Sometimes the most memorable cinematic villains are those that audiences can identify with or sympathize with in some way. However, this is not always the case. There are times when the greatest villains are the worst of the worst. They are the most vile characters with no redeeming characteristics.
Some characters are supernatural beings of unfathomable power, seemingly unkillable forces of nature, or purely cold-blooded. Their greatest strength is their inability to elicit anything resembling heat from the audience. These characters span genres, eras, and popularity. Evil is their bond.
ten Sauron Has No Mercy For Free Beings In The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
JRR Tolkien once said that Sauron was the closest thing to being “totally evil” as he thought possible, and Peter Jackson’s film version lives up to that description. Once a disciple of Morgoth, Sauron later assumes the task of ruling all of Middle-earth himself after Morgoth’s defeat.
Sauron is particularly cruel, distinguishing himself from other ordinary world-ruler type villains. There’s a real threat to his actions, and the shape of the character’s giant eyes is ominous. In his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson does a great job of keeping Sauron as mysterious and unsympathetic as possible.
9 Anton Chigurh is a heartless hitman in no country for old men
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Javier Bardem gives an excellent performance as the cruel Anton Chigurh in There is no country for old people. The Coen Brothers film is celebrated for good reason, and Chigurh’s presence is arguably its greatest asset. The cold, heartless hitman engages in truly gruesome violence throughout the film.
Cormac McCarthy’s novel focused on the theme of American violence and its role in defining the country’s past and present, and the Coens drove the message home in their adaptation. Chigurh can be seen as the manifestation of American-style violence. He is vile and relentless.
8 Max Cady is a petrifying force in Cape Fear
The great Robert Mitchum is at his best in Cape fear. After being released from prison after serving time for rape, he stalks and psychologically torments the family of Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), the man responsible for sealing his conviction in court.
Mitchum was no stranger to this type of role, turning in an equally outstanding villainous performance in the hunter’s night. Cape fear is a film so dominated by its antagonist that audiences can’t help but feel disturbed and worried about the fate of Bowden and his family.
seven Nurse Ratched’s Cruelty To Mental Illness Is Vile In A Cuckoo’s Nest Flyover
Flight over a cuckoo’s nestNurse Ratched is one of the cruelest antagonists in movie history due to the way she treats the patients she cares for. It is manipulative and abusive towards people who are unable to put up any resistance to it.
Ratched isn’t violent, but he’s a special breed of villain. His legacy is also multiple. On the one hand, it represents the corrupting influence of institutional power and abuse; on the other, she is the face of an outdated gender stereotype of the nurse as a “battle axe”.
6 Immortan Joe is the monstrous ruler of the Wasteland in Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road Immortan Joe is a cruel opportunist who takes it upon himself to become the tyrannical leader of a post-civilization. He takes himself for a god and makes every effort to give everyone the impression that he is just that.
Immortan Joe is a monstrous individual who doesn’t care about anyone or anything. His sole purpose is to steal resources and continue to feed his own mythos as the post-apocalypse god that the remaining helpless survivors need to support themselves in the new world.
5 Mick Taylor Is A Classic Evil Horror Villain In Wolf Creek
Mick Taylor is a disgusting individual in wolf creek. His trick is to befriend tourists, gain their trust, let their guard down, and then unleash his true nature on them. He is a violent villain who takes a sexual interest in his murder, which makes him similar to another horror villain in A nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Kruger.
John Jarratt, who played Taylor, said his portrayal of the character was so compelling that he couldn’t find work for two years after the film’s release. In an era of horror dominated by mundane villains who enjoyed torturing victims, Taylor was a breath of fresh air for his genuinely horrifying presence.
4 David Banner is a violent monster who ruins his son in Hulk
At Ang Lee’s Pontoon is one of the most interesting superhero movies ever made. The film is a bizarre psychoanalytic nightmare that avoids the boring monotony of most genre endeavors. David Banner, played by Nick Nolte, is irredeemable as an abusive, absentee father who badly spoils his son, Bruce.
After discovering Bruce’s abilities, David attempts to obtain them for himself. To do this, he hatches plans to kill his own son. It wasn’t the first time he tried this, as he also tried to kill Bruce as a child. David Banner is beyond sympathy. It’s a real monster.
3 Scorpio is a chaotic evil existing simply because it can in Dirty Harry
dirty harry is one of the greatest action thrillers in cinematic history. Don Siegel’s film was perfect in what it set out to do. Andrew Robinson’s performance as Scorpion is one of the cruelest ever to hit the big screen. The cat-and-mouse game between the character and Harry Callahan is awesome.
Scorpio has no morals, ethics, or sense of humanity. He is purely evil because he can be and takes advantage of it every moment. Very little is known about the character throughout dirty harrymaking him all the more effective and powerful as a villainous character.
2 Michael Myers is an unknowable void on Halloween
The presence of Michael Myers in Halloween is arguably the strongest villainous presence in movie history. The character is so effective because there’s no way to understand him. There’s nothing human about Myers, so it’s impossible to sympathize with the character.
To contemplate Michael Myers is to plunge one’s mind into the void, and that’s where the character’s fear comes from. Unlike other horror villains, like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees from Friday 13, whose difficulties are known, Myers is a blank slate. Few things are more terrifying than that.
1 Angst’s Nameless Killer Is Incredibly Vile
Anguish is a virtually unknown 1983 Austrian film about a serial killer who breaks out of prison and immediately returns to his old ways. This film is not for the faint hearted. It’s despicable, shocking and almost unbelievable. Anguish was banned across Europe upon release.
No villain who has ever graced the screen is as sick as the nameless killer of Anguish, and no film will fill its audience with a deeper sense of sickness and dread. By breaking into a house, an entire household is brutally terrorized by this man. It’s next-level stuff and should be approached gently by anyone who dares to look at it.
