The Actors That Play These Horror Movie Villains Are Gorgeous In Real Life

Even if you're not a fan of the horror genre, chances are you've heard of Freddy Krueger, but would you recognize actor Robert Englund if you passed him in the street? Englund played the iconic villain for the first time in 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and went on to reprise the role a whopping seven times, making his final bow as the scarred serial killer in 2003's "Freddy vs. Jason." Englund might be a legend in horror circles, but he isn't anywhere near as famous as the Krueger character. It's a problem that the actors behind many horror movie villains have to live with — you give your all to a role, and yet nobody ever sees your face.

Whether the evildoer is some kind of creature/demon/alien, or simply an utterly deplorable human being doing terrible things, the audience is often not supposed to view these characters as people. Elaborate costumes and makeup certainly help us with that, though we still can't help but wonder what's going on underneath all that latex and face paint. What do the actors behind these horrific characters actually look like?

It was supposed to kick-start an all new cinematic universe, but 2017's "The Mummy" unraveled pretty quickly. It got off on the right foot when Sofia Boutella's Princess Ahmanet was introduced, but in the end, this reboot simply wasn't as fun as the 1999 movie of the same name. According to SyFy, the reboot "did Sofia Boutella dirty" by minimizing her character in favor of Tom Cruise. "It may be called 'The Mummy,' but one of cinema's rising stars never gets her moment to shine in the title role."

The negative reviews and poor domestic box office numbers posted by "The Mummy" left the future of the Dark Universe in doubt, but for all the bad press, Boutella's dedication to the project was never in doubt. The Algerian actor (who toured with Madonna and Rihanna as a backup dancer before she landed her breakout role) was a huge fan of Universal's Classic Monster movies growing up, as she explained to the Independent. "It's not just a monster walking around," she said. "If you look at the original ones, they're interesting, profound metaphors."

Hiring an actor who moonlights as a model only to cover him in makeup might seem pointless, but Bill Skarsgård wasn't cast as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's "It" because of his good looks. The Swedish actor brought a whole new level of intensity to the character, setting his Pennywise apart from the earlier Tim Curry TV version.

Getting into the right mindset for the role was difficult for Skarsgård, and he found it even harder to shake it off after the film wrapped. "I was home, done with the movie, and I started having very strange and vivid Pennywise dreams," Skarsgård told Entertainment Weekly. "Every night, he came and visited. It was in the shape of either me dealing with him, sort of Pennywise as a separate entity of me, and then also me as Pennywise in circumstances that I didn't appreciate."

It wasn't just Skarsgård himself who got spooked, as some of the child actors — many horror child actors have grown up to be stunning — he worked with were "traumatized" too. "Some of them were really intrigued, but some couldn't look at me, and some were shaking — this one kid started crying," he told Interview. The actor admitted that the moment director Andy Muschietti yelled "Action," he went straight into character, tears or no tears. "So some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take, and then I realized, 'Holy s***, what am I doing? What is this? This is horrible.'"

Ken Kirzinger once played college football for the University of British Columbia, but he decided to get into stunt work after suffering a bad knee injury. Speaking to Indie Mac User during the blog's horror month, Kirzinger revealed he secretly hoped his stunt work would lead to him being discovered, but he had no idea his "very modest" involvement in the "Friday the 13th" franchise would cause such a ruckus.

"My favorite role has probably been playing Jason [Voorhees]," Kirzinger said. "Little did I know what an iconic character I was lucky enough to get." He donned the famous mask for the first time in 1989's "Jason Takes Manhattan" as a stunt double and later appeared as one of Jason's victims. Kirzinger banked his stuntman checks and forgot all about the character until he was offered the chance to play him for real.

"When I was asked to play Jason in 'Freddy vs. Jason,' I didn't know it was such a big deal," he said. "Since 'Freddy vs. Jason' became arguably the most successful of the Jason installments, I have been humbled by the attention I have gotten, and very appreciative." The nature of this particular Jason Voorhees movie meant that Kirzinger even got the chance to act heroic for a moment, decapitating Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger in the closing moments.

