A big part of what made Wes Craven's villains so thoroughly creepy is that he preferred them to be human - even Freddy Krueger was just like you and me. Once…

Here is our list of Wes Craven's top five bad guys.

1) Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street 
Not only his most famous but surely Carven's most terrifying creation, Freddy Krueger was evil even before he started haunting people's dreams. A child killer who was hunted down and killed by a vengeful group of parents, Freddy is creepy on many levels: his burnt disfigured face (those vengeful parents set fire to him), his razor blade glove and striped jumper combo and, most of all, that he can get you when you're most vulnerable, in your sleep. When Freddy is pulled into the real world, though, he has normal human vulnerabilities.

2) Pluto in The Hills Have Eyes 
Played by Michael Berryman (who has real birth defects, and who went on to star in dozens of horror movies), Pluto might look terrifying, but he's no supernatural being - just a deformed human affected by radiation poisoning -  and a reminder of what could also happen to ANY OF US. Especially if we're left out in the Nevada Desert without any outside contact for years.

3) Dargent Peytraud in The Serpent and the Rainbow 
A change of pace for Craven, but The Serpent and the Rainbow is scary as hell nonetheless, and way before all talk of the Zombie Apocalypse was as widespread and weary as it is today. And the villain, Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae), is again human - but can see inside your mind. A high priest of the voodoo arts, Peytraud also has a penchant for hardcore torture. Properly scary. And again, based on a supposedly true story ...

4) Ghostface in Scream 
Ok, so technically not an actual villain per se -  it's only a mask disguising human bad guys (who know all the horror movie tropes), but you have to admit, back in the mid-90s and before the subsequent three sequels, it was damned scary. Plus screenwriter Kevin Williamson was apparently inspired by a real story.

5) 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' from The People Under The Stairs 
Two criminals end up becoming the hunted rather than the hunters when they take on the wrong house. Craven was reportedly inspired to create his bizarre 'family' by a news story he read about a seemingly respectable family who had kept their children locked up their entire lives, and were found when some African American burglars were reported breaking into the house - the director apparently enjoyed the irony of the perceived threat to a middle-class neighbourhood leading to something far more evil.