Stephen King's novels, and adaptations of them, often delve into the themes of bullying, family issues, and abuse of power. In many of his books, human nature is portrayed as twisted and terrifying, as some people use their power for evil. While many of Stephen King's villains are supernatural in origin, it is worth remembering that humans can be just as cold and ruthless.
Stephen King and the various writers that have adapted his books have a knack for making even the most human of characters into terrifying monsters on par with It, Christine, and Cujo.
10 Margaret White - Carrie
Brian De Palma's Carrie was one of the great Stephen King adaptations, showcasing Margaret in all her delusional glory. Margaret is Carrie's mother and is overly fanatic about her religion. She is creepy, zealous, and incredibly abusive towards Carrie.
Depending on the adaptation, Margaret either hates Carrie for committing the sin of being a woman or loves Carrie and wants to protect her. In the 1976 version, Margaret is straight-up abusive towards her daughter, locking her in a "prayer closet" to atone for her sins, and chasing her around the house with a knife after proclaiming her daughter a witch.
9 Jack Torrance - The Shining
Driven mad by the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel, Jack is persuaded to kill his family. Jack is much more aggressive in the film than in the novel, killing Halloran the cook and chasing his son into a hedge maze. Jack is deranged and has one of the most iconic lines in film history when he chops down a door to try and kill his wife: "here's Johnny!"
Stephen King famously disliked the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation and has insisted that Jack Torrence is actually a sympathetic figure. However, Jack Nicholson's incredible portrayal of the character more than sells the genuine terror of being trapped in a house with a madman.
8 Henry Bowers - It Chapter One & Two
The secondary antagonist of the It movies, Henry Bowers is homophobic and a genuine threat to the lives of the Losers Club. Henry adapted his behaviors from his violent father, but his pure delight at serving It and terrorizing the Losers Club was all his own doing. Henry's terrifying nature is brought out by the various actors that play him, bringing convincing insanity to the role.
As a young man, Henry tries to carve his initials into Ben's stomach with a knife, then later murders his father. As an adult, he stalks the Losers Club throughout Derry to prevent them from finding It. Henry's gang members also don't make it out of the films alive as repercussions for their terrible deeds.
7 Frank Dodd - The Dead Zone
Frank Dodd is a deputy sheriff and is responsible for the murder-rapes of several women, becoming known as the Castle Rock Strangler. He is highly unstable and completely unempathetic, having taken a nine-year-old girl as one of his victims. He uses his position in the police force to go undetected and keep an eye on the investigation into his murders.
Frank's death scene in The Dead Zone (1983) is haunting, directed by body horror expert David Cronenberg. Frank puts his hands behind his head almost casually, then leans forward and impales himself on a pair of scissors. His unaffected demeanor and the image of his twitching body in a bathtub are genuinely chilling. It is implied in the books that Frank's spirit possessed the dog Cujo.
6 Percy Wetmore - The Green Mile
Percy is an officer at the prison in The Green Mile who enjoys enacting psychological and physical abuse on the inmates. Percy is a massive coward that abuses his power and enjoys watching death row inmates get electrocuted. He attempts to kill the mouse Mr. Jingles on multiple occasions and poses a real threat to those around him when he conquers his cowardice and acts with malice.
Percy is in a position of power, which should terrify the audience to know that a person of such cruelty could be put in such a role. He deliberately sabotages one of the inmate's executions to be particularly painful, delighting in their anguish, and wants to be a prison guard solely to feed his desire for sadism.
5 The Gladiators - The Running Man
The Running Man is a very loose adaptation of the Stephen King novel, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as helicopter pilot Ben Richards who finds himself the star of a TV show that tries to kill its contestants. The Running Man will get a new adaptation directed by Edgar Wright, although a release date is as yet unknown.
In the original book, the enemy is surveillance and the police state, and there are themes of that in this film with its dystopian setting. The paid assassins that stalk the game show contestants are ruthless despite their rather ridiculous costumes, and the host of the whole thing, Damon Killian, is a terrifyingly conniving man that hides the true horror of the show under a charming exterior.
4 Big Jim Rennie - Under the Dome
Although Stephen King, according to ScreenRant, famously disliked the adaptation of Under the Dome, saying it "went off the rails" as it went along, the main antagonist of the first two seasons is portrayed brilliantly by Breaking Bad's Dean Norris. Jim is a friendly person in public as the only remaining councilman in the town. But, in private, he is ruthless and hostile, showing a darker side of himself.
Jim is not afraid to hit his own son, who has stated that Jim hit him with a belt as a child. Jim sucker-punches his son for talking back, causing his nose to bleed. Jim uses the dome as an excuse to rule the town, expanding on one of Stephen King's most terrifying themes of control.
3 Isaac Chroner - Children Of The Corn
12-year-old Isaac corrupts the children of a town ruled by religion, turning the children into cult followers of a bloodthirsty deity named He Who Walks Behind The Rows. The children sacrifice everyone over 19 years old to the deity, eventually killing their entire town.
The chilling premise of the short story and subsequent film franchise have fascinated fans for decades. The scariest part of these villains is the idea that innocent children can be corrupted, especially by cruel adults or fundamentalism, which is a big theme of the 1984 film.
2 Samuel Norton - The Shawshank Redemption
The corrupt warden of Shawshank Penitentiary threatens and steals his way through life, coming up with scams and money laundering tactics and refusing to let the protagonist Andy go free so that he can keep up his frauds. He abuses his power, threatens to take everything away from Andy, and has prisoners eliminated to keep them silent.
While not physically threatening, it is the corrupt wielding of power that makes this villain so scary. The character who got away with the most evil acts in Shawshank Redemption, Norton is a comment on how power can go to someone's head and the corruption buried deep in some institutions.
1 Annie Wilkes - Misery
Annie is one of the most perfect Stephen King villains in horror history, a cunning and malicious nurse that becomes obsessed with the writer Paul Sheldon. The iconic performance in the film earned Kathy Bates an Academy Award for Best Actress, and it is easy to see why, as Bates hides Annie's vicious nature behind a cheerful demeanor.
Annie perfectly encapsulates how terrifying it is to be at someone else's mercy, forced to comply with their demands. She is a serial killer with murders dating back to her youth, and, from the moment she steps on-screen, Annie has complete command of both Paul and the audience.
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