Horror Villains That Are Inanimate Objects, Ranked by Spookiness

Description of 'The Video Tape' in the list 'Horror Villains That Are Inanimate Objects, Ranked by Spookiness'RingRing(1998)Spiral(1998)Ring 2(1999)Ring 0(2000)The Ring(2002)The Ring 2(2005)Rings(2017)

Classification: Cursed Videotape

Why Does It Come To Life?: A psychic girl named Samara (Sadako in the original Japanese version) uses her powers to make a cursed videotape that kills anyone who watches it in seven days. The tape is not alive, but psychic powers fill it.

Why Is It Scary?: What is scarier than the idea that any random VHS tape you watch could end your life?

Featured In: The Conjuring(2013)Annabelle(2014)The Conjuring 2(2016)Annabelle: Creation(2017)Aquaman(2018)The Curse of La Llorona(2019)Shazam!(2019)The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It(2020)

Classification: Haunted Doll

Why Does It Come To Life?: Hoo boy, where to begin? Annabelle is the breakout star of theConjuringfranchise, but far from its main character. Details on Annabelle's origins were scarce until the 2017 prequel film,Annabelle: CreationThe story goes that a dollmaker's 7-year-old daughter, Annabelle, perishes unexpectedly. He and his wife pray for the return of their daughter, by any means necessary. That summons a demon eager for a host. It takes the form of the daughter, then plants itself inside a doll. But what it really wants is a real human host.

Why Is It Scary?: Dolls are supposed to be cute toys for boys and girls. Turning that into an entity with evil power is shocking.

Featured In: Hellraiser(1987)Hellbound: Hellraiser II(1988)Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth(1992)Hellraiser: Bloodline(1996)Hellraiser: Inferno(2000)Hellraiser: Hellseeker(2002)Hellraiser: Deader(2005)Hellraiser: Hellworld(2005)Hellraiser: Revelations(2011)Hellraiser: Judgment(2018)Hellraiser(2022)

Classification: Demonic Puzzle Box

Why Does It Come To Life?: The Lament Configuration, also called Lemarchand's Box, opens a gateway to the underworld in theHellraiserfilm series. Those who try to solve the box's puzzle get a passage into a grim dimension full of demons and other evil creatures. People might call the Configuration a tool for the Cenobites, led by Pinhead, to draw unwitting souls into endless pain and suffering, but the box has its own life.

Why Is It Scary?: It looks like a simple toy. But it is a gateway to pure evil.

Featured In: Evil Dead(1981)Evil Dead 2(1987)Army of Darkness(1992)Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday(1993)Cabin in the Woods(2012)Evil Dead(2013)Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom(2016)Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom(2017)Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness(2018)

Classification: Haunted Book

Why Does It Come To Life?H.P. Lovecraft created the idea for the Necronomicon. Various horror creators took it when Lovecraft's work entered the public domain. Lovecraft wrote in the fictional history that the initial text came in Arabic from a worshipper of Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu. The book holds spells, incantations, a history of the Old Ones, and a way to summon them. Lovecraft's fictional history shows why the book got banned.

In theEvil Dead films, the book is so cursed with dark energy it routinely comes to life, developing eyes and a mouth full of fangs. Yes, there is a : The book has the power to summon mythical creatures with unimaginable power, aiming to wipe out the world.Kindle version.

Why Is It Scary?: The book can summon mythical creatures with immense power, intending to destroy the world.

Featured In: Event Horizon(1997)

Classification: Demonic Spaceship

Why Does It Come To Life?: The filmEvent HorizonThe film gets its name from a spaceship that opens a portal to the underworld. How does a spaceship open a portalGlad you asked. The Event HorizonThe Event Horizon was a test ship for an experimental faster-than-light propulsion system. That system sent the ship out of our dimension and into a world of total madness; a malevolent entity possessed the ship.

Why Is It Scary?:The ship's interior is lit so that being on it feels funereal.

Featured In: The Babadook(2014)

Classification: Cursed Book

Why Does It Come To Life?: The book, titledMister Babadook, does not gain sentience. It serves as a warning that the Babadook is coming. It is closer to the Lament Configuration than Chucky. Still, it cannot be gotten rid of, and its pages change to show the horrors the main characters face.

Why Is It Scary?: Like Chucky, Annabelle, or Brahms, making something associated with childhood innocence evil automatically makes it unsettling.

Featured In: Child's Play(1988), Child's Play 2(1990), Child's Play 3(1991), Bride of Chucky(1998), Seed of Chucky(2004), Curse of Chucky(2013), Cult of Chucky(2017), Child's Play(2019)

Classification: Haunted Doll

Why Does It Come To Life?: Chucky gains the ability for mayhem through possession. This is the spirit of the deceased crook Charles Lee Ray. Charles inexplicably found time between crimes to learn voodoo, which lets him implant his soul into a children's toy. Chucky survived the original film's ending, allowing him to return in seven sequels plus a weak 2019 remake. That film swaps the voodoo plot for a complex backstory about malevolent artificial intelligence.

