Creepy Awesome

We're gonna play fetch. You're the frisbee.

"Awesome! I mean it's disturbing but it's awesome."

— Po, Kung Fu Panda 4

A character who, despite (or precisely because of) being Nightmare Fuel, is also greatly loved by a series' fandom. This can have a variety of reasons. Maybe the character is simply the biggest badass in the show, or maybe they have a cute, funny or tragic side in addition to their creepy side that endears the character to the fans. The character in question need not be a villain, though a majority of characters this trope applies to are villains or at least antagonists of some sort.

This sometimes results in Misaimed Fandom and Draco in Leather Pants. Note that while these characters are often Nightmare Fuel incarnate, their appeal to non-Nightmare Fetishists is often due to being more appealing (e.g., Magnificent Bastard, The Woobie, etc.) than creepy. May or may not overlap with Creepy Good. Love to Hate runs on a similar principle, and given that many examples of creepy characters tend to also be evil, the two tropes can easily overlap.

Also, characters that remain stoic throughout the entirety of a show's story automatically qualify here due to lack of emotions, interest or involvement naturally these characters sprout up mystery and uncertainty. At worst these characters are downright terrifying once they finally decided to get involved with the cast, due to lack of understanding the cast would assume these characters are either dangerous, untrustworthy or non-human. It is common for the less intelligent characters, to foolishly meddle with these characters, something they often regret eventually once the latter reveals how emotionlessly twisted they really are.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The Burger King, who indeed was created to invoke this along with Refuge in Audacity.

Anime & Manga

• Attack on Titan:
  • Annie Leonhardt is notably among the many who qualify for this trope. At first she remains calm, level-headed and completely sane. But when she finally cracks you'll be in shock at how twisted she really is deep down.
  • Mikasa Ackerman is a heroic example, for someone who can put up with a character like Eren. Mikasa strives to protect all those she cares about, bullies would be wise not to mess with her and Titans aren't safe either.
  • The Titans themselves also qualify, especially the almighty Colossal Titan.
• Azumanga Daioh: Possibly Mr. Kimura, definitely Chiyo-chichi. And Osaka, if only for the infamous Knife Incident.
• The Rail Tracer, Claire Stanfield of Baccano!.
  • Ladd Russo as well. Sure, he's an Ax-Crazy hitman who doesn't hesitate to headshot ten-year-olds, kill his own allies, or use his victims' bodies to practice ventriloquy, but the guy is just so damn goofy and enthusiastic while doing his thing that it's tough to hold it against him. It also helps that he's one of the few Badass Normals in a series filled with superpowered immortals, and spends most of his time killing other villains and antagonists.
• In Battle Royale, Kiriyama being an emotionless killer doesn't stop fans from liking him.
• Griffith/Femto from Berserk. Even as a normal human, Griffith is a narcissist willing to go to any means to achieve his dream. His stoicism and ruthlessness make him a force to be reckoned with. He successfully manages to wipe out countless foes, achieve nigh-impossible military victories, somehow managing to combine his child-like demeanour with a bone-chilling, eerie aura whenever he sets his eyes on a target. He gets outright nightmarish when he reincarnates.
• Black Butler has Grell, Undertaker, and, in the second season of the anime, Alois.
• Zenon Zogratis from Black Clover is cold, merciless, and his magic has him sprout sharp bones from his body to impale enemies. He's liked by many fans for being a no-nonsense, threatening villain.
  • Zagred, a.k.a. the Word Devil. There's his unsettling, creepy design and uttering of Black Speech to summon eldritch monsters from the underworld, making him a powerful foe fitting for the climactic villain of the elf saga and the introduction of devils as antagonists to the story.
• Black Lagoon:
  • Hansel and Gretel, despite being deranged killers, are also loved by a good portion of this series' fandom who sympathize with them because of their seriously messed-up childhood. They can also be quite cute at times.
  • Sawyer the cleaner. A young woman who needs a electrovoice after having her voice box cut out and works as one-woman Cleanup Crew, using her trusty chainsaw to make unwanted bodies easier to hide by cutting them into pieces ...bodies who aren't necessarily dead when they are brought to her. She also has worked as a hired gun a few times, proving quite adept at using her chainsaw in close combat.
  • Even the cruellest, arrogant and most violent of criminals would be wise to fear, Roberta. Behind those lovely glasses and hair, hides a perpetual death glare that's only the first of many horrors she's capable of.
• Bleach:
  • Mayuri, to a portion of fans.
  • For all his high talk, Ulquiorra wants to be appreciated as such (and maybe even as a Magnificent Bastard, with his Nietzsche Wannabe Breaking Lecture attempts), transforming specifically to creep Ichigo out in a hopefully awesome way. He's surprised Ichigo doesn't buy it (while not buying a lot of other shit he spills).
  • Hollow Ichigo V2 "Ressurection". Devil horns? Devil look? Still awesome, even in previous versions.
  • And at least during the Rescue Rukia/Soul Society arc, Kenpachi. He kinda moved out of this category after becoming one of the good guys and instead was simply classified as having Success Through Insanity instead.
  • Unohana of all people has become this after the release of Chapter 523.
• Deepa from Boruto. Deepa, despite being just an anime creation, he was well received for how creepy he was, from looks to abilities, sociopathic personality, and twisted sense of humor. Some fans even cheered up for him when he Curb Stomp Battled Sarada, Mitsuki and Boruto.
• Cowboy Bebop has Vincent Volaju and Tongpu (AKA Mad Pierrot).
• The Millennium Earl and his Noah Famliy in D.Gray-Man. Variously sexy, cool, and Affably Evil, yes, but also scary as hell.
• Death Note:
  • Ryuk is a shinigami that looks like a combination between a corpse, a scarecrow and a heavy-metal music fan, who passes out artifacts of doom to humans he thinks will be entertaining.
  • Teru Mikami has some great moments. Killing Demegawa and his cohorts in the anime is accompanied by writing even more epic than Light's. The eagle sound effects and flashing multicolored lights aren't the things that make the scene; that smile of his, however, is.
• Many characters from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba could easily qualify here. The series itself is an action-filled horror, but many would agree that Muzan Kibutsuji is a much greater level of terrifying. When the monstrous, bloodthirsty Demons themselves say they fear this guy? That alone is enough to make, even Hashira-level swordsmen reconsider their actions.
  • Shinobu Kocho definitely qualifies as a heroic example. She's generally nice and pleasant, but has a certain Dissonant Serenity attitude towards about everything (later revealed to be because of the death of her sister) and even acts cheerful towards demons, right before brutally killing them with poison.
• Kazutaka Muraki from Descendants of Darkness.
• The D-Reaper from Digimon Tamers. The creepy part is self-explanatory, the awesome part is that it came the closest to its goals and it's likely the most powerful ...thing in the Digimon franchise.
• Freeza, Cell and Majin Buu of Dragon Ball Z.
• Three from DragonBall Super:
  • Goku Black, who can seemingly turn into a dragon-like shadow creature with red eyes who patrols the skies looking for people to kill. From the ground, he looks like bolt of yellow lightning that can strike at anytime and when he does descends, it's like a tornado making landfall. Goku Black is closer to an Eldritch Abomination than an actual person. Him laughing gleefully when Future Trunks punched him in the gut only reinforced the creepy factor.
  • Trunks' transformation in Episode 61, caused by a supreme Rage Breaking Point, involves him gaining pure white eyes, a blue aura under his yellow aura, and his mere footsteps causing the earth to shake. It's as pants-shittingly terrifying as it is awesome, not unlike Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan (which it superficially resembles).
  • Fusion Zamasu after he he fused with the multiverse. In this form, he become an Eldritch Abomination of millions of floating laughing heads that spreads across the multiverse like a virus and became "justice itself". He even began to break the barrier between space and time since Beerus and Whis felt Fusion Zamasu's aura from their home world. He then proceeded to wipe out all life across the multiverse leaving only Goku, Vegeta, Future Trunks, Future Mai, Bulma, and the Supreme Kais alive. The only way to stop him was to summoned Future Zen'o who nuked the entire timeline, solidifying Fusion Zamasu as the most powerful villain in the franchise to date.
• Izaya of Durarara!!. He's manipulative and untrustworthy. He's also an expert manipulating a situation and skilled enough to take on Shizuo in a fight.
• In Elfen Lied Lucy and Mariko Kurama are utterly vicious, but that's why they're so effective.
  • The series itself is a messed up Crapsack World, that shows the potentially terrifying dangers of modern science, psychological horror and inhuman levels of ambition.
• Excel♡Saga: Possibly Little Miss Badass Cosette Sara, who initially appears to be an Enfant Terrible, but is something of a Jerkass Woobie who is older than she looks, and must hide her giant chest.
• Fairy Tail: Flare Corona is bluntly the most twisted and eerie female of the series. Though her range of creepy goes from stalking to sadistic cruelty and all done perfectly with creepy shadowed undereyes. However she isn't completely insane, deep down she's actually very shy and even apologizes for her acts (like she did to Lucy) not to mention she physically is very attractive and even cute (if you can endure her stare however).
  • Many fans would agree that their is always something off about, Minerva Orlando. Love her? or hate her? Minerva always has the looks of a scheming murderer despite the Oriental glamour. Sadly it gets worse, not only does she appear untrustworthy but her actions prove just the same if not worse.
• Ryuunosuke Uryu and his servant Caster in Fate/Zero. They see themselves and each other this way.
• The title character of Franken Fran. She does terrifying things, and is absolutely certain of being in the right. She's also cute, when her eyeballs aren't falling off...
• Envy, Kimblee, and Pride/Selim of Fullmetal Alchemist.
• The Count of Montecristo in Gankutsuou.
• Ryougi Shiki of The Garden of Sinners is a frighteningly efficient college-aged serial killer. She's also cute as hell.
• Puppet Master from Ghost in the Shell (1995) is an eerie disembodied torso of what appears to be a female android. Its voice though is male and discomfortingly cold (even for a machine). Puppet Master's logic is incredibly evolved, capable of free will and breaking down the very fabric of human existence into a comprehendible theory of data. But above all else, Puppet Master succeeds in being a villain that will truly make you think. Perhaps even debate if technology could really gain sentient life someday?
• Inugami "Wanko" Isuzu from Hayate × Blade first appears looking like a terrifying Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl with creepy supernatural powers who is stalking her future partner, Momo. Even after teaming up with Momo and getting a hairstyle change that reveals she was Beautiful All Along, she still remains a major Nightmare Fetishist who takes it as praise whenever Momo mentions how creepy her personality and supernatural abilities are.
• Hellsing's Alucard, due to being a serious badass, among other things, as the page image shows. Also, Jan Valentine.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Russia terrifies the other cast members and is beloved by the audience.
  • Russia's sister Belarus even more so. Russia is terrified of her.
  • England is this to a saner degree. It's mostly the reason why he hasn't got many friends.
• Jujutsu Kaisen a few examples:
  • Mahito has grotesque shapeshifting powers, a terrifying lack of concern for human life, and can turn you into a dying sack of flesh by simply touching you. These things combined with his great design, fun personality, and strong presence only make him more awesome.
  • The rest of the Disaster Curses have equally disturbing usages of their powers and monstrous appearances, making them very memorable antagonists.
