In a word: YIKES!
Like everybody else, we're absolutely fascinated with being terrified. Yet we can agree that we're all scared by something a little bit different, and that's why this list runs the gamut, from ordinary housewives to psycho killers to the supernatural to moving statues.
There's a little bit of everything, because no matter what, they all have one thing in common: they scare, or they have scared, the living daylights out of us.
Scroll through the gallery and see if you agree with our selection of most frightening television characters, but be warned: you may want to do so with the lights on...
1. The Peacocks - The X-Files
A mutated inbred family of nightmares – so gruesome it was Fox's first ever "viewer discretion advised" episode of the X-Files. If you could look under your bed after that episode, you're my hero. I still can't re-watch it 20 years later.
2. The Weeping Angels - Doctor Who
The Weeping Angels on Doctor Who look very innocent, as long as you're looking at them. Look away and they come to life, springing ever closer to you and your demise like a ninja cat.
3. Ramsay Bolton - Game of Thrones
Ramsay Bolton used his powers of persuasion to turn the rotten Theon Greyjoy into Reek -- a mindless, cowering puppet. Using castration and holding the appendage up before Greyjoy's eyes helped a bit. It earned him recognition from his father and he is now Ramsay Bolton. What a sweet tale! He's far more frightening than all of the mythical creatures because he is utterly evil.
4. Gemma Teller - Sons of Anarchy
She is just a bonafide psycho. And murderer. And horrible mother. Even the big bad tough bikers on SOA are afraid of her!
5. Dandy Mott - American Horror Story
The scariest person on American Horror Story Freak Show isn't a freak in the traditional sense. Spoiled rich boy Dandy Mott lives in a sustained childhood where his every wish is granted. He even gets a demented clown (Twisty) as a plaything, assuming his identy, and murderous ways, when Twisty is killed.
6. Eugene Tooms - The X-Files
With talk of a third X-Files movie on the horizon, it's easy to recall the scary players who appeared. Eugene Tooms ate people every 30 years and then went back into hibernation. He could maniuplate his body to slip through the tiniest of spaces so you never knew where to find him. He was played by Doug Hutchison who went on to marry teenaged Courtney Stodden years later. Scary indeed!