For the past few decades, horror movie villains have been a part of our culture that drives nightmares, closet inspections, and sales of Halloween masks. How many of us get a cold chill at the mere thought of a man dressed in a mechanic’s jumpsuit lurking at the end of the alley? Or, if you’re like us, have never visited their attic thanks to Kayako, the antagonist in The Grudge. 

Horror fans’ Google search histories prove many people are drawn to what they fear. We at Frontierbundles.com have celebrated those findings for four years in a row by presenting you with each state’s most searched horror villain. This year is no different. Keep reading to see which villain led the reign of terror in your state. 

Ten Years of Terror: Nationwide Results

Like Norman Bates adding pearls to his mother’s ensemble, we want to be a little extra this year. Along with the past year’s results, here are the nationwide findings for the past decade: the most popular horror villains from 2010 to 2021.

• The title monster from Alien was the most searched villain nationwide over the past decade (and tops in four states). The xenomorph, as it’s come to be known, endures as audiences flocked to the two Alien prequels released in the 2010s, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
• There’s no stopping this pint-sized terror when it comes to your TV screen. Amongst sequels and revamps, Chucky creator Don Mancini is now launching a TV series.  Set to premiere in October of 2021, it may explain the Child’s Play craze in three states, landing the second spot for most searched in a decade. 
• From the comedic caricature in Hotel Transylvania to the iconic depiction in Young Frankenstein, this larger-than-life monster boasts more than 70 films since his 1910 silver screen debut, and the interest shows no sign of slowing. Frankenstein had over two hundred thousand searches for the past decade alone, and was the most searched horror movie villain over that time period in four states. 
• Hannibal Lecter has no shortage of fans. Thanks to the popularity of this meat-eating murderer, his story has continued with such releases as Hannibal, Red Dragon, and Hannibal Rising. As a result, eight states looked for him most in their Google searches throughout the years. 
• The lore of Dracula goes back not just decades but centuries thanks to his real life counterpart Vlad the Impaler. With ongoing fascination with vampires, this cultural icon continues to take a bite out of search histories and had nationwide fans searching for him by the thousands. 

Frightening Findings 

• This is the second year Norman Bates has been searched in the most states. The Psycho character also won out in the 2018 study. 
• This is the first year Samara and Kayako have made their appearance on our list. 
• Early drafts of The Ring set the story in Massachusetts, where the antagonist Samara was most searched this year. 
• Eight villains have continuously appeared as one of the most popular horror villains for the past four years—Norman Bates, Chucky, Frankenstein’s monster, Alien, Jack Torrance, Count Dracula, Hannibal Lector, and Ghostface.
• Pennywise takes on Samara in a financial fight: The Ring was the highest-grossing horror remake in history at more than $249 million in the US until the 2017 version of It snatched the honor. 
• The exterior of the Overlook Hotel was filmed using Oregon’s Timberline Hotel Lodge at Mt. Hood, which may explain why Oregonians have Jack Torrance on their minds and search histories this past year. 
• West Virginians love a good scare. For the nationwide decade data, the Mountain State searched for eight out of the 18 villains. No other state came close to that amount.  
• FrontierBundles has provided this search for four years in a row—2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021

State	Villain
Alabama	Frankenstein
Alaska	Hannibal Lecter
Arizona	Carrie
Arkansas	Norman Bates
California	Alien
Colorado	Jack Torrance
Connecticut	Samara
Delaware	Norman Bates
District of Columbia	Ghostface
Florida	Carrie
Georgia	Norman Bates
Hawaii	Carrie
Idaho	Frankenstein
Illinois	Jack Torrance
Indiana	Samara
Iowa	Samara
Kansas	Norman Bates
Kentucky	Kayako (The Grudge)
Louisiana	Norman Bates
Maine	Norman Bates
Maryland	Carrie
Massachusetts	Samara
Michigan	Norman Bates
Minnesota	Jack Torrance
Mississippi	Chucky
Missouri	Norman Bates
Montana	Hannibal Lecter
Nebraska	Hannibal Lecter
Nevada	Carrie
New Hampshire	Norman Bates
New Jersey	Frankenstein
New Mexico	Alien
New York	Ghostface
North Carolina	Ghostface
North Dakota	Pinhead
Ohio	Jack Torrance
Oklahoma	Hannibal Lecter
Oregon	Jack Torrance
Pennsylvania	Frankenstein
Rhode Island	Carrie
South Carolina	Chucky
South Dakota	Hannibal Lecter
Tennessee	Hannibal Lecter
Texas	Chucky
Utah	Alien
Vermont	Hannibal Lecter
Virginia	Carrie
Washington	Alien
West Virginia	Dracula
Wisconsin	Norman Bates
Wyoming	Hannibal Lecter

Methodology 

For the statewide data, FrontierBundles.com compared 12 popular horror villains and their films by using Google Trends and looked at results for the past twelve months. 

For the nationwide results, the team at FrontierBundles searched Google Trends from June 2010 up until July 2021 for the highest search volume for a given horror movie character over a span of 11 years. In the event of a character tie, a keyword search volume tool was used to specify that character’s search volume for each state it was popular in. 

FrontierBundles is an online authorized reseller of Frontier Communications. Please direct all media inquiries to don@frontierbundles.com.