• Ragyo Kiryuin of Kill la Kill has a strong streak of this trope in her personality. Pale as a cloud and hair like a rainbow, this sick and incestuous mother is the product of pride and lust for power. Her expressions are often...interesting to say the least when she has her way, eccentric in clothing complete with a Model's touch of glamour. Ragyo is definitely a despicable character but also amusing to watch, a sign of a good villainess for many.
• Kubera give us Yuta. Horror Hunger? Check. Scary-yet-sexy Shapeshift? Check. Super-Strength? Check. Cute as a button? Double-check. But, still... really, really has a dark side you do not want to cross, however much he keeps it in check — normally.
• Robo-Emperor and Mega-Emperor/Giganko from Medabots. Both are terrifying, super powerful and two of the most popular Medabots in the series.
• Paptimus Scirocco of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is a social predator and mind rapist with a penchant for seducing young girls and playing head games. Yet despite this — or perhaps because of it — he remains one of the most popular and well-liked villains in the franchise.
• Johan Liebert of Monster, best encapsulated in his first appearance as an adult.
• My Hero Academia:
  • The League of Villains in general are well-received if nightmarish villains. The particular standouts are Toga, a psychotic yandere who can go from cute to horrific in a second, Dabi, a highly intelligent pyrokinetic who frequently uses his power to awesome effect, and of course their leader Shigaraki, who evolves from a Psychopathic Manchild to a calculating Person of Mass Destruction, wielding a power that can turn people to ash with a touch.
    • Let's not forget All For One as well. He's dangerously forward-thinking, always having a plan up his sleeve to counter the Hero Society. All For One knows even he won't last forever, and how he plans to rectify this truth, is both amazing and downright diabolical. There is no limit, All For One would go to belittle his rival, All Might which is only one reason why he's so scary.
  • Overhaul is a Yakuza boss with the power to disassemble and reassemble things molecule by molecule, all with a cold and cruel demeanor.
  • Rikiya "Re-Destro" Yotsubashi of the Meta Liberation Army has this in spades. He has proven to be an unsettling, yet formidable opponent for the League, right down to his unsettling personality. From killing his own assistant to cutting off Giran's fingers, he's got it all. And we're not even talking about the way he and his MLA allies know of the League's whereabouts.
• Naruto:
  • Zetsu, Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Kabuto, Kisame, Shino, Orochimaru, Itachi (at times)...
  • Pain and Konan share a spot here. Pain himself demonstrated "that many hands make light work", in possibly the most cruellest and overpowering ways, his logic was twisted but actually made sense. Konan kept a straight face through every bit of evil the Akatsuki created, when it finally came to her time to fight alone, even Tobi feared he'd lose against her hidden talents and intimidation.
  • Madara Uchiha has this down to a tee. With all the power he is capable of, it's mostly his personality that freaks out the cast. One minute he's extremely calm and collected the next he's a pure killing machine with an impressive slasher smile.
  • The tailed beasts, especially the nine-tailed demon fox, Kurama. More apparent by making him and the others monstrous Jerkass Woobies.
  • The Ten-Tails. This thing is a monster that even Kurama is terrified of, and all he had to go by on it was what the Sage of Six Paths told him, but what his fears are completely justified.
  • Kaguya Otsutsuki makes a very truthful example here. It is no lie that mankind fear the unknown, and things they don't understand especially the past and theories of Aliens. With such an abnormally pale appearance (one that could give Albinos a run for their money) the goddess herself deliberately became this trope to bring about peace. However she herself became the villain, all because she wanted something soo badly, yet had to achieve the impossible for a chance to happen.
• Tsukuyomi of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Creepy as all hell, badass, strangely endearing and also a fan favorite.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Rei, and to a lesser extent Kaworu, were intended to be creepy and unsettling. They are the most widely loved characters in the series.
  • The Evangelions, particularly the iconic EVA-01 on both counts. They're an extremely dark, twisted and disturbing spin on the Super Robot concept, yet they look cool and have very impressive weaponry and fight scenes.
  • The Angels were always this, but Rebuild of Evangelion takes this even further. Ramiel is living geometry that performs mind-boggling transformations and screams when it attacks. "Clockiel" is a collossal pendulum on 100-storey-tall stilts with a clock for a face. Sahaquiel has multiple bizarre forms before it settles on a technicolour Giant Eye of Doom, and explodes into a titanic ocean of blood when it's killed. And then there's Zeruel...
• Nico Robin of One Piece. Her powers enable her to sprout out limbs and mutilate her opponents spines. This would just be Nightmare Fuel, if the opponents weren't such assholes. Then you have Brook, a tall and lanky re-animated skeleton who happens to be wicked fast with a Sword Cane, then after two years he adds Ghostly Chill to his arsenal, making him even more this trope than Robin.
• Ichijo of Pani Poni Dash!, who also has Success Through Insanity.
• Mewtwo from Pokémon: The First Movie. especially in the Japanese original where it's essentially a Psychopathic Manchild who's toying with everyone just to stoke its ego. It's often agreed that Mewtwo is the best antagonist of all the Pokémon movies, with its immense power, baritone, cool design, being an actual villainous Pokémon and having darker objectives compared to the other movie villains.
• Sakurako from Psyren. More to the point, the creepy part starts to show itself when her Superpowered Evil Side is revealed and she's pretty much always awesome in battle.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Kyubey is an odd example. He looks absolutely adorable but is a creepy amoral Hive Mind that steals young girls' souls and the fans love him for it. For a very loose definition of love.
  • All the witches, whose bizarre designs, elaborate barriers and tragic origins made them widespread fixtures in the fandom. Special mention goes to Walpurgisnacht, essentially a colossal flying clockwork clown fortress that's constantly Laughing Mad.
  • As of Rebellion, Homura Akemi adds herself to the list.
• Rosario + Vampire gradually starts throwing this trope around. Even Tsukune ends up becoming an example, gaining a monstrous Superpowered Evil Side that he can barely hold in check that cutting lose with it is a Godzilla Threshold.
• Two big ones from Samurai Deeper Kyo:
  • Kyo himself, at times. He's vicious, rarely shows anything resembling empathy (especially near the beginning), and his kills can be brutal. But he's also a badass among badasses, and his Implausible Fencing Powers and impressive snark make him highly entertaining.
  • Hishigi. Being an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette Anti-Villain who remains expressionless and soft-spoken in nearly all situations, is covered in Devil Eyes, and harbors a terrifying vicious streak when provoked, he's walking Nightmare Fuel. Add his tragic backstory, Determinator nature, Rasputinian Death, and swordsmanship so impressive that he can one-shot the main character despite severe deterioration of his body from the Death Disease, and he's also a walking CMOA.
• Many a character from Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, though Kafuka, Matoi, and Chiri seem to be the most popular in this regard.
• Lain of Serial Experiments Lain.
• Faust VIII from Shaman King. Being a dyed-in-the-wool Necromancer, he's is one of the most creepier shamans around, and yet his necromantic powers are some of the coolest you will ever see.
• Soul Eater:
  • Stein, the Creepy Good Mad Scientist whose initial Swivel-Chair Antics are a stark contrast to his Sociopathic Hero personality.
  • Crona, The Woobie who has a bully living in their spine. The adorable woobie who has a bully living in their spine.
  • Asura. He's the literal personification of fear and his mere presence causes terrifying hallucinations, and that's without even seeing him fight.
  • Medusa Gorgon and the Gorgon Sisters are definitely this for the ladies. Interestingly all three display a certain theme to their creepiness (besides the obvious animal themes) for example, Medusa is a fan of the traditional evil, vile and cruel creepy style, Arachne plays the not-so-innocent and sly creepy style. Finally Shaula leans towards the playful, childish and egocentric creepy style suitable for she is the youngest.
• Several villains from Sword Art Online
  • Kayaba's debut in the pilot using the hooded "Game Master" avatar. It's immensely creepy where the sky turns red from being filled with "System Announcement" messages, before what appears to be blood drips out from the edges of the popups and pools together into the giant red-hooded avatar Kayaba is using.
  • Most members of Laughing Coffin give off this vibe, being a whole guild of Serial Killers, but PoH/Vassago Cassals stands out the most, being garbed in a creepy hood and wielding a meat cleaver as his weapon of choice.
  • Death Gun has a gun that can One-Hit Kill players and give them heart attacks in the real world. He's also an Implacable Man who never stops hunting his targets, and then it's revealed he's an SAO survivor like Kirito and a member of the Laughing Coffin. Sure, the reveal of who he is and how he pulled off the murders diminishes his creep factor, but his presence itself is still pretty unnerving..
• Tiir Rumibul from The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is an Ax-Crazy cannibal with glowing red eyes, and a penchant for making Slasher Smiles and dishing out Cruel and Unusual Deaths. He's also a major badass with quite a large amount of Hidden Depths.
• Tokyo Ghoul overflows with this trope, thanks to the very nature of Ghouls. About half of the cast have a Horror Hunger that forces them to live on human (or Ghoul) flesh to survive, with a Game Face that involves Black Eyes of Evil and glowing, tentacle or wing-like extra limbs. There is copious amounts of Body Horror and even the kindest characters can be pure Nightmare Fuel, but certain characters stand out for being fan-favorites while terrifying.
  • Ken Kaneki, after his transformation into a brutal Anti-Hero. His fighting skills, Evil Costume Switch, and morally questionable behavior tend to be preferred by fans over his more humane earlier incarnation. In particular, his Superpowered Evil Side is considered awesome because of how twisted and horrifying it is.
  • Shuu Tsukiyama is a consummate predator that is introduced ripping a woman's eyes out and having them sauteed, before becoming a Stalker with a Crush utterly obsessed with eating Kaneki. His flamboyant behavior, amoral nature, and willingness to do anything for Kaneki make him very popular in the fandom.
  • Eto Yoshimura is a beloved villain, partially because of her child-like and sinister actions. Her One-Eyed Owl form is considered awesome partially because of how monstrous it is and how twisted her actions are while in that form.
  • In the sequel, Seidou Takizawa has quickly become a fan-favorite thanks to his creepy appearance and meme-spawning commentary while brutally murdering people.
• Headon from Tower of God looks like a bipedal rabbit crossed with a snake and is one of the more potent and crucial powers in the Tower without whom the plot wouldn't exist. And, you wouldn't believe that smile.
• Legato Bluesummers from Trigun who is a fan favourite because of his disturbing mein, creepy voice, and love of tormenting Vash.
• Yami Bakura and Yami Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
  • Also, Yami Yugi before the card game took over. He played many sadistic games with various people, all of whom were an Asshole Victim unto themselves. He even got a man to basically burn himself alive. Though after shattering Seto Kaiba's mind he became more benevolent.
• From Yu Gi Oh ARCV:
  • Yuri, who is malicious, has tons of Slasher Smiles and sounds like a sadistic version of Yuya. And his eyebrows are disgusting.
  • Starve Venom Fusion Dragon also fits this to a T. Being a bizarre cross between a dragon and a Venus flytrap will do that. Episode 106 only strengthens its bizarre creepiness and awesomeness.
  • Sergey Volkov; an insane Combat Sadomasochist Cyborg who utterly crushes Yuzu, Barret, AND Yuya and manages to give Jack a run for his money with two very interesting decktypes.
• The Toguro Brothers, Karasu, and Shinobu Sensui of YuYu Hakusho.

