1) Black Phillip – The Witch
There are many characters working antagonistically in Robert Eggers’ New England period horror, The Witch. From the start, we see there is a demonic crone living in the woods, toying with the puritan family who’ve just decamped next door, but before long the clan takes to destroying itself from the inside, with father and mother lashing out at children they fear may have become possessed by the devil.
In the end – of course – it turns out it’s actually a ram named Black Phillip who’s been pulling the strings all along. Throughout The Witch, family goat Black Phillip – in fact the embodiment of Satan himself – just sits idly by, biding his time as he watches his erstwhile owners tear themselves apart. No villain this year has been quite so surprising, original and downright iconic, while none have been as patient and subtle in their meddling as this killer goat.