A story is only as good as its villain, and the 21st century is chock full of them. Climate change. Economic downturns. Ethically dubious AI. There’s no shortage of real-life horrors crawling out of the 24-hour news cycle. And because art imitates life, the anxieties of the modern era have given rise to some of the freakiest bad guys in cinema history. Subterranean terrors, UFO nightmares, and a certain dancing clown elevated to the Internet Meme Hall of Fame—cover your ears and shut your eyes, these are the scariest horror movie villains of the 21st century.
