The Real-Life Actors Behind Masked Horror Movie Villains, from Freddy Krueger to Samara from ‘The Ring’

Nick Castle as Michael Myers

Though different actors have taken on the role of Michael Myers throughout nearly 50 years of Halloween, Nick Castle, now 76, was the original — and the most recent — actor to play the villain.

Castle first appeared as the menacing Myers when the franchise launched in 1978. As different versions and spinoffs of the film followed, the actor stepped away but later came back when the series launched its final trilogy. He played the creepy figure in Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022).

Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger

Robert Englund has been the subject of many nightmares since 1984. Englund originated the role of Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, portraying him in eight films before Jackie Earle Haley took over in the 2010 remake of the original.

According to Variety, fans decried the reboot without Englund as a “series low, [so] another chapter was never made.” And even though playing Krueger is a large part of his legacy, Englund told the publication he won’t be reprising the role again.

“I’m too old and thick to play Freddy now,” the 76-year-old joked. “I just can’t do fight scenes for more than one take anymore, I’ve got a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up, but I would love to cameo.”

He does, however, believe Kevin Bacon would be a great replacement, and told the outlet, “I know he respects the genre, and he’s such a fine physical actor. I think that in the silences and in the way Kevin moves — it would be interesting.”

Brad Dourif as Chucky

Another horror movie O.G., Brad Dourif has voiced Chucky since the Child’s Play franchise launched in 1988. Not only has Dourif given voice to the possessed doll in the movies, but he’s held the role in Chucky the TV series as well.

Dourif seems to have truly found his calling within the horror genre. The 73-year-old actor appeared as Sheriff Lee Brackett in Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009), played The Gemini Killer inThe Exorcist and he also played serial killer Adam Rain on an episode of Criminal Minds.

Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise

Though his brother Alexander has a penchant for playing bad boys on TV, Bill Skarsgård took things to the next level when he stepped into the role of the petrifying, sewer-dwelling killer clown Pennywise in It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019).

Not only did Bill don Pennywise’s big clown shoes, but he also told Conan O’Brien that the killer clown’s signature creepy expression was a bit he’d been perfecting since childhood.

“My older brother Gustaf, who’s an actor as well, had this ability to point his lip in a very strange way,” the 33-year-old explained. “For some reason — I don’t know how — I understood that I could do it as well,” he continued before demonstrating the freaky face to the camera. “So I came up with this character named Jürgen and I would pull my T-shirt over my head to [isolate my face] … and I would chase my little brother and scare him.”

Roger L. Jackson as Ghostface

You may want to be seated for this surprising fun fact: Roger L. Jackson, who voices the serial killer Ghostface in the Scream franchise, is also the same person who voices Mojo Jojo in the children’s cartoonThe Powerpuff Girls.

Though the serial killer in each installment of Scream is always revealed to be a different person, the phone voice has remained consistent since Jackson, now 65, took on the job back in 1996.

Also on his impressive résumé of voice acting are credits in video games such as Star Trek, The Lion King: Simba’s Mighty Adventure, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Furry and many others.

Derek Mears as Jason Voorhees

Ari Lehman, Warrington Gillette and Ken Kirzinger were some of the actors who played the sinister figure of Jason Voorhees before the machete was passed on to Derek Mears in the 2009 version of Friday the 13th.

And he’s had some practice menacing others onscreen: a trained stunt actor, Mears, now 51, played the Classic Predator in 2010’s Predator, a “thug” in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the titular character in DC Universe’s Swamp Thing, among other roles.

Mark Burnham as Leatherface

Another character who has seen many inhabitants, Leatherface was popularized by Andrew Bryniarski in the early aughts when he played the brutal killer in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006).

Gunnar Hansen and Dan Yeager took turns playing him in 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D before Mark Burnham took over in the modernized reboot in 2022.

Though he otherwise lays low these days, Burnham, 47, has Wrong Cops, Snowfall and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in his list of credits.

Jamie Clayton as Pinhead

Jamie Clayton followed in the footsteps of Doug Bradley, Stephen Smith Collins and Paul T. Taylor when she took on the role of Pinhead in the Hellraiser franchise in 2022.

Though she revealed she wasn’t exactly a method actor, Clayton admitted she had to maintain some sort of distance from her colleagues on set.

“I’m very used to walking on set and everybody being like, ‘Hi!’ and I’m like, ‘Hi!’ On this, now, I walk on set, and I’m really quiet, and I’m like, ‘Don’t you f—ing talk to me,’ ” the 45-year-old told Entertainment Weekly.

“And I would stay in character while we were filming, while they were setting up different shots, moving the cameras around, fixing the set, doing the things. I had to stay in it because it’s a heavy place to go to, and so to go that deep, you can’t just come back when they’re resetting a shot and have a sip of Schweppes Bitter Lemon and then go back in. I had to just stay there.”

Bonnie Morgan as Evil Samara

Creeping out of the well and putting everyone on notice was Bonnie Morgan, who played Samara in 2017’s Rings, the last offering from The Ring franchise. Fans (and non-fans, really) of the franchise will never forget her turn as the haunted girl who delivered the terrifying spider crawl as she chased Naomi Watts’ character in 2005’s The Ring Two.

And the bubbly contortionist, 42, might have set a trend with those one-of-a-kind movements.

“I’ve been told that I’m actually responsible for contortion zombies, contortion horror. Because you see it all over the place now, in The Exorcism of Emily Rose and things like that, and a lot of people said, ‘You are responsible for that movement being in horror,’ ” she told DailyDead.com. “And I was like, ‘I am, really? Cool!’ I always thought it was The Exorcist, but I will totally take that credit.”

Bonnie Aarons as The Nun

Bonnie Aarons’ portrayal of The Nun (aka Valak) in the The Conjuring franchise was so gripping, it paved the way for a spin-off. The actress first appeared as the character in 2016’s The Conjuring 2 as a last-minute addition during reshoots, then came back for Annabelle: Creation the following year. The first installation of The Nun would then come out in 2018.

Takako Fuji as Kayako

Takako Fuji originated the role of Kayako when the character and concept that would become The Grudge were still being refined back in Japan in the late ’90s. She played the chilling ghost in a short film version and then in Ju-on and Ju-on 2.

When director Takashi Shimizu remade the films for an American audience, he called on Fuji once again and the actress would play Kayako in The Grudge and The Grudge 2. Though she didn’t return for The Grudge 3 — Aiko Horiuchi took over — it’s safe to say, Fuji’s mark on the franchise is indelible.

Joseph Bishara as Bathsheba

Playing sinister demon Bathsheba in The Conjuring universe isn’t Joseph Bishara’s only impressive talent. The multi-hyphenate has a flourishing career as a composer in the horror genre, having worked on The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Insidious: The Last Key, Annabelle, The Curse of La Llorona and more.

Outside of Bathsheba, he also plays the Lipstick-Face Demon in the franchise.

Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil

A lot of disturbing things happened in The Exorcist — Regan MacNeil’s 360 neck turn remains one of the most diabolical things to happen on film — and for its innovations, the 1973 movie scored 10 Oscar nominations. One of those nods was for Linda Blair, who expertly played the possessed little girl.

She reprised the role in 1977’s Exorcist II :The Heretic and wouldn’t return to the franchise until 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer.