Harry Potter: 10 Creepiest Characters, Ranked | ScreenRant
When you think of the Harry Potter movies, you wouldn't necessarily think of them as creepy. Sure there are some dark moments - as you'd expect when you've got a villain as nasty as Lord Voldemort in the picture - but, because they were targeting young audiences, the probability of having nightmares, later on, was rather low.
However, that doesn't mean that the series wasn't entirely scare-free. Harry encounters many chilling people throughout the blockbusters - so let's now rank the 10 creepiest.
10 Tom The Barman
The audience gets their first glimpse of Tom, the barman and owner of The Leaky Cauldron, in 2001's The Sorcerer's Stone. Harry and Hagrid say a polite hello as they're getting ready to go into Diagon Alley and there's nothing particularly special about the scene.
But, for the Prisoner of Azkaban, the character of Tom was changed for comedic purposes. He's now a bubbling, creepy old hunchback - and there's no explanation given. He comes bottom of this list because he only makes one appearance, yet still deserved mentioning nonetheless.
9 Dobby
There's no denying that Dobby the House Elf means well. He spends the whole of The Chamber of Secrets trying to protect Harry, even if that means very nearly killing him. And he's the hero of the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, saving the Boy Who Lived and his friends from Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor.
But that doesn't mean he's aesthetically-pleasing to look at. Far from it. Dobby is a creepy CGI character, with his bulging eyes and high-pitched voice giving many young children sleepless nights. Maybe it's for the best he didn't see out the franchise alive...
8 Bellatrix Lestrange
Fans had to wait all the way until the Order of the Phoenix to see Bellatrix Lestrange in action. But it's clear she's not somebody you want to meet right from the very off, with her first scene showing the witch cackling manically after breaking free from Azkaban prison.
Yikes. That laugh makes the hairs on the back of our necks stand up and Bellatrix is loathsome, fully-intent on making life for Harry and his friends as horrible as possible. Her laugh is particularly haunting after she kills Sirius Black in the Order of the Phoenix but, thankfully, Molly Weasley obliterates her in Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
7 Dolores Umbridge
While on the subject of laughs, Dolores Umbridge has a horrible one. And that's because she's a horrible person - even though she's working for the Ministry of Magic, rather than Lord Voldemort.
Umbridge joins Hogwarts in the Order of the Phoenix and treats students with nothing but coldness and contempt. She has a smile on her face as she revels in their misery and it makes her defeat, both in that movie and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, all the more satisfying. The character is possibly the worst in the entire series, Voldemort aside...
6 Argus Filch
Argus Filch's role in the Harry Potter movies lessens with every movie, with the character becoming more comedic by the end of the franchise. However, when the audience first sees him in The Sorcerer's Stone, he's chilling to look at.
Filch has a creepy aura about him. The way he speaks slowly but with malice is enough to scare you off him and, while the movies did a good job at portraying this, it's cranked up tenfold in the books. Filch is a vile caretaker and it makes us think: why did Albus Dumbledore allow him to stay at the school for so many years?
5 Wormtail
Right, we're getting onto the really spine-tingling characters now. And Wormtail certainly falls under that category.
He is literally the human personification of a rat with his pointy teeth, patchy hair, and horrible darting, watery eyes. Timothy Spall absolutely nailed the role and our only complaint is that Wormtail's death wasn't shown in the movies. He's strangled by his own silver hand and let's face it, that's a horrible way to go. Which is fitting, for such a horrible character.
4 Dementors
The best horror movies are ones where you can't see the villain's evil face. Sometimes it's best just to let your own imagination do the thinking. And Warner Bros certainly got the Dementors spot on, with audiences never seeing under their scabby, dark hoods.
Except for one brief moment in the Prisoner of Azkaban where you can see their rotting mouths as they look to suck the soul out of Harry. It's a relief that the audience never got to see the Dementor's kiss because, if they had, children in the movie theatre would definitely have needed some care.
3 Fenrir Greyback
Fenrir Greyback is a late entry into the Harry Potter series, making a short cameo in The Half-Blood Prince before returning for Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
He's toned down in the movies but, in the books, he's chilling to the bone. A character who loves biting children, ruining their lives forever and the man responsible for Remus Lupin's hard way of living. Greyback does have one memorable scene in the films - when he bites Lavender Brown at the Battle of Hogwarts. The sight of him with his teeth bared, blood dripping down his chin, certainly seemed out of place.
2 Aragog
Spiders are horrible things, right? Some of you will agree, some of you won't. But that's the reason why Aragog features so highly on this list.
It's likely that, even if you are a fan of the eight-legged creatures, you definitely wouldn't want to encounter one the size of Aragog. He's gigantic, dwarfing everything - including Hagrid. Harry and Ron are only able to escape him and his family thanks to Arthur Weasley's old Ford Anglia, which comes to their rescue in the Forbidden Forest.
1 Voldemort
Who else was going to top the list? Lord Voldemort is the creepiest character in the whole of Harry Potter with everything - from his deathly pale skin to his lack of nose to his high-pitched voice - making him one of the most iconic movie villains of all time.
Somewhat incredulously, Voldemort in the books is even worse due to his red eyes, which would have made the movie even creepier to watch. Perhaps it's for the best that they didn't make it into the movies because, like the Dementors, it could have been too much for younger viewers.