Halloween gives us the perfect opportunity to watch and celebrate our favourite on-screen horror villains do what they do best: kill.
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While viewers all around the world (however disturbingly) enjoy the gory onslaught of movie murders, one study has tracked just how efficient our favourite horror villains are at being scary.
The study factors in jump-scares, kill-rate and running data from 162 beloved horror movies to help establish the horror genre's most effective Halloween villain.
It's no surprise that topping the list is the undisputed king of slasher movies and the emblem of pure evil - Michael Myers.
The Halloween franchise's headline villain has terrorised teens and anyone between him and Laurie Strode since John Carpenter's 1978 classic first came out.
Since then, the soulless masked man has killed an average of 18 people and caused 11 jump scares per film.
Myers easily tops the list based on the study's points system, followed on the podium by the Werewolf from the An American Werewolf series and The Grudge series' Kayako.
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Other prominent villains rounding out the list's top 10 include the Death Angel from the A Quiet Place films at number five, Ghostface from the Scream franchise at number nine and everyone's favourite murderous doll Chucky at 10.
Don't be upset if your favourite villain didn't get a shout out, with iconic killers like Pennywise, the Xenomorph from Alien, Freddy Krueger and even Australia's own The Babadook appearing further down the list.
The study also measured total kills, where Michael Myers' 106 kills were topped only by Bo from the forgettable but fun House of Wax.
Bo racked up 154 bodies in just 113 minutes.
Somewhat less considered in the horror realm, another study has also measured the sexiest Halloween villains.
Because that's a thing, apparently?
Topping this disturbed list from the folks at Psychic World, which is based against a facial golden ratio, is a young, suited up Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.
The Wall Street serial killer is followed by Hannibal Lecter from the the Mads Mikkelsen NBC series and the iconic Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
It's not worth looking into why Freddy Krueger is next on the list or why Leatherface features at all.
Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
