It's not just superheroes that have the monopoly on cool origin stories. The horror genre is filled with monsters, killers, ghosts, and demons, most of which have a backstory that explains who they are and why they became such iconic characters. Here's some of the best origin stories from the last few decades of big screen terror...
Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th)
While the masked killer of the seemingly endless Friday the 13th franchise is one of the 1980s' most famous horror villains, he did become the series’ main character until the second entry. However, his origin is laid out in the original 1980 movie. Jason was born with terrible facial deformities, and was kept isolated from the outside world by his mother, who worked as a cook at Camp Crystal Lake. Forced to bring him to work one day, Jason was tormented by bullies and thrown in the lake. His poor mom, believing him to be dead, unleashed a vengeful killing spree, ultimately meeting her own grisly demise. Jason survived, and soon took up the machete and mask to stalk the camp again and again and again (and again).
Pinhead (Hellraiser)
The needle-faced being at the center of the Hellraiser movies was once a former soldier called Elliot Spencer. Disillusioned with life after World War I, Spencer came across the Lament Configuration, a demonic puzzlebox that enslaved Spencer and turned him into the soul-craving , torture-loving Cenobite leader. By Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth, Pinhead had shed his human attributes and become an agent of evil, gathering victims for his Cenobite army. Give me a Rubicks Cube any day.
Sadako (The Ring)
Kids have long made for scary horror villains, and there are few more terrifying than Sadako, the ghostly girl at the center of classic Japanese horror The Ring, plus the range of sequels, spinoffs, and remakes that followed in its wake. There are actually several variations on Sadako's origins depending on which movie you watch, but they all ultimately center upon a girl who was drowned in a well and returned as a vengeful ghost to pass a curse from victim to victim.
Brundlefly (The Fy)
Of all the villainous characters on the list, Brundlefly is probably the most tragic. The half-man/half-insect creature in David Cronenberg's 1986 classic The Fly started out as brilliant scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum). He was developing top-secret teleportation pods, but when Brundle drunkenly tested the pods he failed to notice a harmless housefly in there with him. His DNA was fused with the fly, and he spends the rest of movie slowly, painfully, disgustingly turning into a vomiting, philosophizing, hate-filled fly-man.
Candyman (Candyman)
It's hard to blame the supernatural being at center of Candyman, Bernard Rose's terrifying Clive Barker adaptation, for the gory mayhem he unleashes, given his gruesome origin story. Originally the son of a slave, in the late 19th century he was accepted into polite society and became a renowned artist. But his relationship with a white woman led an angry mob to cut off his hand, replace it with a hook, cover his body in honey, and let a swarm of bees sting him to death. Of course, 100 years later there is one way to summon Candyman--as any horror fan knows, you do not want to say his name five times into a mirror. Go on, we dare you...
Chucky (Child's Play)
Chucky started life as an innocent, if a bit creepy-looking, plastic doll. In the original 1998 smash Child's Play, voodoo-obsessed serial killer Charles Lee Ray is cornered and shot in a toy shop by cops; as he dies, he transfers his evil spirit into a nearby 'Good Guy' doll. Soon the toy is alive, inhabited by Ray to continue his killing spree across the next six Chucky movies.
Jigsaw (Saw)
Better known as John Kramer, the trap-setting mastermind of the Saw movies is certainly one the more inventive cinematic serial killers. In fact, Kramer barely considers himself a killer at all. His elaborate, gruesome traps are intended to test their victims’ will to live, following his own terminal cancer diagnosis. We're fairly sure that there would be better way to celebrate life than the face-shredding, gut-splitting, limb-slicing devices that Jigsaw invents, but it certainly makes for some entertainingly gruesome viewing.
Michael Myers (Halloween)
The origins of the masked killer in the Halloween franchise has long been a source of some controversy amongst horror fans. In John Carpenter's original movie, Myers was simply an insane murderer who was imprisoned for his killing his sister at an early age. As a young adult, he escapes, returns home, and keeps killing again. Simple and scary.
Three years later, Halloween II revealed (or rather, suddenly invented) that the character played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the first movie is in fact Michael's sister, and his return to Haddonfield was for a family reunion. Not so simple! And if that wasn't enough, Rob Zombie's 2007 remake introduced yet more backstory. White-trash parents, animal killing, papier-mache mask making--it’s yawn-worthy stuff. Michael is one villain who doesn't need a backstory--his utter commitment to killing is more than enough.
The Blair Witch (The Blair Witch Project)
Unlike the other villains on this list, the Blair Witch doesn't ever really appear on-screen, but she a terrifying presence that looms over the three Blair Witch movies. She started life as Elly Kedward, a woman who lived in the Maryland town of Blair. Accused of witchcraft, Kedward was banished by the townspeople and hung from a tree, heavy stones tied to all her limbs. When all of her accusers and many of the town's children vanished the following year, the remaining residents fled the town and the curse of the Blair Witch became established as a local legend.
The poltergeist (Poltergeist)
Tobe Hooper's spooky 1982 romp was written by Steven Spielberg, who by all accounts had quite a bit to do with the directing as well. But whoever made it, the unseen spirits that mount a campaign to torment the Freeling family and kidnap their young daughter make for a scary ride. Late in the movie we discover that the Freeling's house was built on a former cemetery; the headstones were moved to a new location, but the bodies remained in the ground. Cue possessed dolls, evil trees, horrific hallucinations, talking TVs, and lots of noise and lights. Time to move.
Pennywise (It)
To be strictly accurate, Pennywise the clown is only one of several guises adopted by the unnamed shapeshifting entity of It, the smash hit adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel, but it's the one that everyone remembers. Pennywise is a terrifying clown that feeds on the fears of its young victims. As far as we know, the creature originates from an undiscovered intergalactic void, termed the Macroverse in King's novel, that has come to earth to feed on the young. But whether appearing as Pennywise the clown, a giant spider, or freaky orange lights, It is one scary, er, thing.
Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
Of all the great horror characters of the 1980s, none are more famous than Freddy Krueger. Created by Wes Craven and played by Robert Englund in seven Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Krueger's origin story is concisely described in the first movie: "the bastard son of a thousand maniacs." Freddy's poor mom was accidentally locked in an asylum, where she was repeatedly raped by inmates, one of the them fathering Freddy. Abused and tormented as a child, Freddy returned to his hometown of Springwood as a young man and set about kidnapping and murdering dozens of children. After he was freed by police on technicality, Krueger was burned alive by the parents of his victims, but was of course reborn as the dream-inhabiting, razor-fingered, wise-cracking horror icon.
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