28 Actors Whose Performances May Just Be The Most Terrifying Of All Time
We recently asked members of our BuzzFeed Community, "If there was an Academy Award given for 'Most Terrifying Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture,' what are some of the performances that would've for sure taken home the gold?" and people really came through with some truly terrifying potential nominees.
ABC
So, with that in mind, here are just a few of the most popular performances people would like to nominate for this fake Oscar that we 100% made up:
1.Stanley Tucci as George Harvey in The Lovely Bones (2009)
"Absolutely chilling."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
2.Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet (1986)
"A sadistic, psychopathic rapist and murderer who can turn insanely violent at the slightest provocation (or, sometimes, none at all)."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
3.Lupita Nyong'o as Red in Us (2019)
"That performance never fails to scare the crap out of me."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
4.Bill Skarsg?rd as Pennywise in It (2017)
"His acting was phenomenal, but — because of how scary the movie was — his performance was not as celebrated as it should've been."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
5.Shirley Stoler as Martha Beck in The Honeymoon Killers (1970)
"Her path from petty crime to cold-blooded (and I mean COLD. BLOODED.) murder was terrifying. Frankly, it was the best female performance of 1970, and deserved a standard acting nomination, if not a win."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
6.Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000)
"His intensity was frightening."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
7.Toni Collette as Annie Graham in Hereditary (2018)
"She deserved an Oscar for the last act of the movie alone."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
8.Edward Norton as Roy in Primal Fear (1996)
"And also in American History X. He was equally frightening in both."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
9.Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990)
"She could go from friendly, and even a little silly, to terrifying in a matter of seconds."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
10.Kenneth Branagh as Andrei Sator in Tenet (2020)
"He was so menacing to me. He was so controlling, and really had the whole 'if I can’t have it, no one can' vibe."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
11.Ben Kingsley as Don Logan in Sexy Beast (2000)
"An absolutely magnificent performance. He was completely psychotic and utterly chilling."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
12.Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler (2014)
"I was horribly disturbed by his performance. He was absolutely insane in such a quiet, upsetting way. When I finished that film, I felt sick. I went and saw him live on Broadway a few years later and still couldn’t quite forget how he made me feel watching that movie."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
13.Dame Judi Dench as Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal (2006)
"Like, are you kidding me?!"
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
14.Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)
"It gave me anxiety for weeks — especially the 'Why so serious?' speech scene. To this day, that scene makes my stomach drop, even though I know what's going to happen."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
15.Tony Todd as Candyman in Candyman (1992)
"He was equal parts terrifying and sympathetic."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
16.Robert Helpmann as the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
"That dude gave me the heebie-jeebies."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
17.Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin in Spider-Man (2002)
"For the longest time, I didn't understand why Dafoe's face made me uncomfortable. I recently realized that his Green Goblin left me subconsciously afraid of him."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
18.Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer in The Prophecy (1995)
"It's a criminally underrated performance. He plays the character with this cold detachment and arrogance that perfectly depicts how much he thinks of humans — which is nothing."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
19.Bette Davis as Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
"I get full body shivers just thinking about her. A truly mesmerizing performance."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
20.Mark Duplass as Josef in Creep (2014)
"The absolute creepiest performance I have ever seen. He might be a serial killer in real life, he was that good!"
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
21.Glenn Close as Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987)
"An iconic performance, and — while there was good competition that year, including Cher in Moonstruck and Holly Hunter for Broadcast News — I think Glenn Close deserved that Oscar."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
22.Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow (1999)
"Childhood nightmares for YEARS."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
23.Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)
"I'm pretty sure the Oscar he actually won boiled down to it being an extremely frightening performance. Just terrific."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
24.Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000)
"Her depiction of a lonely elderly woman who fell to addiction hit me so hard, and personally, really changed how I saw my grandparents and loved ones."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
25.Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955)
"Adding an oldie, but goodie to the list. He played that con man preacher with LOVE/HATE on his knuckles."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
26.Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther in Orphan (2009)
"That little girl was playing a 33-year-old woman, and did it SO well that I almost forgot it was still a little girl acting!"
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
27.Malcolm McDowell as Alex in A Clockwork Orange (1971)
"He played a psychopathic narcissist with a smile."
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
28.And finally, of course: Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
"He wasn’t kept in a dungeon behind ballistic glass for nothing!"
The clip they'd show alongside their nomination:
You've read their nominees, but now it's your turn! If there was an Academy Award specifically focused on honoring the year's most terrifying performances, which would you nominate? Who'd they miss? Share your pick(s) in the comments below!
Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.