The 10 Best All-Too-Human Captors in Film

Last post we paid homage to the most intense, most inescapable captors of cinema who are “Alien, Beastly, or Supernatural.” Now we turn our attention to those kidnappers, hijackers, and general captivity-lovers who could be any one of us—and are all the more terrifying for it.

These big screen bad guys don’t have the excuse of being a hell-sent demon or an alien incapable of empathy: they are all-too-human. Ah, well, at least they give us some excellent inspiration for our escape rooms here at Vancouver’s Krakit! (Warning: spoilers ahead)

10. The kids from House Arrest

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: kids who think they know better than you do—and have access to padlocks and a basement where no one can hear you scream. Worst of all: they want you to talk out all your problems. Ugh!

9. Ryan from House at the End of the Street

Sure, he seems all shy and sweet, but really he’s just waiting to make his (psychological) problems your problem. Also, has a disturbingly large supply of blue contacts.

8. Vincent from Collateral

Here’s a captor who makes no bones about his sociopathic tendencies. Hitman Vincent (Tom Cruise) holds Max (Jamie Foxx) hostage in the man’s own taxi while he goes around calmly offing people in LA. It’s Vincent’s indifference that chills here.

7. Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs 

Completely the opposite of Collateral’s Vincent is Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb: he’s a ball of anxiety when it comes to his captivity obsession. He also uses a decidedly more terrifying deep dark well to hold his victims, as compared to the comforts of a cab.

6. Mann from Interstellar

Though a relatively minor character in Interstellar, Matt Damon’s Mann gets props for trying to entrap his fellow spacepeople on a far distant planet with no hope of returning to earth. He’s got vision, if not the ability to pull it off.

5. Jigsaw from Saw

A complete icon in the horror-captivity genre, Jigsaw not only holds his victims in the creepiest of traps (dirty subterranean bathroom, anyone?), but forces them to play the worst “Would You Rather” games in the history of … ever.

4. Annie Wilkes from Misery

There’s a reason Kathy Bates won an Oscar for this role, and it has a lot to do with that deadened stare that says: “I really don’t want you to die, but I also don’t want you to ever walk again, either.”

3. Max from In Fear

Max, from 2013 low-budget indie In Fear, is a stunning combination of insane and vindictive, yet still cunning and resourceful enough to turn a simple country road into a labyrinth even Theseus couldn’t escape.

2. The serial killer siblings from The People Under the Stairs

“Mother” and “Father” from Wes Craven’s 1991 flick feature so high on our list for their captivity commitment: they keep several children under their stairs (and in their walls) for years. That’s like a full-time job.

1. The captivity company from Oldboy

The people that imprison Dae-Su make an entire business out of holding people captive—for decades at a time. If someone’s willing to pay them, they’re willing to make sure you never see sunlight again. And, y’know, go stark raving mad.

The 10 Best Alien, Beastly, and Supernatural Captors in Film

You can’t have a great escape without a great captor, now can you? You need a really good reason to jump off that too-high cliff or claw your way out of a subterranean cave.

As much as we may loathe them, we at Krakit have got to give big screen terrorizers props for creating the escape situations that thrill and inspire us. First, we start with the 10 best beastly and supernatural captors, and next post we’ll look at those captors who are, despairingly, all too human.

10. Cooper from Super 8

He’s gigantic, he’s got a weird-looking nose, and he cocoons people like a massive spider. But ultimately he’s just trying to get home, so he’s at the bottom of our list.

9. Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi                          

No one can argue that Jabba is a captor without style. He chooses fashionable items for his captives, though his love of chains gets a little out of hand.

8. The virus from [REC]

While man plays a part in the terror of the unfortunate souls held captive in a Barcelona apartment building in REC, ultimate responsibility lies with the ruthless virus that lands them in quarantine in the first place.

7. The Beast from Beauty and the Beast

You probably didn’t expect to see a Disney film on this list, but here we have a captor who manages to induce Stockholm Syndrome through song and dance. It’s inspired.

6. The Female from Under the Skin

An alien lifeform that’s come to earth both to study mankind and to gorge herself on manflesh, The Female (Scarlett Johansson) has the most impressive captivity chamber of them all: a pool of immobilizing, flesh-liquefying goo.

5. The demon from The Exorcist

Forget trapping people in a building: the demon in The Exorcist jumps right into poor Regan’s body and takes up residence there. So much for feeling at home in your own skin.

4. H.A.L. from 2001: A Space Odyssey

What do you do when the super smart computer that runs your spaceship turns your tin-can home into a series of traps? Hope you’re really good at holding your breath, mostly.

 

3. The creature from The Host

Unlike Cooper from Super 8, the creature in The Host uses its den like a tank at a seafood market, with its unlucky human snacks stuck in a deep sewer with very smooth walls (terrible for climbing, you see).

2. It from It Follows

Why terrorize people by trapping them in, say, a haunted house, when you can instead turn the entire world into a nightmare that requires constant escape? The presence from It Follows can’t think of a better alternative.

1. Freddy Kreuger from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Combining the tactics of the demon from The Exorcist and the presence from It Follows, Freddy knows the best way to keep someone under lock and key is to turn their very mind into a terrifying holding cell they can’t escape. Well done, Freddy. Well done.