Why Is It Scary?: No one likes children in danger, especially because of their haunted dolls.

Featured In: John Carpenter's The Fog(1980)

Classification: Haunted Inclement Weather

John Carpenter's The Fog is ranked among Horror Villains That Are Inanimate Objects by Spookiness.The founders of the town sunk a boat filled with lepers. They used the gold from the ship to build their town. The ghosts of the sailors who died haunt the town through a glowing fog. Ghosts of the crew and the boat inhabit that fog. If you see fog lingering in the distance, run the other way.

The fog makes it hard to see. This means anything can be inside it, even ghosts with leprosy.It is hard to see in the fog. Anything can be inside. Even ghosts with leprosy.

Featured In: John Carpenter's Christine(1983)

Classification: Haunted CarHaunted Car

Christine comes to life because it possesses the spirit of its first owner. In the movie, John Carpenter, a horror icon, directed it. The car was rotten from day one. Christine is more than just an evil car. It has magic regenerative powers. You can set it on fire, drive it off a cliff, or crush it into a cube, and it keeps coming back. This shows American ingenuity.Stephen King's novel shows the car's first owner's spirit possesses Christine. John Carpenter directed the movie, making the car rotten from day one. Christine is more than just an evil car. It possesses magic powers to regenerate. You can set it on fire, drive it off a cliff, or crush it into a cube; it keeps coming back. This shows American ingenuity.

Christine cannot be stopped, like the Terminator.Christine cannot be stopped, like the Terminator.

Featured In:Poltergeist(1982), Poltergeist(2015)

Classification: Haunted Home Electronic DeviceHaunted Home Electronic Device

The television in the Freeling house acts as a portal. Spectres from a disturbed burial ground use it to enter our dimension, potentially abducting young Carol Anne Freeling. The 2015 remake uses the same setup, though character names change.Spectres from a disturbed burial ground use the Freeling house's television as a portal to our dimension. They might abduct young Carol Anne Freeling. The 2015 remake uses the same basic setup, though character names change for reasons we don't know.

As dependent as we are on screens, the thought these devices could harm us chills us.:

Featured In: The Boy(2015), Brahms: The Boy II(2020)

Classification: Non-Supernatural DollNon-Supernatural Doll

The Brahms doll is not alive. In the first film, the Brahms doll replaces a dead child, Brahms Heelshire. The movie suggests the doll is haunted and causes gruesome acts in the Heelshire home. However, the doll is just a doll. The actual Brahms caused all the scary things; he is still alive and living inside the mansion's walls.: The Brahms doll is not alive, technically. In the first...BoyIn the first film, the Brahms doll replaces a dead child, Brahms Heelshire. The movie suggests the doll is haunted and causes gruesome acts in the Heelshire home. However, the doll is just a doll. The actual Brahms caused all the scary things; he is still alive and living inside the mansion's walls.who is still aliveand living inside the mansion's walls.

Technically, Brahms is a regular doll, but maybe he is not.Brahms: The Boy IITrailers for Brahms: The Boy II suggest a supernatural explanation for the doll's eerie nature, making it possible there is more than meets the eye with Brahms.

The empty, cold eyes.: Those empty, cold eyes.

Featured In: Hausu(1977)

Classification: Haunted Domicile

The house is haunted by the spirit of the protagonist's aunt. The aunt died waiting for her fiancé to return from WWII. Her spirit now controls the house, which has an unquenchable hunger for unmarried women. This is a cruel irony.: The house is haunted by the spirit of the protagonist's aunt. The aunt died waiting for her fiancé to return from WWII. Her spirit now controls the house, which has an unquenchable hunger for unmarried women. This is a cruel irony.

Why Is It Scary?If you are not an unmarried woman, perhaps you are not? Still, you must have empathy for people!

Featured In: Death Bed (The Bed That Eats)(1977)

Classification: Demonic Bed

Why Does It Come to Life?Tears from a demon who loved a human woman make a bed come alive. That bed eats people. Anything that eats people is scary, but this film is shoddy, full of cheap effects, making the absurd idea hard to accept.

Why Is It Scary?: No one knows what happens in sleep. You are totally defenseless!

Featured In: Maximum Overdrive(1986)

Classification: Haunted Military Vehicle

Why Does It Come to Life?To be accurate, almost every machine inMaximum OverdriveThese vehicles come alive. This specific vehicle learns to use Morse code to talk. What does a truck ask for when it gains sentience? More fuel. This is the truck version of asking for a hamburger after hard exercise.

How do these machines come alive? They do, like anyone else, thanks to the mystical qualities of a passing comet.

Why Is It Scary?: We do not want our machines to rise up and communicate via Morse code. That is us.

Featured In:Rubber(2010)

Classification: Evil Tire

Why Does It Come to Life?: Rubber never explains how or why a tire comes alive and starts killing people. That is the movie's point: nothing happens for any reason. If that frustrates you, skip the film about the rampaging tire.

Why Is It Scary?: It is not. Some ideas are too silly, even for us.