Scariest horror movie monsters

22 ELO points separate Pazuzu from Michael Myers at the top of the Halloween ranking, after 5667 duels.

The gap between rank 1 and rank 2 marks the sharpest divide in the ranking: Pazuzu edges out Michael Myers with 1342 ELO points against 1326, while Myers himself stands 22 points ahead of Freddy Krueger at rank 3. Pazuzu wins 62% of its duels, the highest rate on the podium. Samara follows at rank 4 with 1287 ELO points and 58% wins over 355 duels, then Leatherface at rank 5 with 1281 points. At the bottom, Nosferatu sits at rank 19 with 1005 ELO points and a 29% win rate, while Hannibal Lecter ranks 18th despite a balanced 47% win rate. Esther holds rank 17 with 1099 points, winning only 34% of its 286 duels. The community reserves its harshest judgment for the oldest monster: Nosferatu trails far behind the slashers and supernatural entities that dominate the list.

The ranking draws from 5667 duels cast by 105 players across 19 contenders, updated on 10 October 2026. Each duel pits two horror movie monsters against each other, and every vote shifts the ELO balance. Pazuzu holds the lead for now, but the tight margins at the top leave room for movement. Head to the Halloween TopList and vote in your next duel to shape the hierarchy.

Updated on October 10, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →