Here’s What These Classic Horror Movie Characters Look Like Underneath The Makeup

Child-eating clowns, demonic spirits with a taste for violence, and unsettling swamp creatures — Hollywood's iconic horror characters have been terrorizing audiences and haunting peoples' dreams for years. But underneath the remarkable masks and pain-staking makeup jobs are actors who — thankfully — look nothing like the gruesome monsters they're playing for the cameras. It's time to peel back the makeup and meet the men and women behind some of horror's most famous villians.

1. The Pale Man

Who: Doug Jones

What: Pan’s Labyrinth

Scare factor: 8/10 — those eyes stare into your very soul.


The 2006 Spanish-Mexican film Pan’s Labyrinth established contortionist Doug Jones as one of the hardest-working men in horror. Not only did he play the iconic Pale Man, but he also portrayed the Faun — both of which parts required five hours of makeup apiece. And Jones had to learn all of his lines in Spanish, too.

2. The Gill-man

Who: Ricou Browning

What: The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Scare factor: 3/10 — sorry, we can't see past the stiff plastic effect.


Lots of people have portrayed the Gill-man, a.k.a. the Creature from the Black Lagoon, originally from the famous 1954 movie of the same name. But the only actor to have played him more than once is underwater stuntman Ricou Browning, who donned the suit for all of the famous movie monster’s aquatic scenes.

3. Leatherface

Who: Gunnar Hansen

What: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Scare factor: 5/10 — plot aside, it's just a man inside what looks like a potato sack.


Really it’s a miracle that 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre didn’t end in real-life tragedy as well. Why? Because Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface mask was hard to see out of, and that killer chainsaw was a real one. Hansen has mentioned in interviews that it was only thanks to good luck that no one was hurt… or killed.

4. The Xenomorph

Who: Bolaji Badejo

What: Alien

Scare factor: 6/10 — get those claws away from us!


The Xenomorph from 1979’s Alien looks so, well, alien that it’s hard to believe any human was inside it. But there was: Nigerian art student Bolaji Badejo. Badejo’s immense height made him ideal for the role, but sadly Alien was his only movie. He passed away in 1993, aged just 39.