The Villain Playoffs: Round 4—the last contenders!
Added 2024-06-04 17:42:12 +0000 UTCLet’s conclude the preamble to July’s Final, Ultimate, Every-Evil-Must-Go Villain Showdown with one last bunch of bads from which to pick your favorite to advance.
I suppose Karen from staircase, having mostly coasted her way to a 3rd round victory, is off somewhere smirking confidently at all challengers--but is it just possible she’s actually the horror fiction equivalent of the 2007 New England Patriots and can be upset on the verge of a perfect season?
And to all those villains who fell short of a playoff spot: If you ever find your way into another story, just remember, style only gets you so far; you’ve gotta make characters pay dearly for not respecting the threats you pose. Always focus on the kill! Chin up, and tomorrow’s another day!
coming later this month:
Image from The Death of Cardinal Beaufort (1789), Joshua Reynolds
Comments
I forgot to comment on this one. Let’s go Tarpy!!
Thorne Russell
2024-06-22 17:02:26 +0000 UTCWhen you land, just look for a guy named Stanley, driving a white Sunrise Touring bus. I hear he's a pretty good driver! :O
Alain Kapel
2024-06-21 20:32:40 +0000 UTCDone. My flight to Belgrade lands at 4:07!
Soren Narnia
2024-06-21 20:24:01 +0000 UTC1) Since you love hiking and coffee, not only can you live here, but you basically have your passport printed and stamped already. :) 2) Only if it won't interrupt the flow of new KP stories! On a little side note, we have plenty of little old houses, railways, abandoned buildings etc. that could easily inspire a new story or two!
Alain Kapel
2024-06-21 20:21:38 +0000 UTCGreetings! 1) Can I live there? 2) Can you come get me? :)
Soren Narnia
2024-06-21 20:06:46 +0000 UTCNew to KP since early this year, and my latest was The Smoke Child (I'm listening to them all chronologically). So I can't comment on the Gifters or Branko Kingdom. But the alien creatures from fields are something so uniquely looking, and terrifying in a suggestive and incomprehensible way, that I can't help but vote for them still. Father Hall would be close second with his evil manipulations. P.S. big love from Croatia to S.N., you found a huge fan in myself and, hopefully, more of my countrymen! :)
Alain Kapel
2024-06-21 18:57:16 +0000 UTCpossession is the one I think about on a weekly basis
Jude
2024-06-17 19:12:20 +0000 UTCBranko Kingdom sucks but his tall sister can throw me through the drywall at my dad’s fixer-upper and demean me if she wants
HPCringecraft
2024-06-17 09:27:42 +0000 UTCI voted Fields. Each time I try to picture an alien other, my body gets chills. It's fun creepy and cool.
Hilde Marciniak
2024-06-09 13:56:59 +0000 UTCShe had a crooked, black wig. Egads! But alas, I am leaving her behind. What a character, though!!!!
Mechelle
2024-06-09 12:11:22 +0000 UTCThe more we speak of tarp openly, the more awareness we create of its threat!
Soren Narnia
2024-06-07 09:50:29 +0000 UTCSpeaking of reapparances, it always catches me off guard when one of your stories off-handedly mentions a tarp lying around. It's surprisingly frequent!
Jason Cournoyer
2024-06-07 03:31:12 +0000 UTCTrue, true
Soren Narnia
2024-06-06 14:03:27 +0000 UTCNun Eating Demon = NED. Its name is NED! Seems so obvious ;)
Lori K.
2024-06-06 12:50:25 +0000 UTCAs someone who was active in addiction the first time I heard possession, and now coming up to ten years sober, Father Hall is absolutely the scariest of all the villains. He’s right where he’s supposed to be in this poll.
Doug Reed
2024-06-06 12:44:38 +0000 UTCI just couldn’t figure out what to call the nun-eating demon for a poll!
Soren Narnia
2024-06-06 01:27:37 +0000 UTCThere are just too many damn good frighteners in the KPH anthology to keep track of…that’s what it is.
Lori K.
2024-06-05 23:32:37 +0000 UTCOh my gawd! Sisters is one of my all-time favourites…I cannot believe it passed me that the baby deer/nun-eating demon was not on the list. Soren, whatsa matta with you!
Lori K.
2024-06-05 23:26:03 +0000 UTCNow that all competitors have been revealed, and it's confirmed that my favorite ... villain? Source of horror? Thing? was not included, I just have to pour one out for "The Baby" from Sisters, haunting my thoughts eternally.
Brian J
2024-06-05 18:26:27 +0000 UTCI think one of the things that makes Father Hall extra creeptacular to me is the manipulation. Lots of these villains kind of are what they are, but he befriends the vulnerable and lies to them, acting as if he is offering a way to help. Gross, man.