Comic Books

• The Shadow is arguably the Trope Codifier
• Almost every single one of Batman's more dangerous and psychopathic rogues is this or has aspects of this, The Joker and Scarecrow in particular judging by just how many fans they have. The Dark Knight himself can be considered a rare heroic example.
• Anathos from Les Légendaires is a Knight of Cerebus, a Hero Killer and walking terror who left the heroes broken both physically and mentally after their first fight with him. Yet, most fans love him, mainly because he is also a Magnificent Bastard.
• Dream in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (1989). His actions are at times very morally questionable, along with being nightmarish, but god damn if he doesn't look awesome doing them, especially when he shows that even GODS fear him.
• The Transformers: Windblade: Many fans, and even fellow writer John Barber, have praised the author's reinvention of Starscream into this trope. The book borrows from the Transformers: Prime series, which the author was a writer on. Starscream has a more delicately creepy, and aloofly smug attitude about him, which the artist manages to capture in his lithe and expressive redesign. What follows is a more unsettling and gently threatening Starscream who has the city in his clutches.
• The Spectre is a top notch example. Not only is he virtually omnipotent, but he's made a name for himself by turning criminals into inanimate objects and destroying them.

Fan Works

• Yuuka Kazami in Imperfect Metamorphosis, building on the generally affable maliciousness she displays in Touhou Project canon, is depicted as a psychopathic, hammy, Nigh Invulnerabile gadfly, being possibly the only clear cut villain in the whole ensemble, and is one of the fic's several Ensemble Darkhorses. Being revealed to be a Great Old One and acquiring knowledge of the fourth wall may be factors in that as well.
• Ser Yamame in Game of Touhou is a crazy old lady that wears only spider silk, controls legions of spiders, and kills Yukari.
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
  • Mr Popo bosses around God, regularly screws with the heroes, and is all the more awesome for it.
  • Resident Magnificent Bastard Freeza. Every single one of his Awesome Moments are either terrifying or hilarious or (most often) both.
  • Cell manages this with his introductory scene. "Hello... friend."
• Speaking of Team Four Star, the Hellsing Ultimate Abridged versions of Alucard and Jan Valentine take the originals' existing Creepy awesome and combine it with Success Through Insanity for two truly memorable characters that are balls-to-the-wall insane, horrifying, and badass.
  • Alucard once tried to paint Integra's father's car red with goat blood, but couldn't find enough and crashed it into Britain's first Dairy Queen, repeatedly weaponized a combination of Black Comedy and trolling as a fighting style (he responded to Abraham van Helsing's Kirk Summation with "The Aristocrats", makes Pedophile Priest jokes when fighting Alexander Anderson, and refused to take Walter seriously at all when they fought), and repeatedly sent death threats to the Pope by carrier pigeon that read as such:
  Dear Chief Replacement, I wanted to send you this friendly little letter to inform you of your imminent demise. If you're curious about the frequency of which I send these letters, it is merely to instil as much fear as I can. As if basting a turkey. Which I will then proceed to have sex with. That's right. I'm going to fuck the fear turkey. Follow me on Twitter @TheCrimsonFuckr!
  • After reading this, Integra's frightened by the thought of how much they could get done if Alucard put that kind of effort into his job.
  • And then there's Jan Valentine, who's introduced by talking about a time a hooker overdosed on heroin halfway through giving him a blowjob, which is made worse by the fact that A. He finished anyway, and B. Said hooker was implied to be his brother's ex-girlfriend, threatened to skullfuck every member of the Hellsing organization, even the ones he killed and turned into ghouls, forced one of Integra's men to read her a profanity-laden death threat aloud by threat of shooting off his testicles and then killed him anyway, and had quite the Dying Moment of Awesome.
  Jan: I don't know what's fuckin' funnier: The fact that you think that your titless ass intimidates me, or that you think my boss would let me live if ya did. (suddenly bursts into flame) AND NOW I'M ON FUCKIN' FIRE! SO NOW IT'S FREE GAME! (flips the bird) The one who sent me... WAS...! ...Naaziiiss...!
  • The Major proves himself the same mixture of Creepy and Crazy Awesome with his introductory scene, his version of the "I Love War" speech, playing "War" by Edwin Starr during Millennium's invasion of England^note picked for "ironic reasons—ze best reasons"!, giving a Motive Rant about getting to die in the glory of battle that culminates in a glory hole joke, and revealing himself to be a cyborg and trolling the hell out of Integra in the process—his Dying Moment of Awesome is singing "So Long, Farewell" in a voice that gets increasingly distorted with every verse, which ruins The Sound Of Music for Integra.
• The sudden shift in Chapter 11 of the first novel in the Uplifted series. The only ones who understand the full extent of the horror are the readers, and even then it isn't figured out until the very last lines of the chapter.
• A recurring theme in Infinity Train: Blossomverse and its spin-offs are the terrifying and awesome characters that come from the woodwork.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail
    • UnChloe is essentially Chloe in a pretty black dress and a wielder of black magic, but she's absolutely terrifying with how she unleashes her punishments on bullies and for ramping up the darkness factor for Vermillion City.
    • Henry and Walter are using three different Pokémon trainers in a ritual to stop the Apex, they're absolutely charismatic and they have a true abomination-like form that's so terrifying that Chloe and Amelia are shrinking in horror. They're also very popular with the readers as they are excited (and dreading) what the two have in store when Chloe reaches The Fog Car.
    • Zeno's ghost form is essentially Specter meets Peter Maximoff and he makes for one hell of a nightmare therapist as he shows no qualms in getting it into Goh's thick skull on how he's not the kind "Friend" he believes himselve to be. He also doesn't give Parker any chance to defend himself when he gives his "Creator" a taste of his own medicine.
    • Hop as Delirium is a black-eyed, Perpetual Smiler with black Combat Tentacles and a child-like personality. He's both terrifying and awesome that even Walter is afraid of making him angry and is the strongest component in the Cage of Flauros, second to Destruction. Even when Hop keeps most of his sanity intact in ripping apart the Lysandre nightmare, it still is absolutely chilling to find him happily tearing someone apart.
  • Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily
    • The White Rabbit of the 400 Rabbits Car, the king of some adorable bunnies. He arrives on a chair that walks on spider legs, and his attire consists of a straitjacket and a bunny mask with a pocket watch and a ruby for an eye. He exudes an aura of creepiness with the way he talks and the fact that underneath that mask is a brainwashed Tokio Chisou.
    • Easter, Specter's Split Personality, continues the tradition of non-humanoids that share a resemblance to Specter by actually being a lightning bolt having fused with their host, immune to electrical torture and doing all he can to help Specter out along with glowing blue Tron Lines and a childish personality that leans onto Ambiguous Innocence.
  • Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria
    • Ogani, a pretty butterfly boy with a wide smile who is also a Serial Killer extraordinare — one of the kills being Leo Akaba — and is essentially a JRPG boss in denizen form with his use of magic spells and his Soft-Spoken Sadist personality
  • Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus
    • Shadow Sycamore is essentially...Sycamore's Shadow who has the appearance of the good professor wearing Lysandre's wardrobe with mind control capabilities, even using it on Sycamore himself in an attempt to murder the Windchasers. His berserk form is a burnt corpse on an inverted pyramid, making him even more sinister.
    • Chloe Cerise and Lexi of this iteration have become this in the Ninjala Car, relishing the brawls with a grin on their faces, the fact that Chloe can summon fire and Lexi (forced to take a child form per the car's rules) uses a Creepy Child form to spin yarns of horrifying tales before going in for the kill. Amusingly both of them are more terrifying than Shadow Sycamore, the former using fire that terrifies him, the latter freaking Vaillant out that he compares Lexi to said shadow.
• Kyril Sutherland from The Night Unfurls has this down to a tee, from how he never messes around or raises his voice while inflicting brutality on whoever's on the receiving end of his Saw Cleaver like a serious badass. Especially during the moment where he gives Shamuhaza a literal Death Glare.

Films — Animation

• The Other Mother from Coraline. To a less creepy extent, the menacing-but-benevolent Cat, voiced by Keith David.
• Chernabog from Fantasia is one of the most visually-impressive villains in the entire Disney canon, a gigantic winged Satanic Archetype that commands a host of demons to dance and suffer for his pleasure.
• Hexxus from FernGully: The Last Rainforest, this vengeful, ghastly spirit suitably voiced by Tim Curry is the embodiment of pollution and how disgusting it can be. The song "Toxic Love" purposely flaunts the effects of what human greed does to the environment, which in return pleases Hexxus's fetishes for power.
• Judge Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this was one of the times when Disney stepped its sweet, loving toes towards the morbidly dark and excessive. Frollo epitomizes obsession, lust and the yearning for religious superiority. His Villain Song, suitably titled "Hellfire", is by far one the creepiest (and suggestive) musicals ever animated.
• Zira from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride is a perfect example of a psychopathic widow out for revenge. Her defining moment is her obvious Villain Song "My Lullaby" that explains every last twisted plan she makes and yet, this is a Disney movie people.
  • Scar is also this but in a more subtle and conniving way.
• The Leviathan from Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It's a giant steampunk lobster robot of which Lovecraft would be proud that appears to be several miles in length (its mandible claws are bigger than the entire Ulysses). Despite its massive size, it's smart enough to sneak up on its prey, and it packs a Wave-Motion Gun that can wipe out entire submarines in one shot. Oh, and for a character in a Disney movie, it kills a staggering number of people.
• Rattlesnake Jake from Rango seems to have this going for him, mainly due to Bill Nighy's deliciously menacing voice.
  "This is my town now..."
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: The Prowler. He's an utterly merciless predator who hunts down his prey without saying a word, and he just looks so awesome doing it. He's like a crossbreed between Darth Vader and Batman, and the fans love it.
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: The Wolf is slowly starting to become one of DreamWorks Animation’s most iconic villains because of his awesome but intimidating character design and Wagner Moura's chilling voice performance. The Wolf's presence is one of the first things that actually makes Puss feel fear, and the Wolf's glowing red eyes always follow Puss throughout his adventure. The Wolf is eventually revealed to be Death himself, adding even more creepiness and awesomeness to his overall demeanor.
• Professor Screweyes from We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. The man keeps crows around and commands them in order to master his fear of them. Whoa, bravery test worthy of Batman.
• Titan A.E. has a few examples:
  • Preed. He definitely qualifies as 'creepy,' but factor in his one-liners and eventual Manipulative Bastard tendencies, this is what you get.
  • The Gaoul, although ominous during their initial appearance, prove to be phenomenal dogfighters and incredibly determined to help Cale's party elude the Drej.

Films — Live-Action

• Star Wars:
  • A New Hope has Grand Moff Tarkin. The guy bosses Darth Vader around, and signs the death warrant on an innocent planet out of spite.
  • Darth Vader, the towering juggernaut clad in black armor who wiped out the Jedi, kills Obi-Wan, and is introduced crushing the neck of a defenseless prisoner, is the most iconic character of the saga and one of the most popular villains of all time. Part of the advertising for The Empire Strikes Back and Rogue One was reassuring fans that Vader would return, and one of the main criticisms leveled at the prequels was that it retroactively turned Vader into a whiny wuss.
  • Return of the Jedi has The Emperor, the most powerful man in the galaxy who defined Evil Is Cool for an entire generation. A pre-Emperor Palpatine is generally agreed to be one of the better things in the prequel trilogy as well, particularly his memorable hamminess and Magnificent Bastardry in Revenge of the Sith.
  • The Force Awakens has two.
    • Kylo Ren is obviously mentally unstable, very disturbing to watch, and is just as volatile as his progenitor and grandfather Vader if not more; quite a few people find that this makes him a more interesting and effective villain.
    • Supreme Leader Snoke, with his deep, monotone voice and intimidating presence. The ethereal, sixty-foot-tall hologram he appears helps too.
    • The Death Troopers from Rogue One are the scariest Stormtroopers ever. All of them are at least six feet tall and they may or may not be human. This in addition to their all-black armor, creepy distorted voices and habit of mowing down Rebels and main characters like target dummies.
  • The Rise of Skywalker sees the return of the Emperor, reborn in a clone body rapidly decaying from the strain of containing his immense power.
    • The novelization confirms Sidious has effectively become an Eldritch Abomination, worshiped as a body-hopping "god-consciousness" by the Sith cultists on Exegol. He's only defeated once and for all when Rey channels the power of all her Jedi predecessors to deflect his own power back at him.
• The alien (or xenomorph) of Alien, a hideous killing machine and prime exemplar of the horror of Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong, borne of H. R. Giger's messed-up Freudian nightmares. And an awesome antagonist, worth pitting against Superman and Green Lantern.
• The Predator, a nine-foot-tall badass alien Great White Hunter who drops in on less advanced cultures to choose a Worthy Opponent and do battle with them using an Invisibility Cloak and other weapons that fit its form of honour. Then, someone had the very good (and character-appropriate) idea of setting them against each other in the Alien vs. Predator franchise.
• The Dark Knight Trilogy films: The Joker and the Scarecrow. Make that The Joker in all his variations. Sadly, the Scarecrow is rarely as awesome as he was here.
• Many Slasher Movie antagonists, especially Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th, Michael Myers of Halloween, and Ghostface in the Scream films (despite Scream starting as a parody of slasher movies). In The '80s, the major slasher villains became pop culture icons just like the Universal monsters did before them, such that some eventually started playing to this trope in the movies themselves. Freddy Krueger took on a Faux Affably Evil personality that saw him make frequent wisecracks at his victims' expense, Chucky from the Child's Play films started out as a foul-mouthed jerk who got his soul put into the body of a doll, and in The '90s, Ghostface stood out as a Genre Savvy killer who often taunted his victims for indulging in horror movie clichés.
• The Silence of the Lambs: Hannibal Lecter. He's the Trope Namer for Hannibal Lecture because he can easily and thoroughly break someone's mind with words alone despite being locked up and interrogated.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: HAL 9000: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
• Hellraiser: The Cenobites, being demonic extreme S/M enthusiasts with Blue-and-Orange Morality. This goes especially for their leader Pinhead, whose threats and promises are equally pleasant to listen to thanks to his deep voice.
• Seeing Viggo Mortensen, best known as noble Aragorn, as a creepy blond Lucifer in the first of The Prophecy movies has an added layer of creepy awesomeness. Virtually every moment he is on-screen will make your skin crawl and be among the most memorable portions of the movie. He manages to be creepier than Christopher Walken.
• Ditto for Lucifer in Constantine (2005), definitely the high point of the film — unless you think it's Constantine flipping him off.
• Most of the characters from Repo! The Genetic Opera. Notably Blind Mag, Graverobber and Pavi.
• Donnie Darko: Frank, the horrifying bunny man who leads Donnie into destructive vandalism. Especially since he actually has good intentions.
  "I can do whatever I want. And so can you."
• From the Saw series: Jigsaw/John Kramer, Amanda Young and Mark Hoffman. Billy The Puppet outdoes them all — there's a reason why he's the icon of the franchise.
  • An honorable mention should be given to Detective Mark Hoffman for being a great Genius Bruiser who makes good use of Xanatos Speed Chess and is capable of fighting in badass ways neither Jigsaw nor the other disciples could do.
• Kruger from Elysium. For instance, he prefers barbecuing chicken and ribs with his katana.
• Darryl Revok, the diabolical telepathic villain of Scanners. He's basically the reason that actor Michael Ironside has a career.
• The toothy monsters from The Deadly Spawn. Imagine low-budget Xenomorphs with even more teeth.
• The monster from The Thing (1982) is an alien parasite dripping with Paranoia Fuel along with multiple gruesome, yet incredible transformation sequences. Its surprising cunning and intelligence add up to a really effective and memorable villain.
• While the works of J.R.R Tolkien already had this trope with the Nazguls in The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson's adaption of The Hobbit adds some examples, most famously be showing the Necromancer /Sauron on-screen, and Smaug, the latter proving to be an outright terror thanks to Visual Effects of Awesome, and his sheer maliciousness along with his deep voice, in spite of his allround hamminess.
• Pirates of the Caribbean does this with every single supernatural character - Barbossa and his crew of cursed undead in the first movie, Davy Jones and his immortal fish people in the second and third, and Blackbeard in the fourth. Not to mention...
  Captain Jack Sparrow: Tia Dalma! You add an appreciable sense of the macabre to any delirium.
  • Salazar from Dead Men Tell No Tales is a ghost pirate whose hair and clothes still float like they're underwater and who won't rest until Sparrow is dead. Bonus points for being played by Javier Bardem.
• Due to his unsettling appearance, eccentric behaviour and way of Talken, actor Christopher Walken is very famous because of this trope. And many of his roles tend to be short, but memorable.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Uploaded Arnim Zola, who will make your skin crawl off your body and run away with that dead-eyed electronic stare. The Winter Soldier, as well.
  • Unsurprisingly, Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron definitely gives off this vibe.
    "You're all puppets. Tangled in... strings... [seizes damaged Iron Drone by the head] Strings. [crushes the Drone's head] [...] I had strings, but now I'm free... there are no strings on me..."
• Terminator and its villains are definitely this, these near unstoppable machines set the standard to how badass technology can get and went over the limit like a boss. In fact Arnold Schwarzenegger is also this trope, in and outside his movies due to how intimidating he is even when he's not trying.
• The Indominus Rex from Jurassic World. She's simultaneously the most dangerous, depraved, sadistic and badass creature in the franchise.
• As a whole the movie, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barberof Fleet Street flaunts this trope very deviously. Sweeney Todd and the cast of troubled Londoners are more than just secretive folk and not in a good way.
  • Sweeney Todd himself, a sunken-eyed, gaunt, and ruthlessly murderous barber played by [1].
• Mola Ram from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He manages to be one of the most memorable villains of the series even among harder to please fans of the series for how insanely dark he is with his infamous heart rip scene being a significant example of this. Considering his competition includes Nazis, this isn't an easy feat to accomplish.
• Peter Lorre specialized in this trope thanks to his dragging voice, to an extent that he's still being imitated and parodied everywhere.
• Quite a few characters from Kill Bill.
  • Gogo Yubari, a sadistic schoolgirl who can go toe to toe with the Bride.
  • O-Ren Ishii, the Big Bad of the first movie who's elegant and refined, even when slaughtering her enemies.
  • Elle Driver, the most terrifying member of the DVAS and source of many sarcastic lines.
  • Budd, a former One-Man Army who is the only villain to score a victory against the Bride.
• Jaws: The shark is huge, powerful, intelligent, tenacious and even shows some sadistic qualities that separate it from actual sharks. All of these things are why it is widely regarded as a timeless villain in cinema despite it being an unspeaking animal.
• Rita Repulsa from PowerRangers2017. Rita is a Cold Ham in this, and has a significantly more alien appearance; even making her appearance as an emaciated husk that only grows mildly more human. But she's also an Adaptational Badass, and a One-Woman Army against the Rangers unmorphed, and has several awesome powers involving creating putties out of the ground itself.
• Dr. Decker from Nightbreed. As a misanthropic serial killing psychiatrist, Decker is utterly bone chilling as an antagonist. In a movie full of deformed monsters, Decker is the scariest character by far. Not that that's a bad thing.
• Dr. Septimus Pretorius from Brideof Frankenstein. Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) is a Camp Gay Mad Scientist who grows tiny people in jars, does not so much tinker in God's domain as wage open war against him, dreams of creating a race of monsters and interrupts his grave robbing to hold cozy picnics with Frankenstein's monster in the crypt. To put it another way, this is a Mad Scientist who scares Dr. Frankenstein.
• The Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow (1999). Being an undead soldier turned supernatural serial killer played by Christopher Walken, definitely a given.
• The Skeksis from The Dark Crystal. The Skeksis are grotesquely decaying, hedonistic, genocidal vulture-like humanoids, but their distinct presence and instantly recognizable designs have made them long-time fan favorites.
• The Nomad from Hardware (1990). He shows up in exactly three scenes and has less than a handful of lines, but his presence is captivating. His sinister gas mask, Machine Monotone and Badass Longcoat certainly cement that.
• Solomon Lane by the time of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Solomon Lane has degenerated into this, he's now become a psychotic Death Seeker who speaks in a low, raspy voice, and is prepared to do anything, even lose his own life, just to inflict as much pain on Ethan and his team as possible. He's both very menacing and incredibly entertaining to watch as a result.
• Edward Nashton/The Riddler from The Batman (2022). The Riddler is absolutely terrifying and feels like something out of a horror movie, and he’s all the more memorable for it. He's often cited as the best incarnation of the character due to being a highly competent threat whilst executing his plans with captivatingly nightmarish flair. Bonus points go to Paul Dano's absolutely fantastic performance which flips between unnerving and humorous at the drop of a hat.
• The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot from Batman Returns. He's a disturbing, hideous, and deranged maniac, but that's exactly what makes him an effective villain, and it's also why he has his fans. Helped by Danny DeVito giving an appropriately creepy and compelling performance.
• King Baldwin from Kingdom of Heaven. Due to his mask (even more without it, tragicomically) and sheer badassery, Baldwin is one of the more memorable characters in the movie.
• Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men. It's not for no reason that Anton Chigurh is largely considered to be the creepiest movie villain since Hannibal Lecter. Between Barden's nightmarish acting, his unique choice in weapons and murder strategies, the bad haircut, and the fact that he spends pretty much the whole movie running circles around the protagonists, this is not the kind of bad guy you're going to forget any time soon.
• Jessica Atreidies from Dune: Part Two. Jessica becoming a sinister and manipulative cult leader after her Face–Heel Turn was pretty widely acclaimed by the fan-base, who found her new personality fascinating and making her both utterly terrifying and really cool.