2004's "The Grudge" turned out to be little more than another unambitious Hollywood rehash of a J-horror favorite, though in theory it should have been at least as good as the Japanese version. Takashi Shimizu (director of the original "Ju-on") agreed to helm the Americanized remake, and he was joined by Takako Fuji, the woman behind creepy-as-heck ghost Kayako.

Speaking to IGN, Fuji admitted that the difference in budgets was stark. "The Hollywood remake obviously is a bigger production," she said. "We were able to build the sets and everything, where we can do more stuff. So contrary to Japanese production, we have to use existing houses and we are not allowed to use different equipment and stuff, so we have to use whatever is available to us." Alas, the reboot proved far less popular with critics than the bare-bones original.

Fuji reprised the role of Kayako in 2006's "The Grudge 2" (the sixth time she would played the vengeful ghost), and while this installment was flat-out panned, the character still left a mark on the horror genre Stateside. "I feel that some of the reasons are because typical American ghosts are zombies and demons and stuff like that, but when it comes to the Japanese ghosts it's more like a grudge," Fuji explained. "People's feelings are into it. I think that's something new to America. I think that's maybe what makes it scary."

When Hollywood adapted Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" for western audiences, they swapped out Japan for the States and changed the name of the movie's obligatory creepy dead girl from Sadako to Samara. A young Daveigh Chase (who also grew up to be gorgeous) played Samara in 2002's "The Ring" and appeared in 2005's "The Ring Two" via archive footage, but the majorly creepy stuff in the sequel was done by contortionist Bonnie Morgan.

The studio initially intended to use special effects for some key Samara scenes, but the stunt coordinator was a friend of Morgan's and suggested they use her instead. "[They] contacted me to see if I could create an iconic movement from my contortionist background that would look really special and really different," Morgan told Bloody Disgusting. "Real is always more scary. The spider walk originated on my living room floor, and we shot some footage of it, and the director could not have been more excited with the result."

The work Morgan did on "The Ring Two" led to her getting the part full-time when an unexpected sequel was green-lit years later. A decade had passed since the last movie, and Morgan had almost given up any hope of reprising the role of Samara, but she was back at her bendy best in 2017's "Rings." The redhead told Daily Dead in 2017 that she would be up for a fourth installment.

He had zero lines, but Paul T. Taylor was still thrilled to make his big screen debut in Robert Rodriguez's neo-noir classic "Sin City" in 2005. More bit parts followed, but Taylor was forced to put his career — and life — on hold after he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C.

The disease became hard to deal with, and Taylor became depressed. "I had stopped enjoying the business," he told Bloody Disgusting. "I had started just being a hermit, staying home. Just eating pizza while watching movies, and that was my life." Suicidal thoughts began to cross his mind, but a new drug for the treatment of Hepatitis C helped Taylor recover. He started auditioning again, and one day he received a script simply titled "Judgement." Being a "Hellraiser" fan, Taylor saw through the ruse.

"They were keeping it a secret then that it was a 'Hellraiser' movie," the actor said. "The first line I read, I said, 'This is a "Hellraiser" movie.' I knew it, because I'm already well versed in the language of 'Hellraiser.' I'm a huge fan." Taylor was offered the role of Pinhead after the legendary Doug Bradley refused to reprise the role.

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Sheri Moon Zombie and her rocker/filmmaker husband Rob Zombie have collaborated on a handful of horror movies over the years, the first of which was 2003's "House of 1000 Corpses." This shameless throwback to the exploitation films of the 1970s was truly disturbing (once you've seen "Office" star Rainn Wilson as Fishboy, you can't unsee it), but Sheri Moon stole the show as the crazed Baby Firefly. She reprised the role in 2005's "The Devil's Rejects." In that one, the actor essentially played a psychotic, murderous version of herself, so there wasn't much of a physical transformation needed, but that wasn't the case when the married couple worked together on 2012's "The Lords of Salem."

Sheri Moon stars as a recovering drug addict who falls under the influence of the devil after becoming involved with a coven of witches. For the role, she agreed to have her hair in dreadlocks and sit through the application of several fake tattoos, not to mention that intricate face paint. "Some days it was two hours and some days it was three," she told Media Mikes. "The tattoos would last for a couple of days ... it definitely was a process!"