Jessica Morris
2024-06-05 14:49:37 +0000 UTCthis one was HARD. also, side note: to my utter horror, i just realized that karen from staircase looks exactly like Carrie Brownstein as Toni in that “Portlandia” sketch about the feminist bookstore owners in my head…………
Austin
2024-06-05 13:07:27 +0000 UTCYeah, that one came from thin air….
Soren Narnia
2024-06-05 10:04:25 +0000 UTCI used her picture as my patreon photo. That is the best I could do. The story reminded us to lock all doors in our home every minute of the day. Thanks, Soren! Update on June 11th - I put the photo back to a picture of me. No more Karen.
Mechelle
2024-06-05 04:24:24 +0000 UTCFather Hall definitely . Oh my god what a lil freak
Noelle
2024-06-05 03:37:22 +0000 UTCalso the kind of busybody who just sits down at your table uninvited when you're trying to sort out all the weirdness in your life
C
2024-06-05 03:17:49 +0000 UTCSoren - is Droditch a name you made up? It bugged me for ages that I couldn't find the word anywhere, or fathom if it was a real word! 🙃
Karen Coaching For positive health!
2024-06-05 03:12:38 +0000 UTCI absolutely agree! Pride is a story that I come back to again and again. It has so many layers, and plays like a Greek tragedy to me. The thing that gets me about Branko is his utter calmness, his quietness. He carries out the most appalling and disturbing deaths, and all without any emotion. How much of it is down to the 'sister?' Who knows?
Karen Coaching For positive health!
2024-06-05 03:10:45 +0000 UTCNice!!
Soren Narnia
2024-06-05 02:32:45 +0000 UTCThe only reason I like Karen is that her character seems the most off kilter yet realistic out of most of these works. Honestly, Staircase is not one of my favorites as I adore the supernatural stories. It is a wonderful story and intense, but not as creepy, on personal note. Still, a stellar villain!
Mechelle
2024-06-05 02:20:47 +0000 UTCIt's right above Trafford's post about Smoke Child.
Jill E Merrill
2024-06-05 01:53:26 +0000 UTCI voted for Karen too. Terrifying. I messed up my other message to you. It appeared in the wrong place. I'm sure you can figure it out...
Jill E Merrill
2024-06-05 01:51:34 +0000 UTCI'm confused. Your little round photo is what you think Karen looks like? Kids much too nice looking. Didn't Soren describe her as youngish, with straight black badly cut hair, as if she hacked it off herself? Or maybe that's my mental image of her. So you drew her? Cool. Did you draw her on the staircase, or with her hands raised in that claw-like position?
Jill E Merrill
2024-06-05 01:49:27 +0000 UTCI can’t upload my picture of what I imagine Karen would look like, so I will use the image as my photo.
Mechelle
2024-06-05 01:39:35 +0000 UTCThe Smoke Child was the first story of Soren's I accidented across. Being from the northeast US, it sounded like such a believable legend that I spent over an hour trying to look up the details of the case that the story was written about. Good fiction sounds real, and that was it - though Smokey won't win, he earned my vote.
Trafford Burgess
2024-06-05 01:05:52 +0000 UTCYeah, kid was smacked upside the head by a ghost for talking to someone. Not a full baddie IMO
James McClenathen
2024-06-05 00:36:51 +0000 UTCYes… they are neat characters/entities. I loved the ending of the story.
Mechelle
2024-06-05 00:34:58 +0000 UTCI don’t know if Garrett was in control of himself. That merits a lot of discussion, but it keeps me from naming his as a top villain.
Mechelle
2024-06-05 00:31:47 +0000 UTCGretchen Plauser seems like hell personified. Just not enough of a background to add her… without imagination.
Mechelle
2024-06-05 00:28:17 +0000 UTCI wish I could post my image of Karen… she was my first vote. I will keep trying to find out how to post the picture I created but it is either dull or horrific. It is hard to choose from this last round.
Mechelle
2024-06-05 00:24:10 +0000 UTCAnother strong crop of contenders. It looks like the Claw that won’t let people swing completely around will need to up its game next year.
Ryan Fahey
2024-06-04 23:47:18 +0000 UTCOn one hand, an interloper might go insane and try to burn my house down with me in it. On the other, my weird neighbors would keep developers at bay 🤷♂️
James McClenathen
2024-06-04 23:18:08 +0000 UTCKaren will be there for the finals with the Droditch and the tarp!
