In the wake of stories about how Heath Ledger played the "Joker" in the new Batman movie will be one of the best/worst villains in the talkies, I started thinking about really creepy villains in movies I either have on my shelf in some form, or which immediately come clearly to my mind.
I have to separate them into humanoid and non-humanoid and just plain fun.
They have to be really creepy, evil, not just someone’s nemesis, like Lex Luthor to Superman (though the fellow in TV’s Smallville is getting there little by little).
Human and pretty much like a human:
Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glen Close – Dangerous Liasons – ghastly evil wicked person – always leaves me upset, came to my mind first)
Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth – Rob Roy – ghastly evil wicked person – always leaves me upset – really glad when he dies)
Hannibal Lecter (brrrrrrr Anthony Hopkins – The Silence of the Lambs, etc. and don’t forget Jaime Gumb… shoot him again, Agent Starling!!)
Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton – The Shawshank Redemption – I would like him to go to prison, if you know what I mean, along with Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley)
… there are some wackos…
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins – Psycho – who loves his mom, however)
John Doe (Kevin Spacey – Se7en – now this is seriously creepy – hard to top this guy)
… thugs abound …
Viktor Komorovsky (Rod Steiger – Dr. Zhivago – and dedicated Commies too, lots of them)
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino – The Godfather Part II – a deadly hypocrite)
… and, always bad, Nazis! Except when they are funny (see below) ….
Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes – Schindler’s List … sorry, Voldemort is not creepy enough … yet)
Dr. Christian Szell (Lawrence Olivier – Marathon Man … zzzzZZZZZZzzzeeeeeZzzzzz … ‘nuf said?)
The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton – well…. you know – along with people who hate dogs in movies)
speaking of witches…
The Queen (Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs – with dishonorable mention to Maleficent)
White Witch (Tilda Swinton – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – and anyone else who tries to screw up Christmas – like Mr. Potter and The Grinch (see below) )
Messala (Stephen Boyd – Ben-Hur – really mean)
Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – reminds me of some women religious I have suffered from over the years, like the nun who runs a certain press office I know)
Frank Nitty (Billy Drago – The Untouchables – oh ya… Al Capone too)
… and to stay with the alliteration…
Fanny Ferras Dashwood (Harriet Walter – Sense and Sensibility – what a rhymes with witch)
Darth Vader… who needs no additional defense or specification
Non-human
The Terminator (need I say more?)
Gollum (Lord of the Rings)
The Borg Queen (Alice Krige – Star Trek: First Contact)
The Dragon (Reign of Fire)
Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving – The Matrix)
The Cigarette Company (The Insider)
The Alien (Alien, etc. … kicks the Predator’s butt)
The Alien Egg and Really Fast Contents (Alien, etc. – perhaps the creepiest critter in any movie)
HAL (2001 – A Space Odyssey)
Stinky Telepathic Critters With Dreadlocks (Independence Day)
The Asteroids (Armagedon and… it was a busy year… Deep Impact)
The Weather Fronts (A Perfect Storm)
The demon (The Exorcist)
Satan (The Passion of the Christ – see above)
Fun (well, aren’t they all? Except that last one?)
Sarris (Galaxy Quest)
Syndrome (The Incredibles)
Dr. Evil (Austin Powers)
Willy Bank (Al Pacino – Ocean’s Thirteen)
Khan (Star Trek… whatever it was… Wrath of Khan)
Bill (David Carradine – Kill Bill 1 & 2)
Edward Rooney (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
The Grinch
Major Arnold Toht (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (along with ZUUUUUL! (no relation) – Ghost Busters)
Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
Okay… there are some ideas.
I imagine you are itching to add your own really bad villains… from movies mind you.
Go ahead! Eventually I will try to come up with my Very Worst and also Funnest lists.
Daniel Planview (Daniel Day Lewis) from There Will Be Blood. About as close a portrayal of a human version of Satan as I have seen on film. He is worse than Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) from No Country For Old Men, who should also make the list.
Amazing that both films came out in the same year. Excellent but unsettling films.
Andy Robinson as the Scorpio killer in ‘Dirty Harry’
Laurence Olivier as Richard III
Except for the Grinch, the Wicked Witch and maybe two more, I don’t know any of these baddies. Not a movie fan. Not movies in color anyway. However…..ahem….I will submit one that I know of, though I’ve not seen the movie It. Pennywise the evil clown.
