For some reason, characters in weird or unsettling movies, or even innocuous ones, tend to scare me more than characters in “scary” movies.
Probably the most frightening for me was the clown/mime-looking character in Lost Highway. First runner up: the black evil rabbit in Donnie Darko.
Please tell me I’m not the only one.
My vote goes for the preacher Henry Kane in Poltergeist 2.
For a decidedly un-scary movie, the actor Julian Beck managed to scare the crap of of me using about 3 minutes of screen time.
The child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The Oompa Loompas in Willie Wonka.
General Woundwort in Watership Down.
(I have childhood issues I’m still trying to overcome. 
)
Jon Leguizamo’s character in Spawn.
I’m sure there are more, but that’s what I can come up with off the top of my head.
Marty Augustine in The Long Goodbye. He was capable of anything.
Any character played by Christopher Walken.
Particularly his reading of “Goodnight Moon” on The Simpsons. I don’t even know if it was really him–point is, it gave me the willies.
Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet. Creepee!
Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) in Young Frankenstein.
[shivers; in the distance, a horse screams]
ET. I was a little impressionable tyke at the time ok?
Bill Lumberg in Office Space.
Good call on Dean Stockwell’s character in Blue Velvet. “That candy-colored clown they call The Sandman…” Brrr!
Maynard, Zed, and The Gimp in Pulp Fiction. I hate that whole sequence, even though I love the movie.
Also, Drexl Spivey, the pimp played by Gary Oldman in True Romance was pretty scary.
The Baby in Eraserhead
John Malkovich in Dangerous Liasons.
Haha, love the Christopher Walken children’s book reading on The Simpsons! I think it was Jay Mohr who did the impression.
Walken: Goodnight Moon, Goodnight spoon.
[Children slowly crawl away frightened]
Children why are backing away. You, in the red sweater, scooch closer.
Nicodemus, the rat king, and the Owl in The Secrets of NIMH.
Both of mine are from David Lynch movies:
The woman in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With me who has a red flower on her dress and does an odd dance while making a strange facial expression.
And the woman in Eraserhead who lives under the radiator.
The dead baby in Trainspotting
Boo Radley in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
Large Marge from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Many people have said the Old Man next door from Home Alone.
Not me, of course…
Every single person who has met my dad has said that he reminds them of the old man next door from Home Alone.