Soren Narnia
2024-06-04 23:15:12 +0000 UTCJust skimmed the transcript of possession and I gotta say just seeing the name Father Hall creeped me out. Plus that was such a truly scary story. Wish I could vote for the most frightening story. So many villains in possession. I can't believe Karen didn't make it into the finals. There's no question she is the creepiest being ever. Couldn't she have been a write-in candidate? So I went with Father Hall. There's gotta be a good reason that just that name terrifies me.
Jill E Merrill
2024-06-04 23:04:46 +0000 UTCWow can’t believe Gareth is so low! Probably a tad more sympathetic than Father Hall
RJ Cunningham
2024-06-04 21:57:04 +0000 UTCFather Hall was deliberately up to no good just for the pure evil shits and giggles of it. That poor dude in Possession, trying to shake off his addiction, was the equivalent of a puppy that Father Hall kicked in the ribs. Zero out of ten stars, do not recommend.
Emily T
2024-06-04 21:42:51 +0000 UTCScary indeed yet I'm skeptical. In '24 we need Superintendent Chalmers now more than ever.
Jfer
2024-06-04 21:34:54 +0000 UTCSay that to his sister's face.
Tanya S.
2024-06-04 21:23:32 +0000 UTCAND the last three tracks on his final album were totally phoned in.
Soren Narnia
2024-06-04 21:21:15 +0000 UTCYesss Daddy Hall represent!
Dragonwagon
2024-06-04 21:20:26 +0000 UTCI am absolutely appalled by everyone's disregard of Branko Kingdom as the best villain of all time. He has depth! He has motives! He has ambiguity, which isn't that what we all look for in a villain?! An evil we can relate to?! In some sense he might actually be more accurately described as an anti-hero....wait. Wait. No....NO. DON'T LISTEN TO ME. HE'S A VILLAIN. I just know one thing for certain: you are ALL WRONG for not voting for him.
Tanya S.
2024-06-04 21:19:28 +0000 UTCThe Smoke Child, but of course! I judge your villains based on how hard their stories make me cry, and my god that story was devastating
Luis Castillo Silva
2024-06-04 20:56:02 +0000 UTCHonestly, Soren, two of your villains that have most disturbed me are Lee and Monty from "steps." They were so likable--hell, I KNOW older couples like that--that the revelation of their likely predatory nature profoundly unnerved me. That was some brilliant character writing, and they make up what? Less than ten minutes of the episode? Well played, sir.
Christopher Helton
2024-06-04 20:53:14 +0000 UTCi've gotta go with Father Hall, the granddaddy of them all. I disagree with the Gifters being villains. They tore a bunch of racists apart, so they're OK in my book.
Christopher Helton
2024-06-04 20:44:01 +0000 UTCAnother playoff, another very tough choice. I listened to Pride again today, and do find Branko Kingdom interestingly off-putting. And Fields is one of my most frequently revisited tales. However, the Gifters are (like the Walking People I voted for earlier), creepy as all hell. That it's another trio of locally feared, little understood but wisely avoided otherworldly beings is pure coincidence... Probably.
Brendan
2024-06-04 20:18:49 +0000 UTCI went The Others in Fields, if anything, because it was the first SN tale I listened to. The title intrigued me greatly, since I live on the edge of a huge agricultural part of northeast Alabama. Once you get to the DEEP rural plateau of Sand Mtn, vast pastures/planting fields mixed with pine and old forest (and a few hills), looking out across pastureland at dusk can be 'spooky', esp living on land reputed to be haunted and an old farmhouse that WAS (saw itself myself, plus other tales told by the residents before me).
Jamie G Hardy
2024-06-04 20:02:27 +0000 UTCBlame Soren’s deep and abiding fear of his own creation…much like Dr. Frankenstein
Lori K.
2024-06-04 20:00:03 +0000 UTCNot seeing Gretchen listed puzzled me, since she was the OG for all intents and purposes. Even got her own self-produced film (SN, not Gretchen).
Jamie G Hardy
2024-06-04 19:54:56 +0000 UTCBerry finny
Nathan Smith
2024-06-04 19:36:56 +0000 UTCI would submit that the gifters were not villains. Still voted for them. My favorite story!
Robert Reed
2024-06-04 19:34:36 +0000 UTCAlthough I voted for Father Hall because I love "Possession", I would LOVE to hear more about those stop sign aliens! ;)
Andrew Doss
2024-06-04 19:33:51 +0000 UTCI absolutely HAT auto-correct
Soren Narnia
2024-06-04 19:32:32 +0000 UTCI’m Gifters all the way here. I listen to that one probably at least 3-4 times a year. Wonder if Karen likes paintbrushes?
Brian Quinn
2024-06-04 19:30:28 +0000 UTCUgh. Auto-correct is the worst!
Nathan Smith
2024-06-04 19:30:19 +0000 UTCWell, I’d be worried too if I left her off the list. I had your back, Gretchen! It’s Soren who’s to blame.