Inspector Javert in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables [Good one! I like the Rush version.]
Jaws! He ate the little Kintner kid and poor Quint!
Kayako Saeki (The Grudge): My fiance’s worst nightmare. Hehehe
Sadako Yamamura (The Ring): My worst nightmare (well, used to be). :D
Instavrare Omnia In Christo.
MD: Yes… Jaws. Good. But the music was even scarier.
The Master from Doctor Who, although that’s not a movie.
Lord John Worfin/Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) in “Buckaroo Banzai”. Lithgow steals the show from Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd with his “portrayal” of the leader of an evil alien group from the Eighth Dimension (inner space), occupying the body of an Italian scientist from the 1930’s whose favorite human is clearly the Duce. Some classic lines:
“What is-a your greatest joy? — The Joy of Duty!’
“History is-a made at night. Character is who you are in-a the dark”
The Emperor (Star Wars VI)
King Edwards the Long Shanks (Braveheart)
Emperor Xerxes (300)
Judge Claude Frolo (Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame)
Does the fact that they are all authority figures say something about me?
Don’t leave out Edward Norton in PRIMAL FEAR!!
How about Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton, of course, in Mutiny on the Bounty) or, one of my favorites, Jane Hudson (Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane). Jane Hudson still shows up in my nightmares after seeing her for the first time in the early 80’s on TBS…..(shudder).
Not all of these are necessarily “scary”:
Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor – Superman
Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber – Die Hard
Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers – 24
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty – Blade Runner
And my all time favorite, Gary Oldman as Stansfield in “The Professional”
Max Cady in the old version of Cape Fear; the newer release w/ DiNero has too much impure language and imagery.
What, no vampires? Those were always the scariest to me. How about Barbara Steele as Princess Asa from THE MASK OF SATAN?
In the non-human role, the alien microbe from the 1982 remake of THE THING.
(BTW, Captain Bligh really got bad press in the movies, but if you read the other 2 books from the trilogy — MEN AGAINST THE SEA and PITCAIRN’S ISLAND — a very different picture emerges.
Also, if Christmas ceases to be the Feast of the Nativity and becomes merely Decemberween, as in Whoville, the Grinch has my blessing to disrupt it!)
In the fun category, Dr. Horrible from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. [Is that a movie? Gosh, no, it isn’t.]
In the wacko category, how about Francis Dollarhyde from Manhunter/Red Dragon? Tom Noonan in Manhunter was definitely more creepy than Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon, but same character.
Fun…
Hedley Lamarr in “Blazing Saddles” (Harvey Korman)
Worse than all of these?
A liturgist.
Some friends of mine are also creating a comic book entitled Maniple Man, whose archnemesis will be The Gatherer.
Here\’s a funny one: the Stay Puff marshmallow guy in the final scene of Ghostbusters.
And quoting Egon on that \”I\’m terrified beyond the capacity of rational thought\”. Seeing THAT!
Personally, the guy that always gave me the creeps was the Nazi with the burnt hand from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Glad he met with Divine Justice at the end of that movie.
Count Mondego from the Count of Monte Cristo (with Jim Caviezel) also comes to mind.
For non-human how about the House in The Haunting (the original directed by Robert Wise and not the rather pedestrian remake by Jan de Bont)? I always get jumpy watching that movie. Another option would be the ITV drama The Woman in Black (guess which character I am talking about when nominating a villain), an adaptation of a Susan Hill novel. Again, another option that eschews gore for truly spine-tingling terror.
John Noble as DENETHOR in The Lord of the Rings: The two towers. To me, Denethor is the scariest character in the whole trilogy (movies and books!). He’s just cold, mean and scary… [Good one!]
Edward “Longshanks” — Braveheart
Max Baer — Cinderella Man
Otto Keller — Hitchcock’s “I Confess”
The Velociraptors — Jurassic Park and Lost World
Colonel Tavington — The Patriot
Colonel Kappler — The Scarlet and the Black
Commodus — Gladiator
Jack Torrence-The Shining
Annie Wilkes- Misery
Peyton Flanders, the nanny in- The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
The Robert Mitchum character in “Night of the Hunter” – the pretend Missisippi preacher with “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his knuckles. Scared me witless when I was about eight, and still does.
Vincent Price as the horribly mutilated, demented sculptor in “The House of Wax”(1953).
The Ringwraiths/Dark Riders from the 1st Lord of the Rings film. They freaked me out!!!