Speaking of sequels coming out of the blue, "Jeepers Creepers 3" arrived in 2017, set between the first movie (2001) and the second one (2003). The original "Jeepers Creepers" divided critical opinion upon release but quickly gained a cult following, with the eponymous Creeper catching the imagination of horror fans. According to the man underneath the makeup, the entire transformation took between three and five hours.

"By the time they're done, I am somebody else ... so it's a lot easier for me to just get into the character," Jonathan Breck said. The only part of himself that Breck can see when he looks in the mirror are his eyes, but he's far from uncomfortable in the Creeper get-up. "The suit is cast exactly like my body so it feels like a second skin. When I look in the mirror and I'm bulked up three times the size I normally am, you just feel like there's nothing you can't do. It's like a magic cape that you put on, and instantly you become the Creeper."

Speaking with IGN about the third (but not final) movie in the series, Breck revealed that he did a lot of his own stunt work on "Jeepers Creepers 3" to help save money. "I really had to lace up my bootstraps and do a lot of these myself," the actor explained.

Billed as the darkest chapter in the "Conjuring" universe — which includes the "Annabelle" franchise as well as the "Conjuring" movies — "The Nun" caused a lot of hype. But the film ultimately failed to impress, scoring a disappointing 24% on Rotten Tomatoes – one of the lowest score of any in the "Conjuring" universe.

But according to actor Taissa Farmiga, the title character was plenty scary. The leading lady revealed that the gorgeous actor who played The Nun, Bonnie Aarons, would go out of her way to scare her between takes, often sneaking up behind her in the terrifying nun get-up worn by her character, the demon Valak.

Aarons had a blast on set, telling Coma Music Magazine, "Shooting the movie was a whole lot of fun, I love to entertain people and the demon nun has delivered quite a thrill." Making Aarons (who describes herself as "gregarious, glamorous and gory") look that scary didn't take as long as you might imagine. "I am not wearing that much makeup, it was strategically painted on," she said. "It took about one and a half hours. I wore a whole lot more makeup in the other films I have done."

Like many actors who portray fantastical horror villains, David Howard Thornton is unrecognizable from his character Art the Clown in the "Terrifier" franchise. It's not just a physical disparity, though — the genuinely sweet and funny actor also couldn't be more emotionally different from the malicious, sadistic clown he so expertly embodies. He even worries about whether his violent on-screen antics will upset or traumatize any viewers. "I'm always more worried about the people that watch my films," Thornton told The Hollywood Reporter. "Are they okay?" That's certainly sensible, considering "Terrifier" and its sequels contain some of the most sickening gore in film history, which makes Thornton's kind demeanor all the more ironic.

"Terrifier" was actually the first film that Thornton auditioned for, and his agent warned him against it at the time. "She was like, 'This is such a low-budget independent film. You really don't need to do stuff like this,'" he told The Hollywood Reporter. "And I was like, 'Well, I want to get experience in front of the camera, and this could be something I can add to a reel one day. I just want this experience.'"

The actor had no idea how popular the film, and especially its sequels, would become, and was still waiting tables in New York when the first film was more-widely released in 2018. "I had no idea this was going to be the defining role of my career so far," Thornton said. "You never really know."

Many contortionists find themselves portraying creepy characters in horror movies, but, behind the makeup, their actors can be absolutely gorgeous. This includes actor Marina Mazepa, whose beauty was completely obfuscated by the talented makeup artists behind the acclaimed 2021 horror film, "Malignant." Mazepa gained recognition after contorting her way into becoming a semi-finalist on "America's Got Talent," which is how "Malignant" director James Wan discovered her.

Wan cast Mazepa as the villain, Gabriel, and filmed her in reverse to perfectly capture the disturbing movements and martial arts skills of the character. "She's absolutely incredible," Wan told Slash Film. "She blew us away the first time we met her, because it just wouldn't have been possible without somebody that actually has this body capacity. There's not a lot of CGI when it comes to her movement, to Gabriel's movements. That's real. The fight scenes, the stabbings — all of that is real, and it's done backwards."