Literature

• Dracula, whose self-titled novel is largely responsible for launching a vampire fandom that has lasted over a century.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray has Lord Henry and Dorian Gray himself.
• The title character of The Phantom of the Opera.
• Irial from Wicked Lovely.
• Mr Teatime from Hogfather.
• Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort from Harry Potter. Fans have tried to turn the Malfoy family into this, too, but in the actual source material, they're depicted as fairly pathetic and cowardly.
  • Barty Crouch Jr., a convicted Death Eater and a cunning actor; when he pretended to be Alastor Moody to get closer to Harry, even before his disguise was revealed many (including his own father) despised him.
• Joe Bob Fenestre from Animorphs.
• Goosebumps: The series is full of monsters and villains, but the Masked Mutant, Dr. Brewer, Della, the Lord High Executioner, the Beasts From The East, and Keith really stand out.
• The gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, especially Cthulhu himself, have this kind of reputation among their fans.
  • The Cthulhu Mythos is literally full of these; the ones that aren't super powerful, godly Kaiju eldritch abominations from space are sufficiently advanced Starfish Aliens. And that's not even counting some of the not-so-human humans involved...
• Kiriyama of Battle Royale is this in all three versions. He mercilessly kills his classmates with no hesitation yet has a relatively large fanbase, to the point that even his Axe-Crazy film version has his own website that worships him.
• Warrior Cats:
  • Mapleshade is so crazy that even Tigerstar, the Big Bad, is scared of her, goes on murdering sprees at the slightest provocation, looks like a demon in her official artwork, could be sneaking up on the characters to murder them at any time you read the books because she's invisible to normal characters and nearly-invisible even if you have the power to see her, and is implied to be a cannibal. The fans think she's awesome.
  • Sol can Mind Rape you by walking nearby, is always completely calm except for one nightmarish moment where he lost his temper, has an insatiable desire for vengeance, and is just creepy in general. These things have made him one of the most unique and well-respected antagonists in the series.
• From Redwall, Shadow and Zwilt the Shade.
• The Twilight Saga has James, Victoria, and especially The Volturi.
• The First Law has Logen Ninefingers, a barbarian who's famous for being an absolutely insane Blood Knight; even his own men are put off. Glokta has shades of this as well, being quite creepy but also one of the most sympathetic and entertaining characters in the series.
• Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, a mourning man traumatized by a Raven who repeats throughout the entire poem "Nevermore". Just that one word stained in your mind, is enough to become sympathetic with the man. It gets worse as the man describes his fears, anger and ultimately believing the "Ominous bird of yore" is connected to something completely Hellish.

Live-Action TV

• The Last Man on Earth:
  • Pat is a Trigger-Happy Crazy Survivalist whose status as a Made of Iron Knight of Cerebus makes him hard to forget.
  • The masked bunker people from the last two episodes stand around ominously while even more ominous music plays, but the way they climb out of their bunker while wearing hazmat masks and their group has more survivors than everyone else from before then put together make their eeriness appealing and neat.
• Sherlock:
  • Sherlock Holmes keeps a human head in the fridge, eyeballs in the microwave, and is forced to ride home on the Tube when cabs refuse to take him because he's covered in pig blood. Fans love him. He may be eccentric, but he's very loyal to his best friend.
  • Moriarty, which is fitting as he's Holmes' Shadow Archetype.
  • Charles Augustus Magnusson will make your insides crawl. Bonus points for being an entirely different kind of despicable than Moriarty, but no less effective.
• The Addams Family pretty much runs on scares Played for Laughs. Everyone in the family is a Nightmare Fetishist who sees the world rather differently from the rest of us.
• The Munsters takes creepy cute even further, with, for example, Herman (based almost entirely on Frankenstein's Monster) being not only a Fat Idiot, but also The Woobie for being a doting father trying to make a living in a world where his appearance makes nearly everyone he meets terrified of him.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Spike and Drusilla from season 2, before Spike's Badass Decay.
  • Vamp!Willow succeeds in turning Alyson Hannigan into squick.
  • Angelus. When he's Angel he's the regular kind of awesome instead.
• Firefly: River Tam, when she's not being a hysterical, crying Woobie that you just want to hug because of what the Alliance did to her brain, can be one of the most frightening people you can ever meet. And she is also awesome, especially in the Big Damn Movie when she Takes A Level In Badass.
• Heroes: Sylar. A sadistic Serial Killer who's the most intelligent and badass character in the show. Quite a Deadpan Snarker, as well.
• Lost:
  • Ben Linus is eerily magnetic when he's on the screen. Easily one of the show's creepiest characters, he's still incredibly fun to watch and can even come off as downright sympathetic at the right moment.
  • The Man In Black, to its fans.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • Adar as the father figure of the orcs is all the more creepy because he is, in fact, fighting for freedom and for a homeland for the creatures he sees as his children.
  • When Halbrand realizes that Galadriel is on to him, he gives her a soft Evil Smile and proceeds to transform from a charming rouge to a powerful sorcerer with just body language, no CGI or costume change needed. His response when asked his name: "I have been awake since the breaking of the first silence. In that time, I have had many names.''
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has Cameron. Cold, logical, and frighteningly efficient at what she does, and is scary as hell, but she is without a doubt the most huggable emotionless killer deathbot ever.
• Of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg. Lore probably counts too.
• Scorpius is a huge fan favorite from Farscape despite looking like this largely because he's a badass Magnificent Bastard.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Daleks are Absolute Xenophobe Omnicidal Maniacs who enslave, torture and kill billions with glee, and have been adored for fifty years and counting.
  • The Weeping Angels and the Silence are both intense psychological horrors built on Paranoia Fuel and Fridge Horror, and loved for it.
  • The Doctor themself frequently displays unsettling behaviour to remind the audience that they're literally inhuman, but is not less heroic for it. The Fourth Doctor especially, helped along by Tom Baker's terrifying grin, but he's still one of the most iconic incarnations of the Doctor.
• Snafu from The Pacific. He throws pebbles into a Japanese soldier's blown-open head, pries out their gold teeth and has major personal space issues with the other Marines, but fandom adores him because he's fascinating to watch and develops a very sweetly protective friendship with Eugene. Full-out acknowledged by actor Rami Malek in a radio interview:
  Interviewer: You were creepy in that show, dude!
  Rami: (good-naturedly) I think I'm creepy in everything.
• Captain Ronald Speirs from Band of Brothers, due to him having gunned down several German POWs and shot one of his own men for disobedience. The example works in-universe as well, since men of Easy Company think him awesome yet terrifying.
• Mordred from Merlin.
• Lord Varys, "The Spider", from Game of Thrones. Partly helped by the fact that he's actually one of the more principled characters around, in contrast to a few villains; his principles just aren't altruistic.
  • Pyat Pree.
  • The White Walkers.
  • Jaqen's idiosyncratic speech patterns, including his use of third person, contribute a lot to his memorable character.
  • The supposed Night's King of the White Walkers for his Darth Maul get up.
• Jade West from Victorious. An edgy Goth, most of her school is afraid of her. She's also willing to go to extreme lengths to get back at people who have angered her. One episode even implies she wants to drive protagonist Tori in the middle of the desert to murder her.
• Supernatural:
  • Death. This is the guy who considers Satan to be a bratty child with daddy issues.
  • Azazel, Alastair, and Abaddon have all been big hits with fans, despite (or because of) their unsettlingness on screen.
  • Lucifer himself, especially in his pre Badass Decay Season 5 days, regardless of whether he's played by Mark Pellegrino or Jared Padalecki.
• Twin Peaks:
  • All of the Lodge Spirits edge into this, to various extents. The best example of this is probably The Man From Another Place, since BOB is too creepy to be awesome, while The Man is one of the show's most recognizable characters.
  • Supporting villain Windom Earle edges into this, being a somewhat campy criminal genius with occasional moments of outright horror.
  • The Return continues this fine tradition with The Woodsman, some kind of Humanoid Abomination resembles a lumberjack covered in soot. He's a pretty good example of the show's Surreal Horror tone.
• Myrtle Snow in American Horror Story: Coven, who gouges out the eyes of her fellow council members as revenge for having her burnt at the stake and to repair the eyesight of blinded Cordelia, then disposes of the bodies in acid, ensuring they won't come Back from the Dead.
• Shachath from American Horror Story: Asylum is everything you could possibly want out of someone called "The Angel of Death" — both terrifying and awesome, but, in her comfort to the dying, oddly moving as well.
• Father Jack from Father Ted is this to a comical level. Jack spends his time being grouchy, alcohol obsessed or just plain hateful. He's a creepy old man with hilarious one-liners and freaky habits with a very disgruntled appearance suitable towards his role.
• Grant Ward from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is pretty damn creepy due to his sociopathic tendencies and excellent ability to completely mask his personality, but he's also a skilled combatant on par with Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Brock Rumlow in terms of skill.
• Dark Emma from Once Upon a Time season 5.
• Several Power Rangers Villains qualify:
  • Lord Zedd from Power Rangers. His suit being meaty muscles, his cool theme, and his frightening first appearance where he took over, has made him one of the most popular Power Rangers villains. Even with Villain Decay, fans still liked him as it seemed he was more successful in defeating the Rangers after his marriage with Rita.
  • Astronema, post-cybernetics in Power Rangers in Space. She definitely became one after Dark Specter brainwashed her. Not only does she deliver her lines in a more cold but still entertaining way, but with the exception of the Psycho Rangers being defeated, she never complained about her plans failing, always finding a plan B. For example, while she didn't get to trap the rangers and citizens of Angel Grove into data cards, she was able to get the Psycho Rangers back in there.
  • Dr. Viktor Adler/Master Org from Power Rangers Wild Force is this in spades. [[Yandere Master Org]] is an intimidating, scary villain whose easily in the running for most vile villain in the franchise and is all the more memorable thanks to it.
  • Emperor Grumm from Power Rangers S.P.D.. Gruumm is sadistic, psychopathic and has a nightmarish design, which has led to him being very well-received by the fanbase.
• Helena from Orphan Black. An adorable yet psychopathic religious serial killer of other clones. Yet, she undergoes a Heel–Face Turn and becomes an Unscrupulous Hero and Creepy Good little sister.
• Mads Mikkelsen's portrayal of Hannibal is no less this than Hopkins'. He is consistently terrifying, feeling less like a human psychopath and more like a demon come to earth and made flesh, along with being an all-out Magnificent Bastard, and he is a joy to watch because of it.
• The nameless assassin from the 4th episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. The man gets some great sarcastic lines while torturing Jack and Gwen, making for a One-Scene Wonder.
• Stranger Things has quite a few villainous characters:
  • Dr. Martin Brenner. A nightmarish yet brilliant scientist responsible for Eleven's current troubled state. But, [2] manages to make him a memorable character with his Soft-Spoken Sadist persona.
  • Henry Creel/Vecna. Fan's latched onto Vecna due to his gravitas, terrifying abilities, fear factor and [3] giving an excellent performance.
• Once again, The Skeksis from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Special mention goes to SkekMal the Hunter. Being the only of his decadent kind to be physically active and poses a consistent threat to the heroes.
• The Shadow King from Legion (2017). The Shadow King is a Faux Affably Evil Sadist with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but the sheer glee he takes in brutally tormenting and/or disposing of those who oppose him regardless of what form he takes makes him both terrifying and incredibly entertaining to watch.