Kaiser Sose from “The Usual Suspects”
[Purely imaginary, but fantistically evil nonetheless.]
Patty McCormick as the evil little girl in “The Bad Seed”.
In a so-bad-it’s-funny category, I’d have to nominate The Master from the incredibly inept “Manos: The Hands of Fate”. One of the worst films ever made, and a brilliant MST3K episode.
My vote for creepiest female would go to Gale Sondergaard, although Judith Anderson’s chilling peformance as Mrs. Danvers, the sinister housekeeper of Manderley, in “Rebecca”(1940) takes some beating.
Cruella Deville, Cruella Deville, if she doesn’t scare ya, nobody will!
I was thinking of the cartoon although I understand Glen Close played her in another version. She played one of Father Z’s picks too. But you have to admit she played a great hero in ROBOCOP.
Wormtongue seems to me to be far creepier than either Gollum or Denethor. The latter fall thru human weakness; Wormtongue is simply vile.
In the Wicked Witch category: Joan Crawford does a great job in several movies. I wouldn’t want to cross her!
I have reservations about your inclusion of Gollum on a list of villains, but that argument could go on forever. And if we are top include Darth Vader, then we ought to include Palpatine/The Emperor/Darth Sidious.
– John Hurt’s Richard Rich in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (even moreso than Cromwell).
– Orson Welles’ Harry Lime in THE THIRD MAN. (Very chilling scene on the ferris wheel and one of the all-time great entrances in movie history.)
Rob said: In the fun category, Dr. Horrible from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. [Is that a movie? Gosh, no, it isn’t.]
I just watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog yesterday afternoon and I too thought of Dr. Horrible when I read Fr. Z’s post. I didn’t comment because I wasn’t sure if it classified as a movie since it is only available online. It bends the definition of movie, deliberately, I’m sure.
For those who want to view the 42 minute “movie”:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog
OK my nomination is for Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) in the remade Battlestar Galactica series on the Sci Fi channel. A close 2nd goes to the evil blond bombshell Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer). She almost made me stop watching the pilot episode / movie when she snapped the baby’s neck in the stroller.
Dr. Zhivago is, and has been my favorite “classic” film… the character of Victor Kamarovsky (Steiger) is intentionally played as an opportunistic pragmatist in comparison to Zhivago’s Romantic Idealist. Is he Evil? Insofar as he only cares about himself, perhaps. Of all of the characters you listed, he is perhaps the most “human”…. in an interview in 1972, Steiger noted that there were likely thousands of “Victor Kamarovskys” in the post-revolution period trying to stay alive… a sad but probably true comment!
But you have to admit she [Glen Close] played a great hero in ROBOCOP.
Nancy Allen played officer Anne Lewis in Robocop. I’ve searched IMDB for Robocop and Glen Close is not listed in the credits. Searching Glen Close’s film listing shows no entries for any of the Robocop movies.
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Right now I am going through the Stargate SG-1 series on DVD. The Goa’uld are great villains, so I would nominate Ra from the Stargate movie.
Henry Fonda as “Frank” in “Once Upon A Time In The West”. When he shoots the kid in the face I started hoping he’d die slow & hard.
Humbert Humbert and/or Clare Quilty from Lolita (either version – Jeremy Irons definitely played a more sympathetic Humbert in the 1997 remake, but really how sympathetic can you get with that character?).
Anthony Sharp as Fr. Xavier Meldrum from House of Mortal Sin, he was CREEPY.
Michael Caine in Quills as Dr. Royer-Collard. Of the worst kind; the ones who don’t think they’re evil.
Richard Roxburgh as The Duke in Moulin Rouge. Standing in the way of true love (that must be said in a forlorn, wispy voice), how much more evil can you get? Maybe even Jim Broadbent as Harold Zidler, he did, after all, put Satine in the situation in the first place.
John Hurt as Adam Sutler and Tim Pigott-Smith as Creedy in V For Vendetta. Horrifically realistic in this day and age.
And finally, a fun one. Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove from, of course, Dr. Strangelove. Though General Ripper was the obvious “villain” in that film. I just love Peter Sellers, so I’m going with him.
Nancy Allen played officer Anne Lewis in Robocop. I’ve searched IMDB for Robocop and Glen Close is not listed in the credits. Searching Glen Close’s film listing shows no entries for any of the Robocop movies.
