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Stephen Kinghas create some of the most iconic villains in literary history , with his antagonist span the gamut from evil interdimensional Lovecraftian deities , to rabid frank , to crazed fans . The scoundrel were a force in many of his earliest works and have go forward to be both memorable and chillingacross the wide range of stories he has written throughout his life history . Stephen King ’s best booksexplore the depths of fear and resourcefulness with a combination of relatable and flakey characters , with villains who land at both ends of this spectrum .
When determiningStephen King ’s best villain , there is no shortage to choose from devote the author ’s blanket and ongoing bibliography . This leaning primarily focuses on the villains as they are present in the source cloth rather than how they have been describe in movie or video series adaption . The serious villains are those who elicit genuine care , who provide genuinely unnerving obstruction for the protagonists , and who leave a strong impact on the characters and the readers .
10Blaine the Mono
The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass
Blaine the Mono , who appears in the third and fourth installment ofThe Dark Towerseries , isone of King ’s unearthly and most memorable villains . The sentient monorail is on his room to ram and take his own lifetime when Roland Deschain and his ka - tet are aboard , which endsThe Waste Landson one of King ’s strongest cliffhanger and makesWizard and Glasscompelling from the start . Between his love of brain-teaser and the replicate phrase"Blaine is a painfulness and that ’s the truth,“Blaine leaves a strong printing on the role and the reader .
The universe of The Dark Tower is sprawl and huge and it can help to know how to read the books & in which society to read them before jumping in .
Blaine is essentially Thomas the Tank Engine if Thomas became mentally under the weather , bed riddles , and was intent on take his own life , along with the lives of the soul travel aboard him . He is a in truth gonzo and fascinating character who place a pregnant challenge for Roland and the ka - tet , and who manages to digest out in a series that features the more powerful and prominent Randall Flagg and Crimson King . However , Blaine ’s story is more poor - livedand the character is not quite as developed as many other King villains , which ranks him at the lowest spot on this list .
9Rose the Hat
Doctor Sleep
Rose the Hat is the leader of the vampires get laid as the True Knot inDoctor Sleep . As a subsequence toThe Shining , widely considered one of King ’s good novels , it was already move to be unmanageable to create a villain that could live up to Jack Torrance . This is part of what makes Rose an efficient antagonist , as her villainy is a bare juxtaposition to Jack . This begin withRose being a vampire who hunts and feasts on children with psychic abilities , which she and the True Knot look up to as steam .
She is a dodgy predator who track down her prey in a manipulative and unpitying manner . The scene of her torturing and feed off tike are authentically chilling . or else of retreading what was already done inThe Shining , Rose presents a dissimilar kind of threatthat Danny Torrance and Abra Stone must look . Rose was the well potential villain forDoctor Sleep , but she does n’t get hold of the pinnacle ofThe Shining ’s baddie , which is why she is rank at a lower positioning .
8Kurt Barlow
Salem’s Lot
Part of what makes Kurt Barlow work so well inSalem ’s Lotis how he is not overdrive in the history . Ben Mears , Susan Norton , and otherSalem ’s Lotcharactersare busy mete out with many of the other vampires , who are all formidable in their own right field , but none of them are as terrifying as Barlow is when he appears . He feels particularly sinister in the scene where heforces Father Donald Callahan to drink his blood rather than killing the priest , making Father Callahan unable to reenter the church building .
Kurt Barlow is a Type One lamia , which is the rare and most potent eccentric of vampire in Stephen King books .
In doing so , Barlow defeats Father Callahan ’s presuppose faith in the most mortifying way of life potential . This is a gross good example of howBarlow is more than a fatuous ogre hunting his prey , as he is intentionally cruel and strategic in the execution of his long - term plan and makes it personal for his victims . The only drawback of Barlow ’s more infrequent presence is that he is not as well - develop as some of King ’s other villain , which lay him in the lower half of this leaning .
7Big Jim Rennie
Under the Dome
Unlike many other King villains , James " Big Jim " Rennie is a human and does not possess any supernatural powers . This helps him sense naturalistic as a used elevator car salesperson running a secret methamphetamine operation , and as someone who employ the dome position to capture more magnate for himself . He is sleazy , self-important , power - hungry , and polish off several individuals , yet still conceive that he is always in the rightand that he is doing the oeuvre of God .
In a fourth dimension of crisis , Big Jim is only ever focalise on himself and how the crisis can do good him , and can sway others to act against their best interests . When the town of Chester ’s Mill is stuck under a dome , he is the worst form of individual to have in bearing , and believe he can play without consequence , as government authorities can not get inside the dome . He is a fantastic villain , although he sometimes feels too much like a caricature , even when it amount to his professing , which is why he is not higher on the list .
6The Crimson King
The Dark Tower, Insomnia, Black House
The Crimson King is arguablythe ultimate Stephen King villainas a demonic entity who essay to demolish the multiverse . He is the overarching adversary ofThe Dark Towerseries , along with appearances inInsomniaandBlack House . The unmingled number of character and constitution that ferment for the Crimson King , including Randall Flagg and the Sombra Corporation , make him one of the most influential and powerful forces of evil in King ’s works .
