There’s no denying that we are living in the golden age of superhero media. Heroes have taken over the big and small screens and, yeah, they’re pretty freakin’ cool. We swoon and gush over these men and women carrying kittens out of burning buildings and saving children from runaway trains, but let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment here: no superhero is worth a damn without a badass villain to make them work for their heroic title.

Every hero needs their arch nemesis! Television would be nothing without the horrible and horrendous villains, who make our favorite TV shows great.

So, let’s give credit where credit is due and take a look back at Tell-Tale TV’s 5 Most Horrifying Villains of 2015!

5. The Wolves (The Walking Dead)

Alright, admittedly we’ve barely seen these guys thus far on this season of The Walking Dead, but one can arguably say that the episode in which we did encounter these baddies was one of the most disturbing and best of the season.

There is really nothing more frightening than people who kill seemingly without rhyme or reason — the sort of people who can’t be spoken to or talked off the edge. You can’t reason with them, despite what Morgan wants so desperately to believe. This group — or, perhaps, cult — is dangerous and hell-bent on the belief that human beings aren’t meant to survive.

Safe to assume we can expect many more massacres to come, courtesy of these lunatics.

4. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Daredevil)

Daredevil’s Kingpin is essentially the polar opposite of Jessica Jones‘ Kilgrave. Where Kilgrave commits his atrocities without truly considering himself a villain, believing himself to be an enamored lover of Jessica, a man of privilege simply taking what he wants, Fisk is incredibly self-aware. He sees the monster in himself and understands the severity of the crimes he commits.

Wilson Fisk is a chilling man with a calm, gentle disposition that serves to make it that much more frightening when he snaps in a violent rage. He is like a tightly coiled spring, which leaves viewers anxiously waiting in fear for the next moment when his anger and violent tendencies will get the better of him.

3. Ramsay Snow (Game of Thrones)

Personal issues with Game of Thrones aside, it cannot be denied that Ramsay Snow is an absolute monster in every sense of the word. He is cruel, he is relentless, and he is sadistic — a horrific combination if I’ve ever seen one. Ramsay is terrifying in many ways, possibly the worst being the fact that he gets immense pleasure from causing others pain. Torturing, maiming, and breaking people is the name of his game, and he plays it gleefully and mercilessly.

There really aren’t enough ways to put the horror of Ramsay Snow to words. If you watch the show, you already know that he definitely has earned his place on this list.

2. Kilgrave (Jessica Jones)

Jessica Jones set the bar for the superhero genre and feminist television in so many remarkable ways. One of the show’s greatest strengths lies in the fact that they aren’t afraid to go there, to properly (key word) address issues of rape and consent with the aid of their repulsive villain, Kilgrave. This superhumanly constructed monster can control the minds of others to make them do anything he wants, completely robbing them of their free will.

With fan magnet David Tennant portraying said villain, there was never any doubt that Kilgrave would be undeniably popular and charismatic — which is part of what makes him so frightening. He is poised, smooth, calm, and completely delusional. And, God damn it, he’s borderline likable — if you ignore the horrifying crimes he commits and his complete lack of remorse, of course.

More than anything, Kilgrave is terrifying because he and the crimes he commits are so, so real, despite the science-fiction based universe in which he exists.

1. Jerome Valeska (Gotham)

If you haven’t been watching Gotham, give Jerome Valeska a google, and I guarantee that you will change your mind in record time. Cameron Monaghan’s performance has been praised as the best portrayal of The Joker (despite the fact that Jerome has never actually been confirmed as being a young Joker) since the late Heath Ledger — and any Batman fan knows that the world went nuts for that performance.

Monaghan is a freakin’ gift to us all in the role. Jerome immediately takes over the screen with his charmingly psychotic wiles, stealing the show from the moment we meet him, from that first perfect, bone-chilling cackle.

He’s mesmerizing, he’s terrifying — he’s absolutely perfect in the worst way.

Did your favorite baddie make the cut? Let us know who your favorites were in the comments below!