Music

• Heavy Metal as a whole is this to an art form. Sometimes it's the lyrics, and sometimes it's the music itself.
  • More extreme genres of metal. Acts who are particularly good at this include Meshuggah, Deathspell Omega, Gorguts, The Axis of Perdition, Fear Factory, Cryptopsy, Watain, Anaal Nathrakh, Blut aus Nord, Behemoth, Sunn O))), and Cattle Decapitation.
• Radiohead's "Climbing Up The Walls". A song written from the perspective of something living in the mind of a Serial Killer, sung in a slurred, eerily distorted voice over heavy guitars, dissonant strings and creepy, abrasive electronics. It's also a fan favorite.
  • Radiohead in general, really. Kid A in particular is basically a whole album of this. There is something very unsettling and simply off about the whole album, but it's one of the most acclaimed albums of the last twenty years for a very good reason.
• Most of the Industrial genre, in particular the abrasive early acts like Throbbing Gristle and SPK.
• Dark Ambient music, especially the subgenre known as Isolationism.
• Bret Autrey of Blue Stahli.
• Lordi. When in character, they wear very disturbing monster costumes 24/7.
• Evillious Chronicles: Somehow, Conchita has become a favorite of the fans, despite that she's a psychopathic cannibal. Hell, mothy himself has released a huge amount of remixes for her song, and she possesses a character in Story of Evil.
• Buckethead. He is a somewhat spooky looking guitarist, with a white mask and some creepy interests and gimmicks. A lot of his music also falls into this category, since he often draws inspiration from the horror genre.
• Alice Cooper, a pioneer of the shock rock genre, is probably the first rock musician to do this.
• Tom Waits' music consists of growling, menacing sounding singing, and heavy topics ranging from seedy towns to the end of the freaking world, yet they are so great to jam out to.
• Muse's song "Micro Cuts." Eerie, high-pitched singing and ominous lyrics that stemmed from a particularly disturbing series of nightmares make it extremely creepy. However the singing is a Moment of Awesome in itself and the shredding riffs that form the outro is definitely epic as well.
• Daron Malakian has this reputation. You could also apply this trope to a number of SOAD's songs.
• Merzbow. Who else could combine Hell Is That Noise and Awesome Music so effectively?
• Hüsker Dü’s “The Tooth Fairy and the Princess.” A psychedelic, Mind Screw-inducing mix of backwards and forwards guitars playing fairly dissonant riffs with Bob Mould whispering “wake up” and chanting slogans like “Don’t give up, don’t let go, don’t give in, don’t let up” – it is the stuff of nightmares, and in fact, it is actually designed to indicate that the main character of the Concept Album it appears on is having a nightmare. At the same time, it’s also really fucking beautiful. And it is awesome.
• King Crimson, specifically 21st Century Schizoid Man or Red.
• Karin Dreijer Andersson, better known as Fever Ray or the singing half of The Knife. Her music is famous for being mind-blowingly creepy, complemented by even more terrifying◊ imagery.◊ She once made an acceptance speech that consisted of just guttural moaning. Did we mention that she did this while wearing prosthetic makeup that made it look like her face was melting?

Myths & Religion

• Many memorable monsters qualify here, but some are more scarier than others most notably; Vampires, Zombies, Ghosts, Wraiths, Skeletons, Demons, Liches and finally Grudges.
• The many depictions of Death would obviously be seen this way. The most common depiction of Death is The Grim Reaper. Early artwork of the Middle Ages shows our skeletal friend at his most sinister.
• Hell, full of bad souls, demons, fire and brimstone. Only the Devil and his minions could possibly enjoy such a place of torture. Except, to look at the sheer level of detail in Mediaeval depictions, not to mention the creativity and variety of human torment, you'd be forgiven for thinking the artists were kinda into it.
• In Classical Mythology, the Greeks believed that the Underworld was especially morbid, oddly enough Hades himself is not. The River Styx is the main entrance to the Underworld, riding a boat rowed by a cloaked Skeleton while having sad and tortured souls wailing at you, is something Hercules himself wouldn't recommend doing casually.

Pro Wrestling

• WWE:
  • "The Boogeyman" was originally supposed to be a heel, but he became so popular with the fans that WWE had no choice but to turn him face. Didn't stop him from chewing on earthworms and spitting them in his opponents' faces.
  • The Undertaker practically runs on creepy awesome, and, even if one says that that is no longer the case, it definitely was in the early to late 90's.
  • Kane perpetually sits here, whether he's a face or a heel, masked or unmasked. He's worked every creepy aspect imaginable with his character, and nearly every one of them he's worked to perfection.
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts plops firmly into this in his heel role, what with the leering, lecherous stare, the fascination with serpents, the happy admittance that he's a lying snake, and his semi-disheveled appearance would put him just as equally in an alleyway wearing nothing but a trenchcoat and sneakers. When he's a face though, he's a different kind of awesome.
• The Brood, consisting of a wrestling vampire and a gothic E and C. Their entrance combines red lighting, a rocking theme and a Ring of Fire to make an unforgettable experience.
• The Wyatt Family are a trio of Ax-Crazy cultists led by a Dark Messiah who systematically destroy everything in their path. The fans adore them, not only because they're quite good at wrestling, but also because Bray Wyatt is an amazing actor.
• Mankind, before he became family-friendly.
• Heel Doink. His entrance theme helped emphasize this.

Tabletop Games

• In Exalted the Infernal Exalted are servants of the Yozis and are champions of hell, but don't have to be bad people, and loved to the point they have the largest amount of homebrew content.
  • The Abyssals are this to a lesser degree, mainly due to how bad they have it.
• Magic: The Gathering: Phyrexia and New Phyrexia. The most dangerous yet enjoyable Big Bad in the game's story? Check. Mechanical Lifeforms? Check. Loads of horror? Check. The bigger part of the fandom prefers them to the heroes? Checkmate.
• This is part of the appeal of Warhammer 40,000, in addition to Rule of Cool and Success Through Insanity, with Chaos, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar at the top of the scale.
• The Excrucians in Nobilis are extremely popular with virtually everyone from the author down, despite being creepily pretty Humanoid Abomination Omnicidal Maniacs with eyes full of night and the death of stars.

Theatre

• Death from Elisabeth. Stalks our heroine all her life, trying to get her to die? Check. Convinces her son to commit suicide? Check. One of the most popular characters in the show? Check.