While Mazepa's skills were also put to the test in the films "The Unholy" and "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City," she told Young Entertainment that "Malignant" was her most challenging role to date. "Because of the demands of my costume, 'Malignant' was the hardest and craziest performance to give," she explained. Like many charming actors who portray terrifying villains, Mazepa is nothing like her characters and was even a bit of a scaredy-cat before seeing how the sausage is made. "Now horror movies don't scare me anymore because I know how fun it is to film them," she told Young Entertainment.

It was quite a bold choice for "The Second Most Beautiful Girl in New York," as a 2008 headline in the Observer termed actor Jamie Clayton, to take on the infamous "Hellraiser" character, Pinhead, in the 2022 remake. After all, she was a gorgeous model, and Pinhead was a bald, flayed demon with a penchant for acupuncture. Nonetheless, she managed to make the character her own despite Pinhead being most famously portrayed by Doug Bradley (and later Stephan Smith Collins and Paul T. Taylor).

"Seeing what she was doing with the character and the drop-in moments and the way she would lose herself was utterly fearless," director David Bruckner told TheWrap. "There was a transfixing quality to the way she would play with the words ... She found sensuality in the character and I think a curiosity that I do think differentiates it a bit from Doug's performance. She's got a silky quality."

"I was trying to bring a bit of that sexiness to this," Clayton explained to TheWrap, something she completely accomplished. "I mean, of course to fill Doug's shoes would be impossible ... So I wouldn't try to emulate his performance in any way, shape or form. I really wanted to make it my own." That she did, with reviewers praising her reimagining of the character regardless of how they felt about the "Hellraiser" remake. Clayton told TheWrap that she would be interested in filming a sequel, so horror fans have their fingers crossed.

Michael Myers, the seemingly invincible villain of the "Halloween" film franchise, is one of the most anonymous killers in horror history, never speaking and always wearing that pale mask with a blank expression. This makes it difficult character for an actor to shine through and be noticed as the character.

Of the six actors who have portrayed Myers — including the gorgeous actor who has played Michael Myers since the 2018 reboot – Tyler Mane (of 2007's "Halloween" and its 2009 sequel) is arguably the only one to make a noticeable and identifiable impression. That's thanks to the willingness of director Rob Zombie and Mane (who previously worked together in 2005's "The Devil's Rejects") to experiment with the character, giving him a more tortured psychological reality and even different masks. As a former wrestler, Mane's hulking physicality was a definite boon, even if he couldn't utilize his gorgeous visage for the role of Michael Myers.

Nonetheless, Myers still presented a bigger acting challenge for Mane than any of his other performances. "The one thing I was concerned about most was Michael Myers because you do have no dialogue," Mane told Media Mikes when asked what his most difficult role had been. "I wanted to get it right because the fan following for 'Halloween' is just insane. I wanted to also make sure I brought what I need to the role. But I also wanted to give Michael Myers the depth and humanity that I think he deserves. He is not just a one-dimensional character."

Kevin Peter Hall was born to play physically intimidating characters, reaching a height of over 7 feet tall. Instead of just portraying monsters and villains, though, Hall was more versatile, as evidenced by two of his films that were released within one week of each other in 1987 — "Harry and the Hendersons" and "Predator." While Hall was more akin to his gentle giant Sasquatch character in the former film, he's arguably more famous for his performance as the alien with invisibility technology in the latter. The character was originally portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme, but after the Muscles from Brussels left "Predator," Hall quickly came in and mastered the titular character.

Playing the eponymous extraterrestrial in "Predator" and other characters was soothing for Hall, who, despite his handsomeness, was unconfident about his appearance. "I was really physically insecure because I stood out so much. Acting was very therapeutic. I got to be all different people," Hall opened up to Ebony magazine one year after portraying the Predator.

Hall didn't mind hiding behind makeup and prosthetics and had a wonderful attitude about his career. "I could be called the Robert Redford of the monster squad. I've never played the leading man, the dull part," Hall explained to Ebony. "I think the villain is always the best part. Not only does it pay the bills, but they're fun characters." Sadly, the actor was in a car accident in 1990 and received a blood transfusion that gave him AIDS, tragically dying one year later.