5 Terrifying Stephen King Villains That Still Haven’t Been in Movies (Including Two Related to Pennywise)

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For over fifty years, Stephen King has captivated readers with his frightening stories, and many of his most memorable nightmares have been adapted into films. While the movies don’t always capture the same kind of fear as his books, some of his villains have become truly iconic on screen. Characters like Jack Torrance and Annie Wilkes are among the most terrifying figures in cinema, and monsters like Pennywise, Cujo, and Gage Creed have become pop culture staples, extending far beyond their original stories.

Even though Stephen King’s books have been adapted into many successful movies and TV shows, a lot of his terrifying creatures and villains remain hidden within the pages of his novels. Some of these monsters only appear in a single story, while others have a much larger presence throughout his work, impacting multiple books and series. Fans have even developed theories suggesting these creatures are connected to other famous monsters in the King universe. Be warned: the following discussion will contain spoilers for Stephen King books.

5) Jack Mort

Jack Mort is the main villain in The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three. He’s a cruel serial killer who commits his crimes in a way that makes them look like accidents. Throughout The Dark Tower series, he causes the deaths of several important characters, often by subtly creating dangerous situations. He appears to be a regular person, but is actually driven by a strong desire to kill.

Mort is a particularly unusual villain in Stephen King’s stories, and a difficult one to adapt for film, because Roland actually enters and takes control of his body after traveling through a magical door. Before that happens, we’re introduced to Mort through his interactions with other characters, making Roland’s eventual possession a shocking twist.

4) Mother

Stephen King’s novel, Revival, focuses heavily on the story of Reverend Charles Jacobs, his strange experiments with electricity, and his attempts to use it to cure illness. These experiments ultimately lead to a terrifying outcome: when he tries to resurrect a woman, he inadvertently opens a portal to a horrifying place called The Null. Unlike traditional beliefs about heaven or hell, the novel posits that The Null is where everyone ultimately ends up – a bleak, Lovecraftian realm inhabited by all the dead, who are enslaved by colossal ants and serve a mysterious being known as Mother. This dark and unsettling take on the afterlife, coupled with its vivid imagery, is considered some of King’s finest work, but it has proven difficult to adapt into a film.

3) The Little Sisters

The Little Sisters of Eluria appear only in one short story connected to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. They are a group of vampires who disguise themselves as nuns. They seem to help the sick, bringing them to an infirmary and nursing them back to health, but this is just a cruel trick – they ultimately feed on those they’ve healed. What makes them particularly disturbing is that they were once genuine nuns who dedicated their lives to helping others. After becoming vampires, they continued the appearance of their former lives, using it as a way to lure and trap victims. King has written about vampires before, even large groups of them, but the Little Sisters are among his most frightening creations. This is largely because of the unsettling contrast between their innocent disguise and their monstrous nature – drawing people in with the promise of care, only to reveal their true, predatory selves.

2) Dandelo

The connection between Pennywise and other Stephen King creations starts to become clear here. In the final book of The Dark Tower series, the characters meet Dandelo, a being similar to Pennywise in that it feeds on feelings. However, while Pennywise thrives on fear, Dandelo feeds on laughter. Although this might seem like the premise of Monsters, Inc., it can be dangerous – Dandelo almost kills Roland by making him laugh too much. Like Pennywise, Dandelo can also create powerful illusions to generate the emotions it needs to survive. Fans have often speculated that Dandelo and Pennywise might be related, though King has said they aren’t siblings or cousins, he hasn’t dismissed the possibility that they could be the same type of creature.

1) The Crimson King

The Crimson King is arguably the greatest villain in Stephen King’s entire body of work, but his true significance isn’t revealed until near the end of The Dark Tower series. His goal – to destroy the Tower and erase all realities – makes him the most dangerous threat across all of King’s stories. Considering that many other King villains, like Randall Flagg, are actually his agents, he’s essentially King’s version of Thanos.

Similar to Dandelo, The Crimson King shares strong connections with Pennywise/IT, leading many fans to speculate that the dancing clown might be his child. Both creatures in Stephen King’s stories can shapeshift, possess almost unlimited power (though IT’s is mostly limited to the town of Derry), and can use the terrifying Deadlights against their victims. While King hasn’t confirmed any direct relationship – whether they’re father and son or even the same being – the parallels between them are striking and hard to overlook.

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2026-01-09 16:40