Sorry, Brian my attempt at humor weak. click link for explanation
http://totallylookslike.com/page/11/
John Creasy (Denzel Washington) when he gets really angry for “due cause” in “Man on Fire.”
Everyone in the movie “The Fallen” (Denzel Washington = Det. John Hobbes) who whistles “Time is On My Side.” That movie still creeps me out…
In the fun category, Jack Nicholson’s character in “The Witches of Eastwick.”
Are you kidding me, Fr. Z?! The Borg Queen, by far (with the exception of Satan of course) is the most powerful and fearful villain of them all. Recall Arturis’ recollection of the Borg’s invasion of his homeworld. What about Q’s description of the Borg, “The Borg are the ultimate user. They’re not interested in political conquest. They’re simply interested in your technology. They see it as something they can consume.”
I’ll let you slide on this one, not everyone can understand the mind of a trekkie. Live long and prosper.
[Species 8472 kicks the Borg’s butt.]
Ditto on Max Cady from the original Cape Fear–played brilliantly by Robert Mitchum. Mitchum also plays an outstanding bad guy in Night of the Hunter.
May I nominate the Potato Head Liturgical Puppets?
Let me just say that this post made my day.
I was going to say Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmatians, but someone already said that. Definitely Lord Sidious, from the Star Wars series. And Count Olaf from Lemony Snicket’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events. Oh, and Queen Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.
Tomas, I’ll second THAT nomination…
As a boy I remember getting really creeped out by the robot Maximillian from “The Black Hole”
Best all time has to be Salieri in Amadeus. Abraham did such a great job showing the depths of a troubled soul and how pride and envy can twist one.
Eric,
LOL. Glen Close and Peter Weller – separated at birth. Who knew? Thanks.
Id say Scrooge in “A Muppet Christmas Carol” played masterfully by Michael Caine… but does it count if he turns good in the end?
amdg0816: Well, they sent a bigger shiver down my spine than even Nurse Ratched could, knowing that she was only pretend and the Spud Puppets are, well, real.
Steven: Good one, I had forgotten about him. Time for Amadeus to rock me again, 1984 was many, many haircuts ago! Heading out to Blockbuster now . . .
For my money, no one does a bad guy as well as Jack Nicholson.
I thought he was just amazing as Frank Costello in “The Departed.”
I read a review of this movie somewhere (a review written by a Catholic, I think)
that compared Nicholson’s Costello to Herod “rotting in his own flesh.” Captures
the creepiness of this character perfectly.
I have to agree with the two posts that mentioned Robert Mitchum as Max Cady in the original Cape Fear. The scene where he tells what he did to his ex-wife was creepy.
Also, I have to agree with the poster who mentioned Count Mondego from The Count of Monte Cristo. Additonally, the warden (Dorleac) was also great in the small part he played.
As for cartoons, how about Sid from Toy Story I?
I nominate Kathy Bates in Misery and “The Man” in Cool Hand Luke.
Good to see Messala from “Ben-Hur” in there — he always gave me the shivers, and was so well played by Stephen Boyd, a very under-rated actor who never got the recognition he deserved. Incredibly, he wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar, though he did win a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor. Sadly, he died in 1977 at the age of 45, just as his career was beginning to recover from a slow period. “Ben-Hur” is my all-time favourite film: visually stunning, with great performances, splendid music, and a great message well-delivered. [I put him on because his jealously drove him to a level of vindictive cruelty beyond most villains.]
The original Dutch/French/English version of “The Vanishing” is one of the most chilling bloodless thrillers you’ll ever see and has one of the creepiest movie villains in Raymond Lemorne. This film will have you leaving on all the lights and checking all your closets if you watch it at home.
Michael Myers from Halloween scared an entire generation.
As far as Masters (Doctor Who) go…Delgado was sinister,Ainley more of a joke,and the two interim Masters grotesque.
(Posting from Netscape 8 after reading from Lynx,and putting in a word for Seamonkey…the browser thread’s comments are closed).
Dear Father Z:
Amon Leopold Göth was real and personally murdered many during World War Two, in addition to overseeing other such actions. In view of this, and out of respect for his victims, I’m not exactly sure if his inclusion on a list of “Evil and Fun Movie Villains” is appropriate. [He was in a movie, he was a villain, and he was evil. – Fr. Z ]
Noah Cross from Chinatown. Not really creepy, but really bad.
For creepy, Satan in The Passion of Christ wins hands down.
James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian.
