Friday, January 30, 2009

Top Movie Villains of All Time???

Friday, January 30, 2009


Who are your favorite villains of the silver screen? Who do you think are the most classic? The most evil? The ones that carry the biggest presence? The most terrifying, the most twisted, the most sadistic?

I want to know your opinion. Vote in the comments, and I'll update my list and eventually rank them. There's no rule about genre. Be the film a gangster flick, a detective thriller, western, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, drama, or even kids' cartoon, its villains are up for grabs. But note: I WILL NOT accept antiheroes or mere antagonists. The entries must truly be VILLAINS, and that means evil characters with whom the audience cannot sympathize.

Update: Well, I've racked my brain. Here are my current contributions, from the Devil to Disney villains, and everything in between.

The Joker (The Dark Knight)
Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs, etc.)
Keyzer Soze (The Usual Suspects)
Sauron (Fellowship of the Ring, etc.)
Darth Vader (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi [before the end!])
Voldemort (Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, Etc.)
Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
Freddy Krueger (Nightmare On Elm St.)
Lord Caldlow (The Prestige)
Detective Stansfield (The Professional)
Bricktop (Snatch)
Frank (Once Upon A Time In The West)
Arthur Burns (The Proposition)
Sheriff Cooley/The Devil (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)
Count Tyrone Rugen/The Six-Fingered Man (The Princess Bride)
Bill (Kill Bill)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Dr. Evil (From Russia With Love / Austin Powers, etc.)
Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs)
John Doe (Seven)
Jigsaw (Saw)
The Judge (The Natural)
Mr. Glass (Unreakable)
Scar (The Lion King)


So, who makes it on your list?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harry Lyme - The Third Man
Montgomery Burns - The Simpsons

Anonymous said...

Scar from The Lion King.
The evil stepmother from Cinderella.
Mickey and Mallory Knox from Natural Born Killers.
Alex DeLarge and his droogs from A Clockwork Orange.
The Firefly family from The Devil's Rejects/House of 1000 Corpses.
The serial killer from Seven.
The Castevets from Rosemary's Baby.
Max Cady from Cape Fear.


Yeah. Pretty good list.

Anonymous said...

Don't know if you've seen it, but Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton in Gaslight (Ingrid Bergman/Joseph Cotten flick) is freaking creepy. Also Toshiro Mifune as the Macbeth character in Throne of Blood, and whoever the crazy bitch is who plays one of the Lear character's daughters-in-law (Lady Kaede, maybe?) in Ran--she's seriously scary. You've listed a lot of the ones I would have chosen.

Anonymous said...

nurse ratched- one flew over the cuckoos nest
everything else is taken, i was gonna say frank from once upon a time in the west but you know more movies i thought

-colin-

Anonymous said...

daniel plainview-there will be blood
-colin-
-again-

MADMAN JARVIS! said...

First off, who are all these anonymous posters??? Name yourselves, please! :P

Yeah, I've been meaning to see a lot of the movies y'all have added (Rosemary's Baby, Cape Fear, Throne of Blood, Ran, etc). Now I'll have to in order to fairly evaluate the evilnesss of their villains.

And I'm sorry, Colin, but as much I love Daniel Plainview (and I love his character a LOOOOT), I don't think he is a true villain. I think he falls under the category of "antihero". He certainly has flaws, he certainly has committed some evil acts, but he is by no means a clear-cut monster.

Anonymous said...

Ok, you guys are showing your age:) Who was the beginning of the notorious villians? Boris Korloff (Franknstein) and Bela Lugosi, Dracula. They started it all!

Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire was a pretty incredible villian as Lestat de Lioncourt.

Anonymous said...

Sorry meant Boris Karloff-what a great villian in the sense that he gained both your sympathy and created fear in his audience in the character of Frankenstein. But he was a very misunderstood character so although those in the movie considered him a villian, was he really?

MADMAN JARVIS! said...

Yeah, that right; I think Bela Lugosi makes the list, but not Frankentsein's Monster.

Anonymous said...

Kinsey W is the 2nd Anonymous. Holla....
Would Jack Torrance from The Shining count?

-Kinsey W-

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