My Favorite Movie Villains

6.
Alex Forrest, Fatal Attraction



One of Hollywood's most dangerous females.

Warden Norton, Evelyn, and The Joker

5.
Bane, The Dark Knight Rises



Quite possibly the most terrifying movie villain ever who you can't help but be drawn to because he has the voice of Sean Connery and the body of Hulk Hogan. Tom Hardy is one of the few guys who can actually upstage Christian Bale.

And speaking of which...

4.
Patrick Bateman, American Psycho



Christian Bale officially became a movie star with his electrifying performance as this sociopath whose treatment of women is more than questionable, which is odd considering the character was created by a woman.

Patrick Bateman was created by Bret Easton Ellis who last time I checked had a penis. Okay, I'll admit it, I didn't check but I suspect he does.

Oh and you wrote Bale instead of Bane.

Other than that, great list!

I was actually referring to the screenplay for the film, which was written by Mary Herron.

3.
Szell, Marathon Man



I just have three words..."Is it safe?"

2.
Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest



I'm sorry, but this woman was just pure evil...what she did to Billy Bibbit alone earned her the title of the Queen of Evil. The first time I saw the movie, I actually started cheering when McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) started strangling her, even though strangling was too good for her...this woman deserved to die slowly and painfully.


OK, I have to pause here and acknowledge that when I got about half way through this list, I could have made the list well over 100...I know I left out a lot of classic villains here and I would now like to give honorable mention to some that deserve mention here like Norman Bates in Psycho, The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, Franklin Hart in 9 to 5, Baby Jane Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Harry Roat Jr in Wait Until Dark, Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Goldfinger, and The Terminator. And drum roll please...my # 1 favorite movie villain....

1.
Hans Gruber, Die Hard



This character redefined the movie villain forever...he was urbane, sophisticated, intelligent, and quick-witted...Alan Rickman proves what a consummate actor he is during the character's first face-to-face encounter with John McClane (Bruce Willis) and instantly drops his accent and pretends to be a hostage. Now don't get me wrong, he also possessed all the elements of a classic villain...evil, greed, and the makings of a genuine sociopath...death wasn't even a sufficient punishment for this guy.


Hope you enjoyed the list.

Hans Gruber is frigging awesome. He's not my favorite movie villain but he's an easy top 10-15 for me. Great list!

__________________
You will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.
Iroh

Exactly. Makes you wish Hans Gruber survived in the first one to come back as a villain in a sequel. The hacker villain from Die Hard 4 wasn't really terrifying for example.

Tried to narrow it down to a top ten list, but couldn't do it. Just put a bunch of favorites, but not in any real order.

Jack Torrance - The Shining

Tony Montana - Scarface

Norman Bates - Psycho

Michael Corleone - The Godfather Part II

The Wicked Witch Of The West - The Wizard of Oz

Dr. Hannibal Lecter - The Silence of the Lambs

Gollum - Lord Of The Rings series

Regan MacNeil/Pazuzu - The Exorcist

The Joker - The Dark Knight

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) - Nightmare on Elm Street series

Jason Voorhees - Friday The 13th series

Reverend Harry Powell - The Night Of The Hunter

Bill The Butcher - Gangs Of New York

Scar - The Lion King (one of my fave villians as a kid)

A sociopathic killer treating women questionably? Wow, that must be a first.

Almost as surprising as a Klansman treating racial minorities questionably

That's kind of a sexist thing to say, just because the creator happens to have a vagina doesn't mean she's automatically going to be thin-skinned and drawn to censorship.

That'd kind of be like assuming that a black director "would never star a black actor as the bad guy".

Not villains though, they'd qualify as anti-heros. A villain has to be the antagonist in the film.

I originally had Tony Montana on my list and took him off in favor of Alex Forrest...I really, really wanted to put the Wicked Witch of the West on my list too, but couldn't eliminate anyone in my top ten and she didn't deserve to be lower than the top ten.

Great list I have to put some of these movies on my to watch list... I love that you included Regina George haha

Maybe it is sexist, but Patrick Bateman's brutal treatment of women in the film was unsettling and I just found it unusual that a woman would could condone the way Bateman treats women in the film. As the screenwriter and director of the film, that's what I feel Mary Herron is doing. Call me sexist, but that's how I feel.

As opposed to him... murdering people in cold blood?

That would be like watching a graphic documentary on the Holocaust, and yet finding the 'most unsettling part' a scene where Hitler kicks a dog.

Very disproportionate focus of concern, and the focus seems to be more on the type of genitalia the victim has, rather than the actual relative degree of the violence itself.

Right, and showing Batemen stabbing people to death means that she 'condones' serial killings in real life as well? WTF? So now a director showing a "bad guy" doing "bad things" means the director thinks doing this in real life is "okay"?

That is also sexist in the sense that no one would suggest it unusual for a male director to feature villainous characters 'treating men poorly'. Essentially it's suggesting that any director who happens to have a vagina must be hypersensitive, and not able to distinguish between entertainment and real life.

Just curious. Do you feel that the creators of horror films, or violent video games like Call of Duty are 'condoning murder' and think committing mass murder in real life is hunkie dorie?

I love Magneto, especially in the "First Class" movie!

Technically he's not a villain since he's the protagonist (I mentioned that above) - he'd qualify as an anti-hero.

The villain in the film sense of the term has to be the antagonist.