8 DC Movie & Show Villains That Were So Much Scarier Than They Had Any Right To Be

DC villains can range from the goofy to the scary, but some TV shows and movies take these characters to a whole other level of terror. Prior to the DCU, DC projects have ranged in their approaches from campy and silly, to extremely dark and gritty.

While the early shows like the 1960s Batman were very close to the comics in terms of style and humor, they put a unique spin on their villains that made them distinct. And more recent DC projects have done the same. However, sometimes, the changes take these comic villains and make them utterly terrifying.

From Gotham, to The Dark Knight, and Superman & Lois, to the Doom Patrol, all of these projects have introduced an array of villains. And in adapting their stories to live action, these characters have evolved to become complete and utter nightmare fuel.

8

Professor Pyg

Gotham

First up, Gotham is a spectacular show that takes Bruce Wayne back to his childhood days as a young orphan living in a city full of corruption and suffering. Meanwhile, Gotham City PD, and in particular Detective Jim Gordon, end up being thrown into some truly haunting situations.

In the comics, Professor Pyg is a disturbed serial killer who turns his victims into living dolls. And while that is profoundly dark, the live-action iteration of the character just manages to have more gravitas and intensity in their performance.

Gotham’s Professor Pyg has a vendetta against corrupt police officers, and in the GCPD, there are plenty of them. So, he goes on a killing spree, taking down the police in various brutal ways, and then placing a pig mask on their faces.

He is eventually killed, but this version of the character gets a chance to feed some of his victims human pies made from others he has killed before eventually being taken down. From start to finish, he is one of the most horrifying villains in the show.

7

Ally Allston

Superman & Lois

On a very different note, and in a very different show, Superman & Lois introduced Ally Allston in season 2. Now, Ally Allston is better known in comics by her villain name, Parasite, and she is a real nasty piece of work.

In the comics, Parasite has been a name given to several different supervillains, but they all generally share the ability to absorb and use other’s powers. They tend to be villains to Superman, and Alexandra Allston was just a teenager when she became Parasite.

However, the way the show introduced this variant of the character is clever as they introduced them as being from an Inverse World, and then saw them become the leader of a cult. Allston’s charismatic nature inspired people to follow her, but the lies and community she created felt incredibly unsettling.

6

Dr. Julian Rush

The Penguin

The Matt Reeves Batverse is slowly expanding, and within the first movie, and the spin-off series, The Penguin, the tone of these stories is proving to be incredibly dark. This can also be seen in the introduction of the original character, Julian Rush.

Dr. Rush is not someone who has a direct counterpart in the comics, but his story throughout The Penguin is terrifying enough to land him on this list.

He is introduced as being a doctor in Arkham Asylum, who is responsible for caring for the patients there. However, it’s clear that he is corrupt, just like many of the other residents of Gotham City, and he uses the patients in Arkham to experiment and research.

While he is not directly linked to the comics, he does appear to have an obsession with fear, and harnesses and controls this emotion in others, which suggests he may become Scarecrow, but either way, he’s a subtle monster who takes advantage of those in his care.

5

Enchantress

Suicide Squad

The 2016 Suicide Squad gets a lot of grief for being a confused and dissatisfying film from the DCEU, but it did have some bright spots. Namely, their inclusion of the terrifying villain, Enchantress.

Played by the brilliant Cara Delevingne, this character is obscured underneath the unassuming June Moone. However, the monster lurking beneath the surface frequently appears. Over the course of the movie, Enchantress manages to take over Moone’s body, and attempts to resurrect her brother Incubus.

Every time the character appears, it’s genuinely chilling. However, as she gears up to fight Task Force X, she manages to command an army of freshly enslaved beings, and unleash the full extent of her power. No doubt it’s terrifying, but it also becomes something that is utterly captivating.

Meanwhile, the comics tend to cast this character in an anti-hero role, and they are generally less intimidating than the version that appears in Suicide Squad. Much of the character’s background remains the same, but it’s less horror, and more dark magic.

4

The Riddler

The Batman

One of the most transformative iterations of a villain from the comics to the big screen has to be Paul Dano’s iteration of the Riddler, as seen in The Batman. While the comics show the Riddler to be a campy and goofy villain who delights in testing Batman, this version is decidedly more hands-on.

Both the comic and movie versions are clinically insane, but Dano’s version trades in the question mark embellished green suit jacket for a dark green jumpsuit to conceal his identity. And in the opening scene of the film, he manages to observe a man from inside their home, before brutally and savagely beating them to death.

Dano is spectacular in the role, and both when he dons the mask, and when he sits in handcuffs with his face on display, he manages to convey a monster on the very deepest level.

3

Jerome & Jeremiah Valeska

Gotham

Returning to Gotham, and highlighting another outstanding performer, Cameron Monaghan played the dual role of Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska in this series with skill and gravity. Strictly speaking, these characters are not based on the DC Comics, but they have clear connections to the Joker.

Gotham implies that the Valeska’s may actually serve as an inspiration to the figure that would eventually rise up in Gotham and call themselves the Joker, but there is no clear connection or big reveal to indicate this is definitely the case.

However, throughout the time that the Valeska’s appear as rivals to Jim Gordon and young Master Bruce, they are genuinely chilling. Both are disturbed and broken in their own ways, but they prove to be complete monsters as they inflict anarchy and chaos on unwilling participants in Gotham.

2

Candlemaker

Doom Patrol

Candlemaker is one of the most ominous monsters found in DC Comics, who began life as an idea or essence of all that is evil and unsettling. Eventually, this managed to grow beyond its immaterial state, and it became a powerful entity capable of changing reality.

In order to do this, it initially allied itself to a young girl, Dorothy Spinner. However, it went on to wreak havoc of its own accord. Unusually, this being is actually a lot less threatening in the show Doom Patrol, but they remain incredibly menacing and terrifying nonetheless.

The Candlemaker befriends young Spinner, and despite being destined to fight, they become friends. However, the mere presence of this terrifying creature is enough to stir up fear. And the fact that it was born in dreams makes it all the more nightmarish.

1

Joker

The Dark Knight

The Joker being a dark and intense villain was not a new idea in 2008 when The Dark Knight was released. However, there had never been a live-action version of the character like Heath Ledger was able to deliver.

With the films being directed by Christopher Nolan, it scrapped a lot of supernatural details in favor of making a grounded, gritty, dark story, and Ledger’s Joker was invaluable in creating that tone.

This Joker is a compulsive liar, a murderer, a monster, and someone who is completely unpredictable. While Batman tries to anticipate his moves, he always falls behind, while the Joker sits laughing as he pulls the strings.

Some of his most outstanding and unsettling moments come from him simply telling the story of how he got those scars. All in all, he stands out as one of the most terrifying and tense villains from any DC project.