For Halloween, critics pick their most nightmarish baddies, from Count Orlok in Nosferatu to Annie Wilkes in Misery

You wouldn’t have Michael Myers if it weren’t for Billy from Black Christmas. We’re not talking casual inspiration here. According to director Bob Clark, John Carpenter asked him what he would do with a sequel to his now 50-year-old cult holiday horror pic. Clark responded that his killer who preys on assertive and sexually empowered young women would escape from an institution and return to town … on Halloween. A genre was born.