The Gunslinger is the starting of the epic Dark Tower story , but there are two dissimilar versions of the novel , leading to questions about which one is b
As both a seen and unseen villain , the Crimson King is capable to be the master villain in the fantastic , multiverse - spanningDark Towerseries , while also being the one who the Low Men work for in the more grounded " Low Men in Yellow Coats " chronicle inHearts in Atlantis . The Crimson King is easy one of King ’s most powerful villain . However , his evil is too cosmic to the gunpoint that he feels more like a symbol of villainy than an genuine character , which is why he falls toward the eye of the list .
5Greg Stillson
The Dead Zone
The Dead Zoneintroduces Greg Stillson as a man who beat a hound to expiry . This act of cruelty immediately bring in him a fiber who is easy to detest . It is disturbing to see Stillson go from pop a dog to becoming involved in local government , becoming a United States congressional representative , and continuing to work his way toward the White House . Stillson fascinate public attention through his antics , admit wear off a construction helmet during his rallies and promising to air air pollution into out place .
He not only gather public attending , but also manages to fool away many voters into thinking that he is just an mundane individual who will best represent their interest better than traditional politician . Meanwhile , Stillson is involved in blackmail and physically and emotionally torturing delinquent adolescent to " objurgate " their behavior , and Johnny Smith encounter that the human beings will be plunged into nuclear warfare if Stillson becomes President of the United States . Stillson lands in the midsection of the rankings because he is not as iconic as other King villains , but he is one of the author ’s more frighteningly realistic opposer .
4Annie Wilkes
Misery
King was truly ahead of his time when he wrote Annie Wilkes , who embody the danger of obsessional fandom . Miserytakes this to an extreme point as Annie , who insure herself as the number one of author Paul Sheldon , keeps him trapped in her home where she do drugs and repeatedly penalize him . Much of these punishments are relate to her disgust at the creative determination Paul has made in the manuscript ofFast Cars , including his decision to kill the character ofMisery .
Between how unpredictable she is inMiseryand because of the real - world commentary she provides , Annie is one of King ’s best villains .
Annie has , deplorably , aged well as a villainsince the novel was published in 1987 . Since then , peculiarly with the rise of societal media , some part of fandom have grown increasingly toxic and lineal hateful words and even last threats toward actors and writers . Between how unpredictable she is inMiseryand because of the real - world commentary she provide , Annie is one of King ’s upright baddie . The only reason she is n’t higher on the list is that her villainy is mostly curb to Paul and not as far - make .
3Jack Torrance
The Shining
Due to how muchJack Nicholson ’s deliveryof the line"Here ’s Johnny!“has been spoof , it can be easy to forget what a awful baddie Jack Torrance truly is inThe Shining . Jack is a man with preexisting and open matter that are amplified and twist by the evil of the Overlook Hotel . The Quran makes him openhearted due to his painful history of misuse during his puerility and his struggles with alcoholism and indicate how the Overlook Hotel is using his privileged agony and trauma against him .
Jack ’s line toward this darkness is bright writtenas he goes from being a riotous , but loving husband and father to someone trying to kill his married woman and son . He instance the dangers of dependency , fixation , and undetermined injury that are pull up stakes unchecked , making his villainy feel actual even with the supernatural influence of the Overlook Hotel . Much like Annie Wilkes , the only reason he does not order higher is that the threat he posture is more limited in its narrative telescope .
2Randall Flagg
The Dark Tower books, The Stand, The Eyes of the Dragon
Randall Flagg is only one of many guises and names he apply , with others include the Man in Black , Marten Broadcloak , Walter O’Dim , and his real name , Walter Padick . The character is emblematic of how evil will always live , even after it is seemingly get the better of , as Flagg adapts to and thrive through the various identities he takes on across the multiverse . His charisma , twisted gumption of humour , and ability to nail and raven on an individual ’s helplessness make him an unparalleled scoundrel .
Could Stephen King ’s biggest villain , Randall Flagg , be Carrie White ’s material don ? A possibility suggests so , gain Flagg an even more dangerous villain .
While selfish and destructive individuals are draw to him , Flagg is talented at luring in contravene individual like Harold Lauder and Nadine Cross inThe Stand , as he weaponizes their inner conflict for his own gain . Flagg is even a undecomposed villain than the Crimson King because he is better developedacross his many appearances . The only grounds Flagg is not the best villain is because of his death inThe Dark Tower , which was too underwhelming and sudden pass on the grapheme ’s long history .
1Pennywise
It
None of King ’s villains are as terrifying as It , often referred to as Pennywise the Dancing Clown . Pennywise is a materialisation of fear itself as a hefty alien that drive on the form of hoi polloi ’s bad fears . There is a feeling of inevitable day of reckoning that surrounds Pennywise as It emerge every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry , Maine . Even though Pennywise is supernatural , It feels like real - world evils that induce swift and devastating demolition , followed by years of complacency , before the same repulsion repeat themselves .
Out of all of King ’s scoundrel , Pennywise is the most well - known , and is able to strike fear into the hearts of material masses , even those who have never readItor go through the TV or motion picture adaptations . While It is a cosmic villain , a substantial backstory is leave that chronicles the encroachment on Derry and its citizen over many generations , along with theorigins ofIt ’s Pennywise first arrivingon Earth . Thisbackstory help It feel well - developed despite being a cosmic and almost abstract iniquity , and solidifies Pennywise asStephen King ’s great villain .
