The realm of horror has birthed some of the greatest and most hair-raising villains in cinema. Unfortunately, the genre is also responsible for spawning a plethora of god-awful baddies.
Although it’s annoying when a horror film is let down by a weak antagonist, it’s more frustrating when they had the potential to be great. Nobody was expecting The Gingerdead Man, Leprechaun, or Killer Clowns from Space to be the next Hannibal Lecter.
But since Prometheus was an Alien prequel directed by the original filmmaker, moviegoers were hoping for an adversary as memorable as the Xenomorph. Because Hellraiser turned Pinhead into an icon, fans prayed the reboot would devise an equally menacing foe. Since Dreamcatcher was the by-product of horror auteur, Stephen King, it looked like the film adaptation would be the stuff of nightmares.
Even though the villains in these properties could’ve worked, things didn’t come together for one reason or another. Because of these evildoers’ intriguing designs and fascinating backstories, they should’ve left viewers shaking in their boots. But as this list proves, every one of them fell short of expectations.
Despite Jigsaw’s minimal appearance in Saw, he quickly became as iconic as Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, primarily because of Tobin Bell’s towering performance. Even though he infrequently showed up in Saw II and Saw III, viewers never tired of the puppet-crafting mastermind’s musings or witnessing his grisly tests.
But since Jigsaw was terminally ill, the devious villain wasn’t going to be around forever. And when he kicked the bucket in Saw III, the saga could’ve ended then and there.
However, in Saw IV it was revealed that Jigsaw had a secret apprentice working behind the scenes. This protégé was revealed to be Mark Hoffman, the same cop tasked with bringing Jigsaw down.
Unfortunately, Hoffman is nowhere near as compelling as his mentor. The duplicitous officer fails to emulate the same menace as Jigsaw, despite being more ruthless. His backstory, although intriguing, is quickly discarded, turning Hoffman into a one-note baddie. His motivation keeps changing, making it difficult to understand what he’s trying to accomplish.
Despite having five movies to flesh out the character, Hoffman is never half as interesting as his predecessor.