Lori K.
2024-06-04 18:46:12 +0000 UTCPhew, tough choice between Father Hall and the aliens for me
Michael Vanderslice
2024-06-04 18:39:55 +0000 UTCThe gifters are definitely a nominee for Most Competent Villains, and perhaps even the Hold My Beer Lifetime Achievement Award.
Soren Narnia
2024-06-04 18:38:44 +0000 UTCI thought about them both; Gretchen especially worries me because she seems to be working DEEP behind the scenes, and that makes me real uncomfortable….
Soren Narnia
2024-06-04 18:35:46 +0000 UTCWhat pills are you taking?! Names please!
Lori K.
2024-06-04 18:33:51 +0000 UTCA line-up of the truly depraved to be sure, so I will cast a vote for the evil Father Hall in the absence of my all time favourite possessors, who sadly did not make any lists: Donovan Gant and Gretchen Plauser. May they continue to torment the living in spite of this snub.
Lori K.
2024-06-04 18:26:00 +0000 UTCThis is a tough one! They're all great villains. Father Hall has always seemed particularly insidious and subtly manipulative, so I'm going with him!
RetroBot
2024-06-04 18:25:20 +0000 UTCGIFTERS 2024 (absent of any candidate gifting scandals, that is)
Ben Englander
2024-06-04 18:22:49 +0000 UTCYeah, let's see you think that if you have to try to sell your house with them so close by! They're an absolute property-value disaster.
Soren Narnia
2024-06-04 18:13:44 +0000 UTCThese polls have been a lot of fun! Also, as others have said, I’m loving the frequency of the new stories being released - you’re on a creative roll!
Nathan Smith
2024-06-04 18:08:52 +0000 UTCThis is the hardest bracket so far 😱
Ripley McEachnie
2024-06-04 18:08:34 +0000 UTCHistory will judge you for snubbing the vegan candy corn from Three for Halloween in all four rounds of this contest
Logan Martin
2024-06-04 18:03:58 +0000 UTCP.S. I'm confused as the Gifters are clearly heroes??
James McClenathen
2024-06-04 18:02:49 +0000 UTCTightest contest yet IMO. Branko is the most unlikeable, but the protagonist and I agree that he's just a punk. Garrett may have the highest body count, but he's a tragic villain, isolated and tormented by some supernatural force. The alien others are terrifying but seemingly harmless if you stay off their land? So for me the winner here is Father Hall, who is evil to the bone.
James McClenathen
2024-06-04 18:02:16 +0000 UTCAlso, I don't know who or what the Smoke Child thinks he is, but what an asshole. Karen would stomp his ass.
Sara Fleming
2024-06-04 17:59:32 +0000 UTCThis one's though, Father Hall and the Alien Others are two of my favs
Jonathan Lachance
2024-06-04 17:58:09 +0000 UTCI have known a Garret or two in my life. Absolutely chilling personality. You can't charm him, he just allows you to not be in his way when he doesn't care enough to point in your direction. But then again, it might be my toddler potty training PTSD talking to me. I wouldn't invite them to tea, but the gifters are my kind of girls, enforcers of the "fuck around and find out".
Sara Fleming
2024-06-04 17:56:53 +0000 UTCNo! Branko you guys!!!! (Yes I’m biased bc it is my all time favorite )
Sammie Davidson
2024-06-04 17:55:31 +0000 UTCI can’t choose, oh noooo I’m going to have to listen to all of them again at work… darn ;)
Monica Sheakley
2024-06-04 17:52:57 +0000 UTCOh hey. The little Knifepoint imp has a friend.
Jacob Hedin
2024-06-04 17:52:24 +0000 UTCWhere's the Karen write in though?
Ryan Evans
2024-06-04 17:52:11 +0000 UTCDang there are a bunch of awesome villains in your lineups, my brackets not doing so great, but winners all in my opinion! I’m also loving the monthly stories coming out ❤️
Kim Nowaczyk
2024-06-04 17:51:00 +0000 UTCHow dare you pit The Gifters, Father Hall and Branko in the same round. Impossible choice.
Elliot Lem
2024-06-04 17:50:41 +0000 UTCPride is personally my favorite story you’ve ever made, and with the ending concert being so descriptive and gruesome it’s difficult to not pick Branko Kingdom this round.
Andrew Duffy
2024-06-04 17:48:01 +0000 UTCJust seeing the name "Father Hall" gave me chills
Nick Fane
2024-06-04 17:47:36 +0000 UTCKaren upsets…she doesn’t get upset 🥰
Blue_Seven
2024-06-04 17:44:08 +0000 UTC
