Best Villain Voices

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What films villains in your opinion have the best and most menacing/scary voices? Some of my top picks:


Darth Vader
Kylo Ren w/ mask on
Ultron (Avengers: Age Of Ultron)
Jigsaw Killer (Saw series)
Ghostface (Scream series)
Megatron, The Fallen and Lockdown (Transformers)
Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles '90 and The Secret Of The Ooze)
Cobra Commander (G.I. Joe: Retaliation)


While the live-action Transformers films aren't very good they have some excellent voicework and especially with the villains.



Bane in Dark knight rises



Darth Vader
Kylo Ren w/ mask on
We should also mention Ian McDiarmid's Palpatine/Darth Sidious, a really excellent, evil voice. The character's also great when Sidious is pretending to be one of the good guys, especially when his true self is closer to the surface.

Bane in Dark knight rises
I remember when I first saw Tom Hardy in Star Trek: Nemesis his voice really made an impression, along with his instant capability of matching Patrick Stewart for screen presence – perfect casting. Bane's another great character with a really well thought through voice and delivery. I think it's almost on a par with Heath Ledger's Joker.



Can't have this thread without mentioning Hans Gruber in Die Hard and if we can count animated villains, I have to mention Medusa in The Rescuers and Ursula in The Little Mermaid.



I can't help but revert to being a Doctor Who fan when thinking about villain voices, as there are so many good ones to list, in all media.

For instance one of the very best is the voice of the Animus in the William Hartnell story The Web Planet, voiced by Catherine Fleming. It resembles a kind of alien jellyfish or spider and communicates via a tube that descends over the heads of its prisoners. The first time it speaks is a very scary moment.

My favourite Who villain, Kwundaar, appeared in the audio drama Primeval and was played by Stephen Greif, who Blake's 7 fans will know as Travis. On top of Greif's distinctive, resonant voice certain sound effects were added to create the feeling of several voices sliding over each other. Kwundaar keeps his face covered with a mask – for a particularly dramatic reason – and has the invincible power of being able to read minds throughout time and space.



Forgot Bane in TDKR and Candyman. Definitely some excellent, chill-inducing voices.
I don't remember Candyman that well but I imagine Todd was also pretty chilling in Final Destination.

One of the character voices I like a lot, and he's not exactly a villain, is the Guild representative in Dune. If you remember, he speaks into a microphone in strange, shifting 'sounds' and these are translated into harsh, high-pitched received pronunciation English. It's very creepy and I suppose has a similar effect to the first Cybermen in Doctor Who. They had cloth faces, like surgical masks, and the actors would open their mouths but not move them – the voice was provided by voiceover. It's a really sinister idea.



'Pazuzu' the demon who possesses Regan MacNeill - 'The Exorcist'



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Tim curry in 'Legend'. An awesome actor doing an awesome voice in awesome prosthetics/make-up. He makes me shiver...but perhaps not in fright
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Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Mark Hammil as the Joker in Batman : The Animated Series
And also that one, yes. But this time it's totally shivers of fright. Not some one to meet in an dark alley.