Judge Hopkins

Judge Hopkins is the secondary antagonist in the 2012 stop-motion film  ParaNorman. He is the leader of the zombies and responsible for all the events in the plot, but lives in regret for what he did in his mortal life.

Mortal Life
Judge Hopkins was one of the original townspeople in Blithe Hollow. In the original settlement, there lived a girl named Agatha "Aggie" Prenderghast, who had the ability to talk to the dead. Having been brought up as Puritans, Hopkins and everyone else was afraid of her and condemned her. They took her from her mother and sentenced her to hang. Angry at everyone's intolerance, Aggie unleashes her apparently hidden powers, swearing to make them suffer.

After their deaths, Hopkins and the other Puritans that condemned Aggie realized their mistakes and spent the next three hundred years in guilt and regret. Aggie's curse was that they would rise from the dead as zombies and suffer like she suffered. The curse was prolonged because members of Aggie's family would read her fairy tales to keep her spirit asleep.

As a Zombie
Three hundred years later, when Norman Babcock, not understanding the whole story, fails to read the fairy tales to Aggie because he was distracted by a bully named Alvin. Aggie's angry spirit and the zombies began to rise, Alvin and Norman make a run for it, eventually catching up to Norman's sister, Courtney, his best friend, Neil, and Neil's older brother, Mitch. Mitch accidentally runs over one of the zombies and the kids make a hasty drive to get away from them. Judge Hopkins tries to personally climb aboard Mitch's van but Mitch floors it, leaving Hopkins hanging from the back, struggling to reach for Norman.

Hopkins and the other zombies move on into the town, where they are confused and terrified of the modern world around them. The people of Blithe Hollow think they are being attacked, create an angry mob, and try to fight the zombies, even through the storm Aggie personifies herself as causes more damage. Eventually, Norman and his friends look into the town hall, looking for Aggie's records, to no avail. Eventually, Norman is knocked unconscious when Aggie's storm strikes the building.

Norman has a magic-induced flashback of Aggie's trial, he eventuly wakes up surrounded by the zombies. The Judge (who aparently is the only one who can talk to Norman) walks up to him, but Norman shouts at him, calling him out for what they did to Aggie. The guilt-ridden Judge admits his fears got the better of them and they do deserve their fate, but are trying to make up for what they did, no matter how unforgivable it may be. Hopkins tells Norman the curse is their punishment and he must help the zombies.

Hopkins and the other zombies offer to take Norman to Aggie's grave so he can personally reach out to her, but they are cornered by the angry mob, who threaten to lynch Norman for being "in league" with the zombies, but Norman's friends, who realize how important Norman's goal is, calls them out on it. Norman's family decides to drive him to Aggie's grave, with Hopkins joining in to guide them (leading to a very awkward car drive) and the other zombies stay behind.

Around the end of the film, after Norman reaches out to Aggie and she goes back to sleep, Hopkins and the other zombies begin to crumble to dust and their spirits fade away, this time everyone else could see them as they move on. The Judge disappears in front of Normans family, with a sad and regretful look on his face. It's not clear if they go to Heaven or Hell when they moved on.

Trivia

 * He is enemies with Aggie, which makes them both "Evil Vs. Evil" type villains.
 * Judge Hopkins is sometimes considered as the true main antagonist of ParaNorman, with Aggie as the secondary antagonist due to what he did to her. This statement is supported in trailer poster, where he is the only antagonist shown.
 * Judge Hopkins is mainly very similar to Claudia Wolf, The Brethren (Silent Hill), and Christabella. He also similar with Chris Hargensen, Billy Nolan & The Bullies. Unlike them however, Judge Hopkins has regretted for what he did to her & wanted the curse to stop, as well as not a Complete Monster.
 * Hopkins is similar to Morgan Moonscar from Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.
 * Both of them provoked a female person into villainy. (Hopkins, Aggie; Morgan, Simone Lenoir).
 * Both of them were killed by the women.
 * Both of them became zombies and regretted their mistakes.