Video Games

• BioShock as a whole. Sander Cohen, Dr. Steinman, The Splicers, Big Daddies...
• BioShock Infinite has Songbird, the Luteces, Handymen, Daisy Fitzroy, Comstock, The Boys of Silence, etc, etc.
• System Shock: SHODAN wo-wo-would likekeke to be m-m-mentioned, insect.
• Fallout: New Vegas:
  • Vulpes Inculta and Legate Lanius. Both with excellent dialogue and fitting voices.
  • Ulysses is incredibly unsettling, but there's no denying his coolness.
  • Joshua Graham's gravelly grating growl and flame-grilled skin are also rather unsettling. Not as creepy as the others are, but definitely unsettling.
• Silent Hill: Pyramid Head.
• Roirr from DragonFable certainly counts. Every time he's on screen, he's either Mind Raping someone, taking over people's bodies to prolong his life, killing off hundreds of people at once and absorbing them for sustenance, or just generally being unsettling to see in action. He's absolutely obsessed with living forever, and if he has to kill millions of people and anyone unlucky enough to cross his path, well...
• Final Fantasy:
  • Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. Despite his actions, he's one of the most popular characters in the whole series.
  • Final Fantasy VII has Sephiroth.
• Jester from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.
• Giygas of EarthBound (1994).
• Generally, if a Kirby villain fits this trope, it has a good chance of rising above the others in popularity. Zero/Zero Two and Marx Soul are the most prominent examples.
  • Kirby himself can fall into this category. He devours sentient living creatures to absorb their powers, which range from setting foes on fire to slicing them into bits to outright Body Horror.
• First Encounter Assault Recon: Alma, the oddly, creepily adorable little girl who boils peoples' flesh off, destroys buildings, and rapes the protagonist.
• Sovereign from Mass Effect. One conversation with him is one of the most memorable parts of the game. To a lesser extent, Saren and the Collectors.
• Portal is made what it is by GLaDOS's somewhat off personality, turning a puzzle game with a fun gimmick into a storm of memorable quotes. Portal 2 even more so, GLaDOS going all out on the endearingly creepy threats.
• .hack:
  • Skeith. That One Boss, Name To Run Away From Really Fast, The Grim Reaper motif, creepy theme music, fan favorite. Skeith was so popular that he was made playable in the sequel.
  • Azure Kite, being essentially a zombified version of the first game's protagonist that is practically invincible and attacks people with no apparent provocation. Being a major badass probably helps.
  • Haseo, resident Psycho for Hire in SIGN with some Amnesiac Dissonance.
• Ridley of Metroid. Even the one person who seems a legitimate threat to him, the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy, who takes on entire planets full of parasitic horrors, is terrified of him. And he's a dragon, which automatically makes him cool. This even carries over to his first playable appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as he's not only given a creepier, visceral character design and a brutal fighting style, his intro trailer plays him up like a horror movie monster and gives him a bit of a sadistic personality that was only previously shown in the Metroid manga.
• Albedo, the crazy, regenerating, albino from Xenosaga. If you didn't get into the series because of KOS-MOS, chances are you got into it because of him.
• Creepers, the horrible kamikaze shrubs from Minecraft, are quite popular with the fanbase precisely because they're paranoia-inducing abominations.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The eponymous villain of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Scaring the pants off of the fans is the main reason people remember it, even though it had next to no personality.
  • From The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Zant. Midna is a heroic example.
  • Ghirahim in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. He comes off as incredibly frightening despite, or maybe even because of, his campy lines. Ties in with Success Through Insanity.
• Irisu/"Alice", the heroine of Irisu Syndrome!. Certainly doesn't come across as such at first glance. She appears to be a meek, quiet girl with a thing for bunnies and who likes cosplaying as a witch/maid. In reality, when she was very young someone killed her pet rabbit, leaving its decapitated head for her to find topping the pile of gore, which broke something inside her, mentally and spiritually. She's now a drug addicted serial killer who thinks nothing of murdering a group of people so the boy she's stalking will have time to pursue his own psychosis. And, oh, how the fandom loves her for it.
• World of Warcraft has The Forsaken.
• StarCraft has the Zerg, especially Sarah Kerrigan.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • Alice is a small, innocent girl in a blue dress who will happily scamper around highly dangerous locales in search for a friend. She's an undead Humanoid Abomination gifted with enough raw magical power to murder everything, and an astounding lack of understanding on exactly why it's not commonly appreciated to torture, kill and eat your friends.
  • Most of the demons and angels.
• Relius Clover and Ragna the Bloodedge of BlazBlue.
• Unsurprisingly, the Crapsack World of Dark Souls has many of these. Even the player character looks like a starved corpse after you die a few times.
  • Other characters in Dark Souls who fit the bill include Gravelord Nito, Artorias the Abysswalker, and Yhorm the Giant.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
  • Boethiah sounds like a combination of a crotchety old lady and the general of the army of Hell itself, and has a perpetually-dark shrine high on the side of a mountain which is filled with anarcho-nihilist cultists, huge bonfires, burned corpses, ancient architecture, random blood splatters, and one badass statue.
  • Mora appears (as a swirling void of purple and black, or a green void of eyes and tentacles if you have the Dragonborn DLC installed) to you in a hollowed-out iceberg where a lunatic's made his home, and names you his champion in an Affably Evil voice before explaining that he is the lord of all knowledge and discovery. And the artifact he gives you is widely considered to be one of the best in the game.
    • Also within the Dragonborn DLC you'll come across, Miraak your Dragonborn predecessor. Miraak's role is to be Skyrim's version of Darth Vader, forget Alduin this arrogant character is way more threatening and impressive than another Dragon to slay.
  • Cicero is obsessed with his "Mother" (actually the Night Mother, the dead/undead? leader of the Dark Brotherhood), is not above casual murder as per his membership in the Dark Brotherhood, dresses, talks, and dances like an unhinged jester, and is a fan favorite specifically because of that.
  • The Dragonborn can become this if he/she chose to become either a Conjuration Mage, an Assassin (Dark Brotherhood), and especially if you chose to be a Vampire from the Dawnguard DLC.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • While Sonic himself always appears welcoming and hip, Metal Sonic... is not. Perhaps Sonic's most threatening villain, Metal Sonic is the video game version of the Terminator, his appearance always looks blood-thirsty, and with the same abilities as Sonic himself this cold-hearted, robotic monstrosity really puts his creator to shame.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Mephiles. Not only does his appearance creep up the atmosphere, but Dan Green's highly over-the-top performance manages to be cheesy, creepy, and awesome all at once.
• Uboa (and maybe Madotsuki, too) from Yume Nikki
• Alex Mercer of [PROTOTYPE] is a shapeshifting, superhuman monstrosity, who is trying to piece together his damaged memories... by killing dozens upon dozens of people and consuming their intelligence. He's still the closest thing the game has to a hero.
• Colonel Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss. He's the Mad Doctor who invented fomicry, and, using this science, created the game's Optional Boss Humanoid Abomination. He mutated his own body multiple times - including fusing a spear with his arm and altering his eyes so they increased his skill with fonic artes and turned red. He's a sociopath who killed small animals as a child. His own sister calls him a monster. But he's also, without question, the game's king of comedy, absolutely badass, rather pretty and elegant, extremely well voice-acted in both languages, and overall an Ensemble Dark Horse to be reckoned with.
• The Hydra from Warriors Orochi 3. Not only does it look really intimidating and impressive, but even before the game starts, it slaughters every one of the Dynasty, Samurai, and Original characters aside from a small handful. It's practically invincible until the end game, and all attempts to take it down beforehand will be met with miserable failure.
• Kerghan the Terrible, First of the Necromancers from Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. His magic has transformed hin into a Humanoid Abomination, he once commanded undead legions and plans to do so again to end all life in Arcanum. Then there's his voice as he tells the Living One of his plans.
• The entire cast of The Black Heart. All creepy, all awesome - all playable!
• The Servant Grunt is pretty much the face of Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
• Resident Evil:
  • While the protagonists are rather well-liked in general, perhaps the most distinct character in the series is the Nemesis T-Type from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. He's tall, imposing, tough-as-nails, extremely persistent and so loved by the fans that he became a bonus character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
  • Speaking of Resident Evil. Albert Wesker also qualifies, he's malevolent, cruel, smug and even more dangerous than the mindless Zombies he creates. Indeed, any fan of the series would tell you that Wesker belongs here especially when he goes overboard in his plans.
  • Mr. X wasn't popular at the time of Resident Evil 2, but then the remake makes him into a terrifying unstoppable force going after Leon and Clair that puts players on edge, all while looking snappy in a trench coat and black fedora.
• Touhou Project:
  • No-one in Gensoukyou really knows if Yuuka Kazami really is the genocidal maniac she claims to be or if her claims about the earlier claim being part of her "daily teasing" are true. No-one really dares to find out, either. In a setting where even the most useless ability gets pushed to its logical applicational extreme, Yuuka's ability to "manipulate flowers" is limited to stuff like making them bloom and/or turn towards the sun... but in this setting Youkai also get Stronger with Age, and Yuuka is strongly implied to be one of the oldest Youkai period.
  • Flandre Scarlet is a cheerful and cute little girl who appears to be around 10 years old, but is actually a 495+ year old vampire who has developed some rather unnerving character traits after having been locked up in the Scarlet Mansion's basement her entire life. This is a method of protection her older sister devised, as Flandre has the explicit ability to destroy anything at will by automatically transfering the object's "eye" (described as the target's point of highest pressure) to her hand and crushing it. She also Does Not Know Her Own Strength, which might lead her to accidentally breaking toys, furniture and living beings. She's kind of a fan favorite in the fandom.
  • Yukari Yakumo's special ability allows her to open "gaps" into a black void filled with eyes (and in some portrayals, arms that reach out of her gaps). Yukari is also a high-class Reality Warper, bordering on godhood, and The Chessmaster behind almost all major events in Gensoukyou's history, including its creation.
• Team Magma Admin Courtney in Pokémon Omega Ruby behaves and talks in a robotic way and is a clear Yandere. She's also one of the biggest Ensemble Darkhorses in the game.
• The Legend of Spyro: Malefor doesn't appear on screen outside of few murals until the third game, but when he does, he proves every bit the terror he was built up as. Not only does he nearly cause the apocalypse, he does a Break Them by Talking routine that almost breaks Spyro's will to fight.
• Juri Han from Street Fighter IV is one woman almost every character fears (or should fear). Based on a spider, she's sadistic, erotic and almost charming. Besides the disturbing qualities, playing as Juri is often both rewarding and amusing (yes even in... those categories).
• From Dragon Age: Inquisition, Cole is basically Mind Rape-incarnate, with his ability to reach into people's minds and find their most painful memories. He has a bad tendency of blurting out what he senses and bringing up memories best left forgotten, which seriously creeps out many of his companions. Despite this, fans like him because of his earnest desire to help people and general kindness.
• Every single one of the murderous animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's. The fanbase tends to separate into those who think of them as this and those who prefer a Draco in Leather Pants interpretation of their bloodthirstiness.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 4: All the animatronics are damaged, giving them an almost undead-like and utterly horrifying appearance... And revealing thick metal endoskeletons, brutal weaponized claws and fangs, glowing mechanical eyes, and unique features for each of them, from legions of Creepy Cute Mini Mooks to Combat Tentacles or human organs.
  • Most of William Afton's various forms throughout the franchise qualify. He starts as a still-living human Serial Killer of children and Robot Master, before dying in the same springlock suit he used in his crimes. He becomes Springtrap, a decaying animatronic shambling around Fazbear's Fright as he hunts the player, complete with his own mummified corpse still inside. He gets burned alive, but survives that to repair his suit and return in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, where he gets burned again. Despite that, and getting tortured endlessly by one of his victims, he returns yet again as a Virtual Ghost capable of brainwashing and body theft... which he uses on hapless beta testers working on the game he's trapped inside, resulting in Vanny, the primary antagonist of Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach. Combined with Evil Brit voiceacting, a consistent Hair-Raising Hare motif, memorable Faux Affably Evil moments throughout the franchise, and the fact that he's been through multiple hellish fates but still manages to be on top, he's a villain who, despite the Broken Base about his Joker Immunity, remains fairly beloved by the fanbase.
  • The Daycare Attendant from Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach is a robot intended to, well, attend the daycare, but does a miserable job at it as a result of being unnecessarily creepy. It has a permanently affixed Slasher Smile, a lean clown-like design, overly fluid motions, and switches between a "sun" and "moon" variant depending on whether the lights are on or off. The Sun form is overbearing, with it dragging Gregory around while shouting in his face about all the activities it would like to do with him. The Moon is even worse, as upon the nights going out in the Daycare and it emerging it decides to 'punish' Gregory for being up past his bedtime, which starts a tense sequence where the player has to turn the generators back on while avoiding this thing, who is now hunting him down while muttering in a raspy voice about how "naughty children" need to be found and punished. Oh, and the Daycare Attendant traumatized at least one kid with this sort of behavior before the game started, as indicated by a note found in the area. It's adored by the fanbase, at least partly because it's terrifying. It helps that both forms have extremely quotable lines, and that the Sun form is a Harmless Villain with pitiable traits.
• Trevor Philips of Grand Theft Auto V is this. This sociopathic, maniacal and psychopathic... Canadian is ironically the most vicious of the three main characters. Often he gets ominous rumours about how unstable he is and half the time the rumours are TRUE!
• Metal Gear Solid: Psycho Mantis literally introduced this to the series, his legacy of mind raping spans from predicting how you play, to even what games you saved plus making your controller vibrate is ominous enough. Screaming Mantis from the fourth sequel served as a female tribute to him but lived up to the originals level of weirdness.
  • The Beauty and the Beast Group demonstrates how all four temperaments can share a spot in this trope.
  • In the third game, Naked Snake faces the Cobra Unit. Although all the members can qualify it is The Sorrow and The End who takes this trope to its full potential. The End is nothing but an old man with an incredible aim using his sniper his fight is suppose to induce paranoia. While The Sorrow's role was to make you feel guilty, and taking peoples lives is never a good thing.
  • Finally from the fifth game, comes the Parasite Unit aka The Skulls. You'd think a game like Metal Gear wouldn't introduce an overused concept like Zombies and Horror? Well...think again.
• The Dead Space series is solely created to be this if not a little over the top. The zombie aliens known as Necromorphs attack and kill in such disgusting ways just the image of recreating these deaths could make even a fully grown man wet themselves. The games are packed with jump scares, mystery and intense fear that will keep you awake at night.
• The Mortal Kombat Series has many freaky characters that can qualify here, but Mileena is this to a monstrous level. Don't be deceived by her curvaceous figure, because deep down, she's a genetic abomination.
  • Reptile gets a special mention too. A humanoid lizard ninja with abilities like invisibility and producing acid as a form of fluid is disgusting yet useful, capable of turning people into fizzing corpses...ouch! There's also a fatality of his that involves removing his mask, spitting out his long tongue, and eating his opponent's head.
• Agent 47 from Hitman. Revered as one of the videogame world's most dangerous assassins, 47 kills with less emotion than a shark. Comedy is dead to him, and many unfortunate contracts are as well.
• Scarecrow in the Batman: Arkham Series, and especially in Batman: Arkham Knight, manages to top every single appearance he's ever made before and is probably the single most terrifying iteration of the character yet. His "Nightmare Sequences" in Batman: Arkham Asylum were considered highlights of the game. He then curiously missed the next two games, before returning as the Big Bad of Arkham Knight, where he's become a full-fledged Magnificent Bastard, unleashing destruction on Gotham that not even the Joker was able to do before and managing to claim the honor of being the first villain in any piece of media ever to reveal Batman's true identity to the world. Not to mention the voice.
• Racter in Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong. One of your party members, he has creepy portrait with a reedy cigarette and a custom drone with animal-level intelligence and way too many sharp claws. He is also constantly civil, if a bit unsettling due to being, canonically, a diagnosed sociopath, though a sophisticated and high-functioning one, and has some very interesting and unconventional views on transhumanism and the future of humanity.
• Dr Nefarious from the Ratchet & Clank series, a maniacally cranky villain with a terribly short-fused temper all built into one twisted robotic genius. As Captain Quark's arch-nemesis (and eventually Ratchet and Clank's) Nefarious has serious racist issues against "Squishies" for he considers all robotic kind superior to biological life forms. However every now and then his system malfunctions, which is among his more comical scenes during the series.
• Undertale
  • Flowey, a Foul Flower with a penchant for Slasher Smiles, has a large number of fans for his scheming personality, messing with the game itself, and his badass design as a Final Boss.
  • The Amalgamates, combining the features of several undead monsters into highly disturbing somethings that may or may not be suffering through worse than hell. They are only encountered during True Pacifist in one of the bleakest areas of the entire game, are mostly not quite easy and definitely creepy to fight, and in at least one case really cuddly.
• Fallout 4: Various enemies such as Deathclaws, Super Mutant Suiciders and the many varieties of Assaultrons have all proven to be paranoia-inducing foes due to their over-powering one-shot killing features.
  • The Glowing Sea would also qualify, an ominous and unwelcoming land smoked by gassy green radiation and thunderstorms. Of course the player gets warned not to venture there unless it's absolutely necessary.
  • The Disciples from the Nuka World DLC, make a living from this trope. They enjoy killing freely as if it wasn't a crime, in fact they are soo callous about it, remains of their previous victims are scattered around their hideout.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!:
  • Monika is a Yandere... for the player. Not the character you're playing as, you. She gets a lot of love from the fanbase in large part due to her tragic circumstances, inappropriate puns, creepy glitching motif, and having the kind of personality you wouldn't expect from a character like her.
  • To a lesser extent, Yuri. While she was introduced as a sweet Shrinking Violet with certain Nightmare Fetishist tendencies, she undergoes severe Sanity Slippage in Act 2 as a result of Monika tampering with her file. Yuri devolves into a Stalker with a Crush who forces the player character to spend time with only her, tells her friends to kill themselves, and develops a habit of making nice faces. She has some of the most disturbing and nauseating scenes in the game, which isn't helped by the implication that Yuri is just aware of her deteriorating mental state, but can't do anything about it. Like Monika, she too has her fans.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Demon Lord Ghirahim uses his creepy, campy demeanour to disorient Link before and during fights with him.

