In the realm of the horror film, if the villain doesn’t have massive claws and teeth, then they’re going to need some serious hardware to do their killing. This is a list of some of the most memorable killing implements in horror movie history.
Michael Myers – Kitchen Knife
Let’s get the obvious entries out the way first. While the Halloween costume wearing psychopath has dispatched a whole horde of hormonal teens and donut munching deputies in a number of creative ways, he’s a slasher at heart. His weapon of choice is a broad bladed kitchen knife, often shown on movie posters and DVD covers. He’s mostly fond of deep and violent stabbing as opposed to messy slashing like so many others in the genre.
It’s sort of amazing that he’s managed to endure for so long with such a simplistic signature weapon (not that it’s the only thing he uses), but it’s probably more the unnerving Halloween costume he’s wearing that makes him so memorable. That boiler-suit and William Shatner mask combo is just creepy.
Jason Vorhees – Machete
Jason is one of those love them/hate them villains, he’s had a lot of changes and ret-conning done to his background, going from corpse to mentally damaged drowning survivor and then to supernatural serial killer wolverine with a machete…. and finally a frickin’ cyborg. There are pretty much two regular features to this killer. One, he wears a hockey mask (okay that’s a lie because that starts in the third film), and two, his signature weapon is the machete. It’s not that he even needs the thing in later films as he’s shown as freakishly strong (seriously at one point he punches a guy’s head clean off), he just seems to like them and frankly he wouldn’t be the same without one.
Freddy Krueger – The Glove
This is the first weapon to actually have some sort of originality to it in the list. Freddy’s glove was his own personal creation. It’s a custom made prop based on a quirky kitchen knife design that was turned upside down and blunted and re-sharpened on the other side. The original had a rough, homemade look to it, a device of leather and metal, wielded by a brutal child killer. Let’s face it, he’s still pretty recognisable with just the burnt face and the red and green jumper, but he’s just not the same without the razor glove.
With Freddy’s supernatural powers, the already unique weapon was used for some surreal and creative kills, certainly a lot more entertaining than someone walking very slowly up to you and just stabbing you.
Leatherface – Chainsaw
Considering that this weapon is literally part of the title of the film it’s from, it’s pretty hard to leave it off the list. The simple fact is that despite the brutality and violence of the hulking Leatherface, he just wouldn’t be as scary without his chainsaw. It’s as much a part of his outfit as the bloody apron and the mask made of human flesh. The chainsaw itself doesn’t really get a lot of kills throughout the films, most of the victims get shot, stabbed and impaled rather than being chewed up with a chainsaw.
The Tall Man – Spheres
Technically it could be more accurate to call them villains in their own right but these little Swiss-army murder balls work at the behest of the tall man of the Phantasm series, regardless of containing the brains of his victims. The spheres are both ridiculous and insanely cool as far as horror weaponry goes, whizzing around and plunging into the skulls of their targets with an array of sharp, pointy (and often motorised) weaponry.
Pinhead – Hooks & Chains
Like Freddy, Pinhead has taken something horribly simple and given it a supernatural twist. His favourite method of killing his victims was to summon a swarm of hooks attached to chains and subsequently dig them into the person’s flesh from all angles. These chains slowly pull until the victim is pulled apart in a frankly unbelievable shower of gore.
The Candy Man – Hook Hand
The Candy Man is one of those villains you can sort of sympathise with, before he turned into a vicious murderer he was coated in honey and left out to be stung to death by bees. Despite this he’s way beyond vengeance killing and comes back to claim anyone who says his name and pretty much anyone else that gets in the way as well.
The bulk of his kills are brutal, slow and involve the nasty looking hook he has instead of a hand. There are also the bees… for some reason being unjustly killed by bees gives you the miraculous power of being able to unjustly kill other people with bees.
Someone give me some really good horror movie recs? Nothing rapeish please.
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