After 49 Years, Star Wars Just Turned Darth Vader Into a Slasher Villain

Published Sep 20, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT Once head of Screen Rant's Star Wars coverage and co-lead of Superheroes, Tom Bacon now works with the movies and books teams. He's a lifelong fan of the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and loves franchises such as Doctor Who and Marvel. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon, on LinkedIn @tabacon, or on Muckrack under tombacon. Tom has a wide range of interests, and he continues to serve his university as a volunteer chaplain. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he's into British politics too. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Star Wars has finally turned Darth Vader into a true horror villain. There's always been something truly horrific about the Dark Lord of the Sith; he was practically designed to terrify children when he made his debut back in 1977, complete with that iconic breathing sound. Disney Star Wars has tended to use Darth Vader incredibly well, most notably in Rogue One's iconic hallway scene and Vader's recent Maul - Shadow Lord return. But, although Star Wars has occasionally gone full horror, Vader himself has seldom been shown in this light. Maul - Shadow Lord is really the closest the franchise has come to horror Vader on-screen, and that certainly whetted viewers' appetites; it rekindled calls for an R-rated Vader movie. Now, though, Kiersten White's phenomenal Hiding From the Dark is another step towards such an event. Described as a fully-fledged Star Wars young-adult horror novel, Hiding From the Dark shows just how terrifying the Sith Lord can be. Hiding From the Dark Turns Darth Vader Into Nightmare Fuel Hiding From the Dark stars a young girl named Bia, whose mother goes missing after a rebel mission gone wrong. The book doesn't reveal much about said mission; instead, it's purely concerned with Bia's own journey, as she desperately tries to survive Imperial attention. Like many children of her age, Bia is completely ignorant when it comes to politics; she's even absorbed a lot of the Empire's propaganda, despite her mother's best efforts. And then, to her horror, the Empire sends Darth Vader himself to hunt her down. It's chilling to see how dangerous a Dark Lord of the Sith really is, viewed through the eyes of a child. Bia doesn't even properly realize this is a human being at all, and it takes her several panicked encounters to figure out that he's wearing a cape. To her, this monstrous being becomes the proof of the Empire's lie, as she finally begins to question everything she'd absorbed about the Empire from school. Worse still, her attempt to escape soon takes her to a dying world, just another planet ravaged by the Empire's greed. Even there, she isn't safe from Darth Vader. Almost all knowledge of the Jedi has been successfully erased by this point in the Star Wars timeline. That means Darth Vader's Force powers are even more shocking for Bia; there's one truly stunning moment where she thinks she's escaping down a chute, but Vader grabs her with the Force and begins to raise her back up. She'd have been caught there and then, if not for the intervention of other forces. To Bia, Darth Vader's powers are evidence of his evil; he's more of a monster than a man, even when she's running through caves that are full of actual monsters. Naturally, Darth Vader goes up against these creatures, easly beating them. Darth Vader's blood-red lghtsaber just adds to the horror n Bia's mind. The lightsaber blade is particularly effective when Vader lights it in dark tunnels, the lightsaber's light casting a violent hue across an entire cavern. It feels representative of Darth Vader's presence itself, because it dominates the entire environment. In one well-written scene, a terrifed Bia is forced to watch as Vader uses the blade to hack through a wall to her - the true stuff of horror stories. George Lucas always believed Star Wars was for children. Given that's the case, Hiding From the Dark feels like the kind of story the franchise should always have been telling; a fresh, creative glimpse of the Sith through the eyes of a child. The overall tone isn't really full-scale horror, more light thriller, but Darth Vader makes the perfect slasher villain. Hopefully, this will be the first of a whole range of similar stories that unveil the Sith Lord's true horror potential. TV Show(s) The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions Video Game(s) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords, Star Wars Battlefront (2015), Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed , Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor First Film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope Cast Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal Created by George Lucas Movie(s) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order