Boris Karloff Leads Greats in Horror Acting Legacy

Horror remains one of Hollywood’s most reliable genres, delivering nearly a century of box-office hits and long-running franchises that keep characters — and revenue — alive well beyond a film’s release. Iconic villains from Frankenstein and Dracula to Freddy, Jason and Ghostface endure in popular culture and Halloween wardrobes, even as new antagonists like Remmick from 2025’s Sinners and Aunt Gladys from Weapons join that roster. The genre’s staying power is tied to performance as much as concept: Boris Karloff is argued to be the quintessential horror actor who defined early monster cinema, while modern performers such as Toni Collette have become contemporary horror icons through films like The Sixth Sense and Hereditary. Directors reinvent the field too — Wes Craven’s Scream retooled the slasher with meta commentary and gave the world Ghostface, a costume-and-franchise phenomenon. And behind those masks are people: a recent TMZ recollection even spots a horror-movie icon casually tapping a talking drum at LAX in 2018, a reminder that the makers of scares are human as well as legendary.