Ten Most Well Acted Psychotic Characters in Movie History

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I've composed a list of what I think may be the ten most well-acted psychotic characters in film history. I'd appreciate any comments of agreement or disagreement, and also your own list if you are so inclined. Thank you.

Spencer Tracy in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Lair Cregar in "The Lodger"

Peter Ustinov in "Quo Vadis"

Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death"

Better Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"

Peter Lorre in "M"

Orson Welles in "Touch of Evil"

Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"

Anthony Hopkins in "Hannibal"



I've composed a list of what I think may be the ten most well-acted psychotic characters in film history. I'd appreciate any comments of agreement or disagreement, and also your own list if you are so inclined. Thank you.

Spencer Tracy in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Lair Cregar in "The Lodger"

Peter Ustinov in "Quo Vadis"

Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death"

Better Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"

Peter Lorre in "M"

Orson Welles in "Touch of Evil"

Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"

Anthony Hopkins in "Hannibal"

You have misused the word paychotic. The word you are looking for is psychopathic. Please rectify this. I ask this for those like me who have experienced psychosis. Thanks


"Psychosis and psychopathy are vastly different and have minimal resemblance clinically. Of the two groups, psychopaths are actually more dangerous and a threat to society than those with psychosis."https://neuroinstincts.com/psychopath-or-psychotic/

Though the two words sound alike, their definitions are very different. One difference between a psychopath and a psychotic is that a psychopath lives in reality, a psychotic has broken from reality – meaning he (or she) imagines things that are not real to a “normal” person but seem very real to him (or her!). Another difference is that psychopaths are far more likely to be a danger to society.https://yourselfseries.com/topic/men...d-a-psychotic/



Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet


Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer


Gert Frobe in Goldfinger



You have misused the word paychotic. The word you are looking for is psychopathic. Please rectify this. I ask this for those like me who have experienced psychosis. Thanks


"Psychosis and psychopathy are vastly different and have minimal resemblance clinically. Of the two groups, psychopaths are actually more dangerous and a threat to society than those with psychosis."https://neuroinstincts.com/psychopath-or-psychotic/

Though the two words sound alike, their definitions are very different. One difference between a psychopath and a psychotic is that a psychopath lives in reality, a psychotic has broken from reality – meaning he (or she) imagines things that are not real to a “normal” person but seem very real to him (or her!). Another difference is that psychopaths are far more likely to be a danger to society.https://yourselfseries.com/topic/men...d-a-psychotic/
I was about to say similar tbh.

Also, you know that most psychopaths in movies are more akin to sociopaths or even narcissists.
Anton Chigurh and Annie Wilkes are psychopaths.

Lector however, is an example of sociopath, not psychopath.
According to the prequel Hannibal Rising, he was driven to kill and cannibalise for the first time, as an act of revenge for the death of his sister, and probably suffers PTSD from his childhood.

Edit:

The OP's mention of Norman Bates though was a good pick for psychotic.
He's definitely a sociopath (not psychopath) who's had a psychotic break.



Also another important distinction between the two is that when someone is in a state of psychosis, they are acting completely differently than they normally would. Whereas psychopathy is actually a personality trait. It's who they are on a normal day, not a break from it.



And under that definition, as already mentioned, Norman Bates is most likely psychotic. And he should already be crowned the winner of this question.



I've composed a list of what I think may be the ten most well-acted psychotic characters in film history. I'd appreciate any comments of agreement or disagreement, and also your own list if you are so inclined. Thank you.

Spencer Tracy in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Lair Cregar in "The Lodger"

Peter Ustinov in "Quo Vadis"

Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death"

Better Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"

Peter Lorre in "M"

Orson Welles in "Touch of Evil"

Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"

Anthony Hopkins in "Hannibal"
Good list! I would personally change these to:
Fredrick March in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
Better Davis in "The Anniversary"



Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet


Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer


Gert Frobe in Goldfinger
Make that ALL of the James Bond bad guys, they never care if they kill millions.

Curious to see how Nurse Rashid falls into this rational.
I like Nurse Rashid. I consider Jack Nicholson to be the nutty bad guy in that movie.



I've composed a list of what I think may be the ten most well-acted psychotic characters in film history. I'd appreciate any comments of agreement or disagreement, and also your own list if you are so inclined. Thank you.

Spencer Tracy in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Lair Cregar in "The Lodger"

Peter Ustinov in "Quo Vadis"

Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death"

Better Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"

Peter Lorre in "M"

Orson Welles in "Touch of Evil"

Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"

Anthony Hopkins in "Hannibal"
Good list! I would personally change these to:
Fredrick March in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
Better Davis in "The Anniversary"


Curious to see how Nurse Rashid falls into this rational.
I like Nurse Rashid. I consider Jack Nicholson to be the nutty bad guy in that movie.



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
McMurphy isn't a perfect angel by any means, but Nurse Ratched is absolutely not someone I'd look up to. People like her are the problem with many mental facilities, enforcing clinical order instead of making sure their patients still get to live a decent life and not be treated like mere test subjects.