  Ghirahim: This turn of events has left me with a strong appetite for bloodshed. (appears behind Link and rests his head on Link's shoulder) Still...it hardly seems fair, being of my position, to take all of my anger out on you. Which is why I promise up front not to murder you... No, I'll just beat you within an inch of your life! (lashes out his Overly-Long Tongue right next to Link's ear)

  (Link turns toward him and cringes)

• In the Monster Hunter series, Khezu is a wyvern-type monster known for its Eyeless Face, complete lack of a battle theme (unlike other monsters, in which case either a monster-specific theme, the Warm-Up Boss theme, or the map theme plays, there is no music when actively in combat with Khezu and no other monsters), its roar that sounds like howling winds, and its tendency to reside in caves, making for one of the creepiest monsters in the series. Perhaps because of all of this, it is also one of the most popular monsters, often coming in first or close to it in monster popularity polls in Japan.
• Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: The bad ending of this horror game has the protagonist become an ax wielding specimen. A fair amount of people actually liked this ending better than the basic good ending because of how badass the protagonist looked.
• Neopets: While most Darigan and Mutant pets are genuinely terrifying and others are Creepy Cute, a good amount of them are seen as so cool that they become heavily sought after.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner has a few in-universe examples:
  • Strong Bad considers Cardgage this, but no one else does. He’s definitely creepy, being an insane Reality Warper who seems to lust after every male character he meets, and who recently cursed the main characters for life but Strong Bad is convinced that Cardgage is the coolest person he knows, to the point where he wants to be adopted by Cardgage.
  • Large Bean is Strong Bad’s attempt to create a new iconic slasher-movie character, and definitely tries to invoke this, but fails, due to being a dude with a bean for a head.
  • In the 2009 fan costumes commentary, when a costume of the Jibblies Painting is presented, Strong Bad states he is too impressed with the costume for it to give him the jibblies.
• The Meta from Red vs. Blue. Take a vicious psychopath, give it one of the most menacing Leitmotifs in history, a host of creepy AI that whisper amongst themselves, a sinister "voice" that's really a creepy set of animalistic hisses and growls and make it a ruthless, inhuman assassin. Got that? Good, Now, make this guy a brilliant Genius Bruiser, a virtually unkillable Determinator, and one of the biggest badasses in the series. Congratulations, you've just created one of the most memorable and menacing villains in internet history. His controlling Artificial Intelligence, Sigma, manages to be even creepier once we meet him in person, mostly to the performance of Elijah Wood.
• RWBY:
  • Cinder Fall, thanks to a surprisingly chilling performance by Jessica Nigri, a well-known cosplayer. Being formally introduced in Season 1's finale with fiery Glowing Eyes of Doom really helps, too.
  • Neopolitan acts cutesy and elegantly, even when curbstomping Yang into unconsciousness, whimsically dancing and somersaulting around the fist-fighter while silently egging her on with mocking smiles. Once Yang is on the ground and unconscious, however, Neo casually strolls over to her, drawing out a hidden blade from her parasol. She raises the blade with the intention of stabbing Yang with a wide, creepy grin that shows all her teeth. She appears to be a mute, so her body language is often exaggerated and focussed on mocking her opponents as if to accuse them of being incompetent for not being able to hit such a tiny, vulnerable-looking girl. Given the chance to do violence, however, she seems to take a visibly vicious delight in drawing her blade.
• Cyriak. Seriously, this guy excells in making incredibly bizarre and terrifying videos.
• Dreamscape: Ethan. He is an Ax-Crazy hammy sadist who acts like he's completely off his nut, yet at the same time, manages to keep his head because he is Obfuscating Insanity. He's also a zombie sorcerer who can morph the terrain around him, and the son to a skeletal Evil Overlord.
• Vivienne Medrano is no stranger to this trope at all. Animations such as Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are among the most popular of her stories. Characters such as Alastor or Blitzo, does this trope justice especially since they already live in a literal Hellhole of a universe.

Web Comics

• Pandora of El Goonish Shive very frequently looks like a particularly creepy, sinister little girl. When she sleeps, she turns into an amorphous blob, and waking up involves various limbs stretching from said blob until she reforms. She is impressively ancient, somewhat unhinged, and a good source of nightmare fuel. She's also unambiguously supportive of our protagonists and ends up pulling at least one Big Damn Heroes to save them.
• Zimmy of Gunnerkrigg Court looks like a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, has creepy eyes, no manners, has been called a demon by other supernatural antagonists, creates microscopic abominations, and can send you to a terrifying place that can Mind Rape you and steal your soul. Fortunately her best friend and Power Nullifier Gamma has helped stave off an evil breakdown.
• Homestuck:
  • Terezi Pyrope, at least initially. She is probably the single largest Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant in the comic; she was practically introduced by trying to kill John and succeeding in a Bad Future, though she admitted that she was well aware it wouldn't actually work out. Then came Act 5, and with it context and character development aplenty, where it was proved that as trolls go she is probably one of the most pleasant. Even before then, she is one of the most popular characters in the fandom, though that may be more related to her more positive development.
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  • Pretty much all the seemingly Obviously Evil (Vriska, Eridan) or squicky (Equius) trolls once we got to know them better.
  • Gamzee approached this trope from a different direction: first we knew him as a rather laid-back guy, then he turned into a Creepy Awesome Slasher Movie Monster Clown villain.
• Whisper from Crimson Dark - imagine someone deliberately turning an almost-burned-to-death teenage girl into a combination of a Terminator and River Tam, who's snarkier than Zoe, and perhaps a bit of a Cloud Cuckoolander. Now, imagine that girl poking around inside a dead guy's brain for info and entertainment — and actually getting something useful out of it!
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: The Nasaghasts. Sweet mercy... the Nasaghasts. Dr. McNinja upgraded from the last time we saw a ghost, which was basically a sheet with a mustach and a wizard's hat, into flying death astronauts that you cannot escape from. The Nasaghasts...
  Chuck Goodrich: I can hear them whispering... they say I'll be okay... they're mad you thought putting on the suit would trick them...
  Dr. McNinja: [in a panic] I wasn't trying to trick them! I would never try to trick a ghost!
• Red from No Rest for the Wicked. Very, very, creepy.
• Roommates:
  • When the Erlkönig "broke into" the home of his son Jareth, cast a Blood Magic Depower spell on him in his sleep, and then twisted the world into a Lotus-Eater Machine the audience reaction was: "Awwww! That's kinda nice, in a terrifying Fae lord way!". The guy is also a Magnificent Bastard. Jareth's Superpowered Evil Side counts too (The Fatalist Large Ham Fair Folk Fourth-Wall Observer, just truly and deeply alien^note He told the heroic characters that it's their fault that a villain is needed in the narrative so "fight or die" and he meant it.) and helps that his normal personality is a lovable Jerkass Woobie.
  • Erik already had this in his original canon, but he takes it to the next level by threatening the Anthropomorphic Personification of Narrative Causality itself. He was bluffing for time, but that doesn't make the imagery any less impressive.
• Nebula: Aside from being the Anthropomorphic Personification of a black hole, Black Hole is a Magnificent Bastard who effortlessly plays everyone into furthering her plans. That she's a Faux Affably Evil Humanoid Abomination with Lovecraftian Superpowers who terrifies the other characters just as much as she does the audience just makes her even cooler.

Web Original

• It is hard to describe but this definitely applies to the Slender Man. Mind you, fans still treat him like pure terror but he's also quite popular precisely because of his uniquely subtle, yet terrifying creepiness.
• SCP Foundation: A number of SCPs, notably 682 and "Able".
• The Spoony Experiment has Black Lantern Spoony. Just take a look at this trailer.
• Viceroy from Chadam.
• Mr. Fox in Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time.
• Carmilla of the Whateley Universe. She combines Body Horror, Combat Tentacles, and Eldritch Abomination. She's a lust demon whose touch kills the grass she walks on. And there's a prophecy that her spawn will some day wipe humanity from this planet.
• Quite a large number of the various side characters in Welcome to Night Vale. Perhaps the most obvious would be The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home. As creepy and inhuman as she is, she's also really funny. (Also, she would like your wi-fi password.)
• Critical Role:
  • Clarota a mindflayer that joins Vox Machina while they're in the Underdark, is very well liked despite the fact that he's a Cthulhumanoid and his species literally eats brains to survive.
  • People are also really Love to Hate the Briarwoods — even the players admit that, while they're terrifying, they're also kinda hot.
  • As of the third arc, Percy starts going this route. He's always been a bit of a Gadgeteer Genius with some Success Through Insanity, but the after the Briarwoods' return he starts torturing captives, Hearing Voices and, at one point, literally transforming into demonic smoke.
• Tamara in The Nostalgia Critic's review of The Wicker Man (2006) is a Slasher Smile Manipulative Bitch Uncanny Valley Girl who tortures him, but said torturing him gets her a job because views go up when he's in pain.
• Rackaracka's personification of Ronald McDonald distorts the iconic clown into a psychopathic mess of a human being. A true badass to the name, Ronald is hilariously dark and sickening tackling themes like advertising and drug abuse with as much vulgar as possible.

