by conventional weaponry though.

 

[Angry_Dummy]

Alright, this seems like a good time to state my opinion.

My favorite horror tier is 10-A to 9-C!


Yes, really.

I quickly get turned off by stories that pride themselves on tension and uncertainty which have incredibly obvious endings.

If I know that the heroes are all going to die and get nothing accomplished, like in cosmic horror, I leave because it's a foregone conclusion that the protagonists' actions cannot affect in the slightest. Cosmic horror as a genre is unappealling to me as a viewer AND as a writer because the whole point is that everything anyone does is pointless and futile. Just throw an "End of the World" party and be done with it.

If the heroes are definitely going to win, it's just an action movie. I came here to get away from that for an afternoon. The Mummy, while a fun movie, is not horror.

My favorite tier, therefore, is a really smart monster who CAN be defeated by the typical heroes (that is, college kids and Average Joe) and can be wounded or suffer drawbacks, but is still very threatening in-person.

Let's say the heroes barricade the doors and windows. I could write that my vicious villain just smashes down the doors or teleports in, but I'd much rather have this monster realize that the basement windows weren't locked and have the characters start hearing snuffling and shifting in the basement, quickly realizing that they've just screwed up, and let that be engaging. The monster could be taken out by a round or two from a shotgun to the face, but the nearest shotgun is at the other end of the neighbourhood, the monster is outside right now, circling the house, trying to open the doors, and the last time someone went out there, thinking it had left, the guy got fly-tackled, pinned, and was able to continue squirming for approximately seven seconds after the hideous mutt had ripped his throat out and eaten his face, so we're staying INSIDE, thank you very much!

If the thing had a hind leg broken by the girl with the frying pan after a lucky hit, yet still managed to eat her and is still managing to run her friends down on foot while crippled, that's terrifyingly tenacious! And when the cops got phoned in and one went inside to help examine the house while the other guarded the door, the thing hid, managed to lead the guard away and pounce on him, and waited for his disbelieving partner to come back out munched him too before stealing their guns and stashing them away! It's so vile!

Now THAT is some fun stuff! It's a match of wits between a group of squishy normal people and one smart stalker to see whom is cornered first! The match-up is certainly in favor of the monster, but not by such a huge margin that only the director could save them or they need such giant weapons that the story turns into an action film with more fake blood. Because the monster can be wounded and temporarily repelled, the audience doesn't know what to expect and becomes interested in seeing how the heroes manage to ward it off, or how the monster manages to find holes in their barricades and outsmart them, even though they're bringing a knife to a gunfight!

Will that molotov cocktail be enough to frighten the creature away for a few more minutes? Is that beast using the trash cans as stairs to get up on the roof so it can attack from above, or so it can get down through the chimneys, and will the heroes guess correctly? Will our lead be able to find the late officer's stashed weapons in time and drive it back, or even kill it, or is this too easy and it's just waiting for her to show up?

THAT'S my opinion on the best tier for good horror! It can be stopped by what's on hand and a bit of quick thinking, but the creature knows and plays around the usual strategies, turning the story into a thrilling, engaging, uncertain gambit pileup where every side is going all out with their ingenuity and winning or losing fights on account of skill, smarts, and willpower.

Of course, you know, that's merely my opinion and I practically worship low tier characters...

 

[Czuczian11]

In my opinion tier of such a character shouldn't be much higher than power of rest of cast, however they should have a lot of Hax such as Immortality, Sensoring , Mind Manipulation and or Reality Warping. Time Stop and Intagiblity and whats very important Invisibility. Ussually stories with less destructive chacters are more reasonable to be scary. Also vilian dont have to overpoever opponents physically- first he/she/it should break their minds slowly via some terrific abilities. Dementor could be very good example- they have no AP at all but they gives a feeling of despair and sadness + they are almost imposbile to defeat + completly imposible to completly destroy. I guess 8-C is ok but well in some cases 10-C would be much more deadly with enough given hax abilites and some hype as long as the comfrotation is prepared by vilian.

 

[Alexcar3000]

I think Tier 7 (on durability, as for AP, likely 9-B and above but below Tier 7 and maybe 8), because I simply can't take them seriosly if I know I can just nuke them or carpet bomb them, or just shoot them with a barrage of .50 cal miniguns (seriously). That's one of the reasons I dislike horror movies in general (other than being way too predictable, at least the ones I saw), and also because I simply cannot be scared... at all.

In short, something you cannot kill or stun, but has trouble dealing with protagonists' smart traps (I seriously get mad when the protagonists in horror movies are so stupid and incompetent just because plot), like reinforced steel doors... but I don't know how will they get rid of the villain... maybe drown him in the bottom of the sea? Put the villain in a spaceship and launch him into deep space... or the Sun? Throw him into a pit of 1 km depth?

Unless they are incorporeal or some lovecraftian abominations and not the classic supernatural serial killers, then the Tier wouldn't matter that much.