McMurphy isn't a perfect angel by any means, but Nurse Ratched is absolutely not someone I'd look up to. People like her are the problem with many mental facilities, enforcing clinical order instead of making sure their patients still get to live a decent life and not be treated like mere test subjects.
This is an excerpt from my review:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

***Spoilers***
Jack Nicholson, OMG was he great in this or what! To his credit he played R.P. McMurphy as a man who might just be a sociopath or might just be a big jack ass. The questionable nature of his character worked wonders as the audience is in the same shoes as the doctors...we don't know if this man really belongs in a mental institute or not?

At first he seems like the typical anti-hero, a role he often played in other movies, but the film then flips that on it's head when he comes with in seconds of choking Nurse Ratchet to death. Which makes me think he's a real sociopath (a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.)...and that sounds like R.P. McMurphy to me.

When I was younger I thought he was the victim and the nurse was the evil one...but now I can see those roles being blurred and questioned, and that's brilliant screen writing...and acting.



Louise Fletcher
, holy cow she rocked! I had seen this film once like 30 years ago and I remembered her as this evil conniving, sadistic nurse...boy was I wrong! She gave Nurse Ratched depth...and I could see she believed the actions she took was in the best interest of the patients and yet she's a control freak and McMurphy challenges her control which then pushes her deeper into authoritativeness.

Nurse Ratched extruded this passive-aggressive personality that was layered with that overly calm & collected voice, brilliant! But she never really crosses the line and becomes an evil caricature, in fact I rather like her...at least until the end. Both her and Nicholson richly deserved their Oscars.
...



Nurse Ratched pushes a patient to kill himself, basically due to her pettiness over her rules being broken. She takes this out on the most vulnerable person in her care. She's a monster.


McMurphy is not necessarily a good guy either, he's a complicated character with lots of faults, and whose good deeds are far from altruistic. But he is at least observably human and him attacking her in that particular moment is one of the least questionable things he does. He is the only one who sees through to what she really is. A narciccist more concerned about forced order than human life. A person who should absolutely not be in charge of the safety or the mental well being of anyone.



The trick is not minding
Nurse Ratched pushes a patient to kill himself, basically due to her pettiness over her rules being broken. She takes this out on the most vulnerable person in her care. She's a monster.


McMurphy is not necessarily a good guy either, he's a complicated character with lots of faults, and whose good deeds are far from altruistic. But he is at least observably human and him attacking her in that particular moment is one of the least questionable things he does. He is the only one who sees through to what she really is. A narciccist more concerned about forced order than human life. A person who should absolutely not be in charge of the safety or the mental well being of anyone.
Pretty much this. She rules that place through manipulation and fear. She wields her power like a scalpel,stroking with precision, armed with the intimate knowledge of her patients mental instability and fears and isn’t above exploiting those conditions.



Pretty much this. She rules that place through manipulation and fear. She wields her power like a scalpel, armed with the intimate knowledge of her patients mental instability and fears and isn’t above exploiting those conditions.
I think it's all in how a person perceives the characters. When I was younger I was convinced that Nurse Ratched was evil and Jack Nicholson's character was some sort of savor. Last time I seen it those roles changed. Nicholson is a pedophile. He's a pedophile who lies and manipulates the system to get out of a jail sentence. Once he's in the mental institute he stirs up the residents disrupting the schedule and order of things and ultimately is the catalysis for one character's death and his own demise too. It's a brilliant movie as the characters and their actions aren't clear cut but are very open to interpretation. It's a 5/5 film for me.



Pretty much this. She rules that place through manipulation and fear. She wields her power like a scalpel, armed with the intimate knowledge of her patients mental instability and fears and isn’t above exploiting those conditions.

Where much of her true evil in her can be found is in how she weaponizes her supposedly calm and fair demeanor in order to have her patients believe she is on their side, while she slowly breaks their spirit.


Sure, she lets them vote. But do you think she would allow that if she didn't already know she had them under her thumb. And exactly where does her belief in majority rules go as soon as McMurphy breaks through to them. Oh, that's right, it doesn't count.


Unlike a Hannibal Lector type, Ratched is actually the sort of horrendous human being you will frequently run into in your life. These sorts are everywhere. And Cuckoo's Nest is a great primer in exposing them and calling them the **** out.

And whether McMurphy is a bad person or a good person or anywhere in between is entirely irrelevant regarding whether or not Ratchet is a pure villain..she's not just in charge of McMurphy




I like Nurse Rashid. I consider Jack Nicholson to be the nutty bad guy in that movie.

Nurse Ratched [spelling] would certainly be a good head nurse to have around when society is becoming a fascist state mandating everyone get injections from a substance still experimental against a pandemic insufficiently proven with due consideration (rather than demonization) of credible professionals who disagree with the Narrative. No doubt she'd be a zealous Covidian.