“They shall all drown in lakes of blood…now they will know why they are afraid of the dark..now they will learn why they fear the night”
Not sure if TV qualifies, but “Ben” from Lost is very, very creepy as a non-typical villian.
In the summer of 1942 Amon Leopold Göth oversaw an action that resulted in the death of half of the population of my hometown. One of the decisions that had to be made by those conducting this action was how to dispose of the children in the most efficient manner. The link below describes that method. Perhaps we should offer prayers for these victims.
http://www.msff.eu/swiadectwa_ocalonych_en.php?id=9&typ=
What about the Child Catcher (Robert Helpmann) in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? He is truly evil.
Fr. Z, you and I have very similar tastes in villains. The first few that you mentioned are my all time favorite to hate. The first time I saw Rob Roy, at the scene when Archibald Cunningham dies I literally (and unexpectedly to myself and those around me) jumped off the couch and cheered loudly taunting the character on the TV screen. :-)
Nicky Santoro and Ginger Rothstein in Casino.
Paul Snider in Star 80.
Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
How could I have forgotten Jerry Lundegaard and the two idiot hitmen in Fargo?
Saruman the White – Christopher Lee – Lord of the Rings (Sauron is too impersonal to put on the list)
Senator Palpatine – Ian McDiarmid – Star Wars
Anakin Skywalker – Hayden Christiansen – Star Wars (when he kills the Younglings)
Alex Forrest – Glenn Close – Fatal Attraction
Dan Gallagher – Michael Douglas – Fatal Attraction (for being unfaithful in the first place)
Prosecutor Vidal Dutour – Vincent Price – Song of Bernadette
William Stryker – Bryan Cox – X-Men (X2)
Warden Norton – Bob Gunton – Shawshank Redemption
Jack Torrance – Jack Nicholson – The Shining
Olympias – Angelina Jolie – Alexander
Tom: Christopher Lee is good-bad in just about everything!
How about Joe Pesci’s character in “Goodfella’s.” Truly an evil person, and
made all the more so when you consider that Pesci makes you forget his comic turns
in “Home Alone” and “My Cousin Vinnie.”
The iceberg in “Titanic”. It was really nasty, and nobody said that the baddies couldn’t be inanimate objects. (In fact Fr Z already mentioned “The Cigarette Company” – so there!).
I have two nominees for villains from classic movies:
Hume Cronyn as Captain Munsey in the 1947 prison film “Brute Force”. Munsey beats
prisoners while listening to recordings of the ‘Prelude and Liebstod” from “Tristan und
Isolde” by Richard Wagner.
Everybody usually thinks of “Laura” when you mention Gene Tierney, but for my money, her best performance was as Ellen in “Leave Her to Heaven” (1945). Talk about a villain! She
lets her disabled brother-in-law drown in a lake and then murders her unborn child
by throwing herself down the stairs.
Viggo Mortensen playing Satan in “The Prophecy”. When asked “are you an angel?” he
replies: “I was the first, loved above all others”. Then he sings: “But like all true
love it withered on the vine”.
Seriously the creepiest Satan I ever saw (beats out the one in “The Passion” in my
opinion).
My top three Evil Overlords I most want to be when I grow up:
Emperor Palpatine
The Master (John Simm’s in Dr. Who)
Ming the Merciless
Runners up:
The Borg
Lucca Brazzi
The Wraith from SG Atlantis.
And I couldn’t help rooting for Keevas Fajio (or however it’s spelled) from the STNG episode where Keevas kidnaps Data and puts him in his curio’s collection.
I also like the Romulan Commander from Balance of Terror.
ooo and what about Christopher Plummer’s character, Colonel Von Whatsisface from the Scarlet and the Black, Gregory Peck’s nemesis.
He was pretty cold.
and who doesn’t love Evil Spock from the Mirror Universe?
Wooo!
I’d vote for him.
and not to get all literary, but
what about Iago?
sorry, I didn’t notice it was only supposed to be movies.
I don’t know if anyone else remembers it, but I thought Lady Kaede, the evil manipulator of the downfall of everyone in Kurosawa’s Ran was among the most evil of all time.
What a great topic!
Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance – a nasty character indeed.
John Malkovich as the assassin Mitch Leary in “In the Line of Fire”
Agatha Trunchbull is one of my favorite comic villains.
I’d like to nominate Mr. Leland Gaunt from “Needful Things” – one of the best books (though the movie was pretty good, too) portraying temptation and sin I’ve ever read/seen.