Western Animation

• This trope owes Batman: The Animated Series some serious money. It's easier to list the villains who don't qualify for this trope - but we're going to list the ones who do regardless.
  • Clayface, whose shapeshifting transformation powers are unnerving, gross, and beautifully animated.
  • Two-Face's design in this show was the first to use the half black/half white business suit look, and it's safe to say that the character has never looked better.
  • The Joker. Full stop. Credit to the creators for taking into account an executive mandate (that the Joker couldn't kill anyone on the show) and using it to come up with the horrifying "Joker smile" gas, which is actually much worse. Not to mention Mark Hamill's legendary voice acting, which has become so iconic that pretty much every other actor to portray the character since has fallen into one of two categories: "trying to do Mark Hamill" or "not even bothering to try and compete with Mark Hamill."
  • Scarface and the Ventriloquist, sweet Jesus. Even in the long and storied history of terrifying ventriloquist dummies, Scarface easily rises to the top of the pack. Not to mention that the character's status as a bloodless wooden dummy allowed the creators to inflict all sorts of hideous violence on him that they could never get away with on a human being.
  • The show's first incarnation of the Scarecrow was more of an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, but the Retool version, EGADS. He sprays people with literal weaponized Nightmare Fuel. He looks like a rotting corpse in black preacher robes that the creators explicitly compared to Leatherface. And he has the utterly bone-chilling voice of Jeffrey Combs. Is it any wonder why this version of the character is so popular?
• Dinotrux: This has to be expected from the animated show that features prehistoric creatures mixed with vehicles. You can undoubtedly know that few terrifying - yet awesome - creatures would appear in this kind of setting.
  • Scraptors are essentially mechanical raptors from Jurassic Park that are not only fast and won't let up until they catch their prey, but can also use their talons as grappling hooks.
  • The same applies to their flying counterparts, mechanical pterosaurs called Scrapadactyls. And if you think they can't get any cooler, meet their cousins Stealth Scrapadactyls who have laserbeams as eyes.
  • Splitter is a mechanical Dimetrodon with freaking saws on the sides of his body, and even a larger one as his sail! Thanks to this series, Dimetrodon is even more awesome than before!
  • When the Parasaurolophus appear in the media featuring dinosaurs, they're always depicted as graceful, friendly dinosaurs. Well not this time! Meet Pounder, half-Parasaurolophus, half-piledriver who uses his head to pound everything and everyone he sees in his path. Time where ornithopods were punching bags is over now...
  • You thought Mosasaurus is scary? Meet her mechanical cousins - the Aquadons! These half-Mosasaur, half-submarine aquatic species of Dinotrux not only put a decent fight to land-dwelling Trux and Tools, but also have giant saw as their dorsal fin which they can use to cut through your boat. Indeed, you're gonna have to find a stronger boat...
  • You probably didn't expected that the scariest creature from the show is actually a sauropod, didn't you? Well, meet Dreadtrux - half-Dreadnoughtus and half-Bucket-wheel excavator, and the biggest of all Dinotrux, even dwarfing the Craneosaurus. It lives up to it's name due to the fact that other creatures leave when they sense it's presence. And what's makes this Trux more awesome, is that Ty managed to befriend one, and with her help, he and his friends built their biggest build ever in the equally awesome sequence!!!
  • Shredadon (half-Suchomimus, half-scrap metal shredder) makes spinosaurus from Jurassic Park III look like a compy due to its shredding mechanism. How? This beast can reduce anyone with its mouth into what could be considered a Ludicrous Gibs. Essentialy this guy could be considered a Redeeming Replacement to Splitter, since both of them are very dangerous Dinotrux with sharp weapons, but unlike Splitter, one of this Trux actually befriended the gang after Ace repaired him!
• Invader Zim:
  • Gaz is the creepiest and most terrifyingly competent character in the whole series.
  • Zim himself, when he isn't being a Jerkass Woobie.
• The Scooby-Doo Show: Many villains combine both awesomeness and terror. Notable examples are Old Iron Face (who wears an imposing iron mask and seemingly uses sharks like water skis while brazenly whipping them), the Ghostly Gondolier (who has a glowing skull face and is introduced swinging into an opera pit like Tarzan to steal a necklace), the snarling, cape-wearing Cat Creature, the KISS-styled Diabolical Disc Demon, and Dr. Coffin (who hypnotizes dogs by playing an organ and gets some good scenes standing on a cliff and laughing in the middle of a thunderstorm).
• Raven of Teen Titans overlaps this with Creepy Good. Slade is also this.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • Tarkin was in three episodes. We knew who he was and what he was going to become. We saw him bonding with Anakin, making sure we saw A New Hope in a new light. And we watched as he served under Evan Piell, one of the most badass Jedi in existence. It was definitely creepy and very awesome.
  • The Walking Spoiler that is Darth Maul, who managed to redeem himself from his lacklustre portrayal in the movies by going straight into this trope.
  • Darth Sidious, when he decided to stop playing Orcus on His Throne and remind everyone why he's the Lord of the Sith and just how beneath his league the show's main cast is. He pulls off the Force Choke with just a light gesture on couple of Mooks and pins them against a wall. Then he takes on Darth Maul and Savage Opress on his own in an outright Curb-Stomp Battle, reducing two villains that proven to an outright menace against the show's usual protagonist and reduces the fight to Mook Horror Show. It's even made clear before the fight started up he could have just killed them without resorting to using his lightsabers given that he easily pinned and immobilized them (something we had never seen another Force user pull off, let alone against characters that had brought down caves or hurled starfighters), he just fought them hand to hand for fun so he could torture them.
  • Let's not forget the Nightsisters of Dathomir, from ghosts to zombies, the Nightsisters have a society knee-deep in occult-based beliefs. Unfortunately, most of them paid the price for unleashing their wrath against Dooku.
• Its own Sequel Series Star Wars Rebels gives us at least one per season:
  • The Inquisitor, a ghostly pale warrior with a buzzsaw lightsaber and the effortlessly cool voice of Jason Isaacs, as well as his boss Governor Tarkin, whose first action in the series is having the goofy villain duo decapitated by the Inquisitor for their failure.
  • Season 2 gives us the grand-daddy of them all, AKA Darth-Fucking-Vader. Every encounter the main characters have with him is a battle just to stay alive and he opens his first episode by devastating an entire Rebel fleet single-handedly.
  • Starting in the Season 2 finale and dropping in occasionally in Season 3 is much-beloved Clone Wars veteran Darth Maul, who ends his first episode by brutally slaughtering two Inquisitors and slicing Kanan's eyes out onscreen.
  • The much-beloved Grand Admiral Thrawn, who is every bit the Magnificent Bastard he was in Legends and then some. Half the fun of Season 3 is watching him run circles around the protagonists. And that's not even mentioning his chilling, kickass theme music.
• The earlier Star Wars: Clone Wars series introduced General Grievous as the Jedi equivalent of a Slasher Movie monster, whose Establishing Character Moment was to curb stomp five Jedi, fighting three of them simultaneously.
• The eponymous Ren of The Ren & Stimpy Show.
  • Anthony's Dad from within the show. A protective father and certainly something everyone fears is the wrath of an angry dad who lost their son, his long, ominous lecture to Ren and Stimpy gets increasingly heart-stopping fooling the viewers into thinking big trouble is about to happen...turns out he's actually not a bad guy after all.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Koh the Face Stealer managed to became an Ensemble Dark Horse because of this trope.
  • Princess Azula, too. She's a frighteningly competent tracker and acts really off around Zuko. In addition, while evil, you might almost want to see her succeed^note keyword being "almost", because you know it will look awesome when she does.
  • Hama, thanks to being the inventor of bloodbending.
• Sequel Series The Legend of Korra has Amon, and Tarrlok. Later came Desna and Eska.
  • The Red Lotus as a whole deserve a spot here, all creepy and deadly to say the least.
• Nearly everything in Courage the Cowardly Dog, but somehow Freaky Fred manages to top them all.
• The Creeper from Animalia. He is the only character with no redeeming quality, a skilled Manipulative Bastard and a surprisingly evil and cruel villain for an otherwise rather light-hearted series.
• The Grim Reaper in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. His debut rescuing Baron Strucker from SHIELD was awesome and the only thing thwarting it? Nick Fury.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Discord is a Faux Affably Evil, manipulative, Mind Raping God of Evil who turns Equestria upside down For the Evulz. He's also a Large Ham and the funniest character in the whole series who enjoys enormous popularity.
  • Nightmare Moon, an Omnicidal Maniac Mad Goddess trying to bring The Night That Never Ends, with one of the best Evil Laughs ever.
  • Chrysalis the Changeling Queen. Her Villain Song is creepy but still fun to listen to. She's also a weird, kinky example, being essentially a downplayed succubus that feeds on love and can take any shape she desires, all the while looking like a freaky insectoid zombie.
  • King Sombra. He's a tyrant that condemned his subjects to a lifetime of slavery, hid away the MacGuffin that he knew could kill him, took every step one could think of to keep anybody from ever finding it, and has an all round demonic appearance to fit his personality.
  • Tirek, a character fans had been wanting to see in the modern show in part because of how terrifying he was, and the show still made him an Adaptational Badass in the form of a Power Parasite that drains the magic from beings he has the strength to, along with sucking much of the life from them. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, and with enough strength Alicorns and even Discord.
  • Fluttershy's superhero counterpart "Saddle Rager"'s hulked out form is grotesquely proportioned and downright terrifying, but those are simply reasons for why Flutterhulk is so awesome.
  • Cozy Glow, the Arc Villain of Season 8. An Enfant Terrible who wants to weaponize friendship in order to rule Equestria, she manages to be one of the smartest and most dangerously competent villains in the show, smoothly playing everyone around her like a fiddle. Being "pen-pals" with Tirek pretty much instantly qualifies her for this.
• Transformers: Prime:
  • The ever-present, silent, faceless Soundwave. There's a reason everyone but Megatron fears him- he's capable of not only gathering intel from nearly anywhere on Earth, he's an expert at curb-stomping upstarts who disrespect Megatron. He's so cool, he's capable of snarking without even speaking. And when he does speak, he doesn't use his own voice, but instead prefers to Quote Mine the words of others and play them back.
  • Prime may have the most scary and threatening incarnation of Shockwave to date, with a deep, monotone voice, pragmatic and emotionless way of thinking, and a similar ruthlessness to Soundwave.
  • Airachnid, for being essentially a Transformer Serial Killer
• Adventure Time:
  • The Evil Cat from "Dungeon". "I'm going to unzip your skin and wear it like a little coat."
  • Marceline started off as this, then she became more The Woobie while her creepy traits were either downplayed or disappeared entirely.
  • Marceline's father, Hunson Abadeer, is a soul-sucking Humanoid Abomination who's basically the vampire equivalent of Satan, and he's loved because of it.
  • The Lich, Walking Wasteland and Knight of Cerebus extraordinaire. Helps that he's voiced by Ron Perlman, who voiced the aforementioned Slade.
• Doctor Destiny on Justice League Unlimited was a murderous, skull faced mind raping Dream Weaver with a Creepy Monotone voice. He was one of the most popular villains in the series, largely because of how well they kept to his comic depictions. Yes, even that one.
• Most aliens and villains in Ben 10 (and some of them in the sequels as well) are subject to this trope. Among them are Vilgax, Kevin, Ghostfreak, Stinkfly and Big Chill, Aggregor, Darkstar, the Highbreeds, and Zombozo. Ben himself turns out to be this in "Above and Beyond" when he suddenly starts acting like an Ax-Crazy villain with a collection of Psychotic Smirks and a chilling Kubrick Stare, toying with the Plumbers' Kids without having to lift a single finger and barely even raising his voice as he tells the Plumbers' Kids that he's going to have fun tearing them apart. It's still all an act but it shows that Ben can make a surprisingly competent villain if he wanted to be.
• Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, all of the Darkness Civilization creatures. Particularly, Alakshmi's Razor Kinder Puppet, The Choten's Trox, General of Destruction and Empress Megaria the Collector. Allie's Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow is more like Ugly Cute in her regular form, but becomes this trope when going One-Winged Angel.
• In Dan Vs., The Imposter/Telemarketer. In his first appearance, he steals Dan's identity and gains the reputation of a friendly, if manipulative, villain. In his second appearance, he's taken several levels in badass in his post-prison days. He essentially uses his knowledge of Dan and his new job as a telemarketer to try and drive Dan completely bonkers. And succeeds.
• Professor Pericles in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Udo Kier's performance certainly helps.
• Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls became an enormous Ensemble Dark Horse thanks to being a sadistic interdimensional demon.
• Over the Garden Wall has at least one of these characters in almost every episode, and even the harmless ones (like Enoch and The Highwayman) are delightfully creepy. The king though is definitely The Beast, a shadow creature with a terrifying baritone that turns those lost in his forest into trees, and is heavily implied to be the Anthropomorphic Personification of suicide.
• Wuya from Xiaolin Showdown in both ghost and true form, Wuya has creepy written all over her. Although physically very attractive in her true form, deep down she's a seductive and cruel Witch.
• Spirit from Ōban Star-Racers neither good or evil, Spirit gives off this impression without literally doing anything more than just racing. The entire main cast were clueless of his intentions, he was only there to race nothing more...and nothing less.
  • Though he's only around for one episode, Ceres makes quite an impression. He's a living architecture warrior from an extinct race with a flute that can screw with your head and makes a very badass speech about the nature of humanity's bickering in his race with the heroes.
  • Big Bad Canaletto is made of this. A towering, nigh-omnipotent raven-like entity with a cruel, cunning mind to boot. His manipulations are behind literally everything in the Great Race and he pretty much curb-stomps anyone who goes against him. His ultimate goal is to use the power of the Avatar to destroy the universe, then build a new, perfect one in his role as "the lord of purity."
• Master Cyclonis from Storm Hawks is an ambitiously powerful Goth girl with quite the god complex. She's hauntingly dark with a reputation for knowing a lot of obscure magic, though still young it's obvious she knows more than the plot was willing to reveal.
• Lucy Loud from The Loud House is Lincoln's seventh sister, and arguably the most intimidating of them all. She's cute in her own morbid ways and is frighteningly competent, appearing out of nowhere scaring quite a few other characters (often without trying to). Of course she supports her siblings, even if one of them forgets her from time to time.
• From She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • Shadow Weaver, who is an initially unrepentant Hate Sink and child abuser, not to mention having disturbing and dark sorcerous powers. This particular interpretation makes her one of the most interesting and delightfully nightmarish presences on the show.
  • The corrupted version of Catra is a piece of living, breathing Nightmare Fuel, but also looks extremely cool and serves as the culmination to massive build-up.
  • Horde Prime is a dangerous and disturbing narcissistic figure with heavy overtones of Religious Horror. Thanks, however, to the amazing performance Keston John puts in and the sheer level to which he outdoes every other villain in terms of heinousness, he's generally one of the best-received aspects of the fifth season.
• Few characters from Primal (2019):
  • The infected sauropod/plague monster. A zombie dinosaur meets The Juggernaut who terrifies our seemingly fearless protagonists, chases them across the land and who's death causes an Alas, Poor Villain moment.
  • The Night Feeder. A cruel velociraptor-esc Serial Killer covered in Ominous Obsidian Ooze that slaughters dozens of predators.
  • Lula. A Necromancer witch who proves to be Creepy Good and helps Spear and Fang with magic powers and incredible cunning.
• Emperor Belos from The Owl House. Emperor Belos defines the trope. A terrifying masked figure whose throne room is adorned with a giant beating heart, who delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle to everyone who tries to fight him. Where Belos really shows his stripes as a figure of horror, however, is "Hollow Mind"— an episode that reveals that he's an insane, manipulative Witch Hunter driven by an unshaken belief that all humans are good and all witches are evil, and has twisted relationship with his deceased brother, simultaneously both loving and hating him by creating Grimwalkers like Hunter before executing them for failing to live up to his impossible expectations, and all accompanied by a brilliant Soft-Spoken Sadist delivery from Matthew Rhys. The sheer level of genuine horror and Macbeth-like tragedy of his character has gained him tons of praise for just how twisted he and his entire storyline are. Plus, the design of his monstrous form that lies underneath his human-like guise is well-received being genuinely terrifying and yet miserable looking monster.
• A few examples from Steven Universe:
  • Malachite is one of the most intimidating combinations to ever combat the Gems but is also very impressive a fighter.
  • Alexandrite is incredibly tall, has six limbs, a blood-red face, and a nasty looking second mouth under her jaw. She's also the single most powerful being we've seen so far - a Fusion of four different Gems.
  • White Diamond and her Pearl, who are rather uninstalling with unnerving behavior and Non-Standard Character Design and have that much more presence because of it.
• Hazbin Hotel has a few:
  • Alastor, hoo boy. He may be an utterly sadistic Serial Killer who gives everyone the heebie jeebies, but the combination of his style, his iconic voice, and impressive powers make him both terrifying and awe inspiring to watch. Especially when he shows his real face.
  • Zestial is a towering, spider-like demon tinged with black and neon green. He speaks in a gentle, yet menacing voice, as well as with very archaic diction, due to apparently being one of the oldest sinners in the show, on top of a likely more powerful overlord than Alastor. He is certainly powerful and feared enough for people in the street to set themselves on fire just to escape him...waiting for the list of what makes him badass? You just read it!

Real Life

• Bacteriophage viruses look creepily unnatural, with their thin bodies, microscopically thin 'legs' and strange bulbous heads that make them look like tiny robot-spiders, and their main method of attacking/reproducing being 'landing' on top of a larger cell and quite literally injecting it with its own DNA. They're so distinct compared to the mostly amorphous single-celled organisms that inhabit the world that they wind back up to being cool, and it helps that they're completely harmless to living beings and do fundamental cleanup work that prevents bacterias from reproducing too much.
• The Bigfin/Magnapinna Squid became almost memetic due to how creepy-yet-awesome it is, due to a combination of being extremely rare and found only at incredibly low depths, and its absurd anatomy that makes it look like something straight out of a lovecraftian story. What little footage there is of said creature is often admired by laymen for just how unnerving it can be.

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