Would Hannibal Lector count? He scared the hell out of me.
Leatherface probably.
The ‘Michael Myers’ scene in Baby Driver was hysterical.
Ghostface was my first thought.
Then Leatherface really made a strong case.
Then I started thinking about Jessica Biel in the remake of TCM and got super distracted.
I’m not a fan of horror movies, but it seems to me that you’ve all missed the big daddy: Jaws, the Great White shark.
I don’t think ‘it’ is a slasher; I think he um, shctupps one to death. He’s a real fucker.
IT, as in Pennywise is an excellent example, however.
I think Ghostface, just based on me being a 80s/90’s kid and that was the Big Slasher Revival at the time. I do admit that the General populace would have trouble recognizing Michael Myers as one of the iconic slashers - his look is not nearly as often copied as Chucky or Ghostface. But the Music will bring chills to every living Person.
Such a missed opportunity.
As somebody who only has a passing familiarity with slasher flicks (I think I may have seen Ft13th I & II), that does work for my situation. I mean, I know of the Halloween movies, but I had to look up who Michael Myers was, because all I think is SNL when I hear that name (though, yes, that Myers goes by “Mike” there.) Chucky, Freddy, and Jason are all immediately recognizable to me.
But the OP is about “best” not necessarily “most well-known.”
It has more movies than Child’s Play, but are all the movies direct sequels like Child’s Play?
I thought Leatherface went through reboots.
Leatherface, for all of the reasons mentioned upthread, plus he predates the other three by at least 4 years.
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I wish I’d thought of that!
OP allows us to set our own criteria to define “best” and notoriety seems as good as any. But using other criteria, it could go either way.
Total kills: Myers has the edge.
Ability to be resurrected: Tie, Myers and Chucky have both been “killed” many times.
Comedic kill skills: Chucky all the way.
In any case, if we make a Mt. Rushmore of movie slashers, both are on it with Freddy and Jason.
[bolding mine]
According to this site, Jason has the body count crown, by a lot. I suspect they’re counting all of the movies, reboots included, but even so, interesting numbers. And they do properly attribute all of the murders in the first Friday the 13th to his mother and not him.
Somewhat surprising the Freddy has relatively so few, but his game isn’t so much straight-up murder as it is to terrorize, then kill.
Child’s Play is the only significant slasher franchise not to get a remake, yet, but one is in the works, apparently.
But I wouldn’t consider whether a given movie is a reboot or a straight sequel in this - just whether it used the same villain.
Which leaves the rankings as I stated before, for sheer numbers, though consistency-wise, Jason and Michael fall behind the other 3, since both franchises had movies with other villains (the evil costume company/witches’ coven from Halloween 3, and Jason’s mom from Ft13th, and the copycat from Ft13th 5).
Leatherface was also (lightly) based on a real person, while the others are flights of fancy.
The same real person who also inspired Norman Bates, as well as Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs - Ed Gein. (Though Gein was nothing like a slasher, or even properly a serial killer - he only killed two people. He was mostly a grave-robber. But the details were certainly something out of a horror movie - he’d used the skins of his victims and the women he’d exhumed to make leather, some used for clothing (thus Leatherface), including components of a ‘woman suit’ (thus Buffalo Bill). All because of his obsession with his mother (thus Bates).)
he was voted best movie villain ever in a 2003 poll , above Norman Bates and Darth Vader . (villain poll is at bottom of the link)
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains - Wikipedia
In 1988, people magazine did a photoshoot of the 4 slasher icons.
Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers and…leatherface.