Stephen King’s human villains are by far his most frightening.
Here are 10 of his most deranged human antagonists…
Stephen Kingis the creator of many preternaturally terrifying villains.
They exist in the real world and lurk around every corner, just waiting for their moment to strike.
Margaret White
Carrie(1974)
I can see your dirtypillows.
Theyll be looking at your body.
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Is there anything viler than an abusive mother?
Insulting, torturing, punishing, judging, Margaret wielded religion like a sword.
Margaret is a subtle evil, her every word possessed the power to shame her mentally fragile daughter.
Carrie was a broken girl, broken by the woman that should have been her protector.
Further Reading: Every Stephen King Movie and TV Series in Development
9.
John Ace Merrill
The Body (1982)
Were gonna get you for this.
There is no goodness in Merrill; he exists to torment and to threaten.
King again uses Merrill inNeedful Thingsas an employee of Leland Gaunt.
Listen, if a person works for Leland Gaunt, that person is a special kind of evil.
Big Jim Rennie and Junior Rennie
Under the Dome(2009)
Murder is like potato chips.
You cant stop with just one.
After Dome Day, he became a pocket Hitler that was determined to rule his town or destroy it.
His son, Junior, was a serial killing sexual predator and a necrophiliac.
Father and sons evil fed off each other with Big Jims apathy feeding Juniors neediness and rage.
He is the classic villain that truly believes himself to be the hero.
Stephen King said that Big Jim was patterned after former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Well let that one just sit there.
Further Reading: The 10 Best Supernatural Stephen King Villains
7.
Craig Toomey
The Langoliers (1990)
Time?
What the hell do YOU know about time?
Ask ME about time, ask ME!
A man like Craig Toomey is dangerous in any situation.
He is the rage and the hatred that could live behind the eyes of any man.
InThe Langoliers, a commercial airplane gets displaced from time.
The people on board are forced to witness giant, round creatures devour the seconds left behind them.
He has an overinflated sense of self-importance that feels the world exists only for him.
Mother Carmody
The Mist (1980)
The end of times has come.
Not in flames, but in mist.
She is so charismatic that the terrified shoppers start to believe her.
She is a mythical witch, a hag in human form that always has a Bible quote ready.
She is everything potentially wrong with religion and faith embodied in the form of a lone woman.
All she has to do is evoke the name of God, and people do her killing for her.
Further Reading: 16 Best Stephen King Stories
5.
Henry Bowers
It(1986)
Youre dead meat, fat boy.
Like Ace Merrill, Bowers is a school bully who terrorizes his neighborhood.
The gleeful joy in human suffering makes him a terrifying human evil in a book fraught with supernatural danger.
Bowers torments The Loser Club, Kings protagonists inIt.
Further Reading: Its Bill Skarsgard on Becoming Pennywise the Clown
4.
Nothing…or you will do the hardest time there is.
No more protection from the guards.
Ill pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the Sodomites.
The three wardens combine together to make one piece of crap.
The wardens are the devil of Andys Hell.
Billy the kid gon guarantee you that.
Wharton was the anti-John Coffey.
Where Coffey lived to ease the pain of others, Wharton lived to cause it.
It turns out; Wharton committed the act, and enjoyed it.
Further Reading: 12 Best Stephen King Movies
2.
Percy Wetmore
Youve been declared competent, son, know what that means?
Means you gonna ride the lightning.
Yeah, two villains fromThe Green Mile.
It really is that darn good.
The inmates living on the Green Mile must constantly face the specter of death that is their punishment.
Wetmore does all this because hecan.
He is a man completely corrupted by power and his position of authority.
His hypocrisy and random acts of abject cruelty make him a greater evil than a man like Wharton.
Whartons evil justis, while Wetmore chooses to cause pain because it makes him feel like a man.
Wetmores evil is a cowards sort of evil designed to make a small man feel large.
Annie Wilkes
Misery(1987)
SLIPPED AWAY!
SHE DIDNT JUST SLIP AWAY!
YOU MURDERED MY MISERY!
She is the evil lurking behind the eyes of even the most unassuming person.
Annie is not happy and what follows is a harrowing journey through pain and control.
Martin in this situation, it wouldnt be right).
A version of this article first appeared on September 5, 2014.
