If you buy a ticket to a horror film, especially one that is a member of an enduring cinematic saga, you’re going in expecting some characters to not make it to the final credit scroll. That is the agreement, you buy a ticket and you see some characters depart the narrative in a gruesome way. That’s not really a part of elevated horror, as it were, but when it comes to the classic Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises it’s a requirement, just as it is with the more modern Terrifier. So, of all those franchise’s antagonists, which one has done their thing the most frequently?
That’s what we’re looking at today. Is your favorite horror killer at the top? However, apologies to the Saw fans of he world, because we didn’t include Jigsaw. That franchise is filled with instances of one character in a trap killing the other person. So, who gets the credit for the kill, John Kramer (or the subsequent Jigsaws) or the actual murderer?
10) Art the Clown — 51
image courtesy of cineverse
The most recent addition to this list of bonafide horror/slasher movie icons, Art the Clown has managed to make the list based solely on three mainline films, All Hallows’ Eve, and his 2011 short film. Let’s start with All Hallows’ Eve, while acknowledging that he shares several of his nine kills with The Pig Man, The Bird Man, and some cultists.
Then, between the short film and the 2016 feature length take, Art added 11 to his tally. Terrifier 2, while extremely bloody, “only” has nine kills, while Terrifier 3 upped the cont considerably with 22 more (with Victoria’s help on a few of them).
9) Ghostface — 55
Paramount
Again, Ghostface is a series of people. However, the costume is so iconic, as is the franchise as a whole because of it, we’re going to count Ghostface as a single horror cinema entity.
With that said, the original trilogy gave Ghostface a total kill count of 23, including Maureen Prescott. Then, not counting the two false openings, Scream 4 raised that to 32. After the two Radio Silence movies, that went up to 48, which is now 55 after Scream 7.
8) Leprechaun — 57
image courtesy of trimark pictures
The Leprechaun movies were never meant to be taken seriously. In fact, the six Warwick Davis movies (aka the ones that have at least one reason to watch them), are arguably more comedy than horror. However, he still got plenty of kills.
Throughout the first four movies, the Leprechaun found himself 24 victims to crack one-liners at. Then, throughout the two Hood movies, he found another 20. The reboot Leprechaun: Origins added another seven and Leprechaun Returns (which at least had a Leprechaun that looked like a Leprechaun) brought six to the table. All in all, the little mischief maker has ended 57 lives.
7) Candyman — 57
image courtesy of tristar pictures
The original Candyman is more psychological horror than slasher. And, to their credit, the sequels and reboot at least tried to hold onto that, even if never quite as effectively.
Before the events of the first film, all of those who lynched Daniel Robitaille met their ends. That makes for 18 right there. He also killed five others before meeting Helen Lyle, so make that 23. Then, throughout movie one, that figure went up to 29. After Candman: Farewell to the Flesh, the number was bumped to 38. Then Candyman 3: Day of the Dead, the last of the Tony Todd movies, took it to 44. Lastly, the reboot gave him 13 more, making it a grand total of 57.
6) Leatherface — 63
image courtesy of bryanston distributing company
There has been a total of nine Leatherface movies. There were the first four, the two Platinum Dunes movies, Texas Chainsaw 3D, Leatherface, and Texas Chainsaw. And like with other entries on this list, more are on their way at some point. The first movie saw Leatherface kill a slim (for these types of movies) four people. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 then added an even smaller three to his total. Then, believe it or not, that number was decreased to two for Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, at least as far as the title character went. In keeping with this trend, Leatherface only killed Barry in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. That makes for a total of 10 Leatherface kills throughout four movies. Very modest compared to the competition.
Between the two Platinum Dunes movies, though, Leatherface caused the deaths of or killed 14 people (including Andy, who was mercy killed by Erin, but Leatherface already impaled him and sliced off his leg, so we’re counting it). Leatherface then gave Leatherface (or, rather, Jedidiah) five, while Texas Chainsaw 3D added eight (including Nikki, who is technically killed by Officer Marvin but wouldn’t in that position without Leatherface) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre added 10. However, if you add the contributions of other Sawyer family members, the number is raised by 16. This is including the second film’s Lefty Enright, who is killed by Drayton Sawyer’s grenade. So, in short, the Sawyer clan in whole has murdered 63 folks.
5) Victor Crowley — 68
image courtesy of anchor bay entertainment
One of the more modern horror movie killers, Victor Crowley of Hatchet managed to build up quite a tally throughout four movies. In the first movie he ripped apart nine people. In Hatchet II, he upped that to 16, including a few flashback kills. He then added a substantial 29 in Hatchet III and got a lower 14 in Victor Crowley.
4) Freddy Krueger — 85
Image courtesy of New Line Cinema
Like with Candyman and, we’ll get to him in a bit, Chucky, Freddy Krueger is another case of there being multiple iterations of a character. In this case, the Freddy we know and fear, New Nightmare‘s Entity, and the Platinum Dunes version (the latter also applies to Leatherface and Jason, who we’ll also get to in a bit).
First off, the premiere episode of Freddy’s Nightmares mentioned that more or less 20 kids were killed by Freddy Krueger pre-dream demon phase. There were other Freddy-focused episodes of that show, but the debut episode is the only one that is widely regarded as true canon. Then, from the original film to Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, you can add another 46 to that, including those souls are seen on Krueger’s tummy. Then, in New Nightmare, the Entity killed four. Jason had most of the fun in Freddy vs. Jason, but we still either hear about or see Freddy killing three people, not counting the camp counselor in Lori’s nightmare. Lastly, before the events of the 2010 film, Krueger kills eight people. Then, during the film, he kills four. So, the grand total is 85.
3) Michael Myers — 184
image courtesy of compass international pictures
Technically, Leatherface has the longest-running franchise here, but Michael Myers has the most installments. However, he wasn’t in Halloween III: Season of the Witch, so he really only gets twelve of the thirteen movies counting towards his total. That includes five of the first six movies (featuring multiple timelines), the two post-Scream movies, the two Rob Zombie movies, and the David Gordon Green trilogy.
Halloween and Halloween II had a total of 14. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers to Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers added 41. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and Halloween: Resurrection added a further 17 including the paramedic who Laurie beheads thinking it’s Michael. Dumb as it is, we have to count it because Resurrection, unfortunately, exists. Zombie’s movies added 43, which is massive for just two movies. Lastly, the Green trilogy added 69, including those carried out by Corey Cunningham in Halloween Ends. We counted his since there’s an argument to be made it’s Michael acting through him.
2) Jason Voorhees — 191
image courtesy of paramount pictures
We’ve made some exceptions throughout this list. For instance, Candyman wasn’t always Daniel Robitaille and Corey Cunningham isn’t Michael Myers, but he’s basically Michael Myers. However, we’re going to end that with Jason in one case out of three. In the original film, Mrs. Voorhees kills people, not Jason. Those don’t count. In Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Roy Burns kills people, but he’s dressed as Jason, so close enough. Furthermore, the possessed killers in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday are literal extensions of Jason, so those count even more than Roy’s.
With that said, let’s unpack the movies. In Friday the 13th Part 2, Jason debuts with nine kills (not counting Paul, because who knows what happened to him). Friday the 13th Part III raised that to 21, which was then brought up to 34 in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The aforementioned A New Beginning added a substantial 19, not including the two in the opening dream sequence. That’s 53. the sixth film took it to 71, the seventh to 86, and the eighth to 106, not counting all those who disappeared midway through the movie and apparently just drowned on the sinking ship. Jason Goes to Hell increased it by 22 and Jason X brought 23 to the table, not including the two virtual campers and those thousands of people on the Solaris space station. In Freddy vs. Jason, he killed 19 people outside dream sequences and, finally, Platinum Dunes Jason killed 13 individuals. That makes for a total of 183. However, “Sweet Revenge” counts, too. That brings us up to 191.
1) Chucky (& Tiffany) — 195
image courtesy of universal pictures
Chucky’s cinematic career has had its ups and downs, but there is no slasher icon who has found himself benefitting from reboots more. After the initial trilogy we got his meta era with Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky, then a pair of straightforward direct to video sequels in Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, an ill-advised but not devoid of merit reimagining, and three seasons of a TV series.
Because Chucky is just Charles Lee Ray in doll form, we’re going to go ahead and count the human version’s 35 kills, all of which were shown in the TV series. Then, throughout the original trilogy, he put another 19 under his belt, throughout Bride and Seed he and Tiffany either caused the deaths of or outright killed 21 more, then there were 18 between Curse and Cult, nine in the remake (including those who were killed by Buddi drones), 20 in Season 1 of the show, 21 in Season 2, and a whopping 52 in Season 3. That makes for a grand total of 195 between Chucky and Tiffany’s human and doll forms.
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