The 32 greatest movie villains
Nov. 1, 2024Serial killers, supervillains, and high school seniors
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Everyone loves a bad guy. But among the millions of cinematic antagonists who’ve ever terrorized the screen, which baddies are too good to forget?
Compelling villains have been a staple since tribes gathered around fires and told stories. Popular movies merely build upon our ancient traditions, but the art and craft of cinema have made some uniquely iconic villains. Here are 32 of the greatest movie villains of all time.
32. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct)
Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct stays infamous, especially thatinterrogation scene, and it’s all because of Sharon Stone. In Verhoeven’s classic erotic thriller from 1992, Stone portrays Catherine Tramell, a wealthy heiress and textbook narcissist who wields her body like a knife, her iconic slim-fitting white dress its sheath. A true reincarnation of noir femme fatales of yore, Catherine Tramell drew the boundaries of sexuality in mainstream Hollywood with just a switch of her criss-crossed legs.
The scariest thing about Kevin Spacey’s John Doe, in David Fincher’s unforgettable noir thriller Seven, is that he’s still a man of mystery. Coming from literally nowhere and appearing as plain as anyone from anywhere, John Doe’s capacity for evil is horrifying to fathom. In the movie, John Doe is a serial killer who turns his victims into pseudo-religious works of art, his crime scenes inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins. Driven by a nihilistic view of the world and alarmingly capable of maintaining his posture, John Doe is a villain like no other.
“Fetch” is never going to happen, but Regina George is forever. In the iconic millennial smash hit Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams appears in a star-making performance as Regina George, the leader of the “Plastics” who runs the clique like she’s a crime boss. The meanest of the titular “mean girls,” Regina emotionally manipulates and tortures virtually all those around her at North Shore High School – which is ultimately discovered to be a poor outlet for her pent-up aggression. She may not be a supervillain or a serial killer, but Regina George is a true teenage tyrant who proves that looks can almost kill.
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The OG vampire who made neck biting sound like a thrill, Count Dracula of Bram Stoker’s seminal 1897 novel is the be-all, end-all of the gothic monsters. While many different actors have played Dracula, he’s best remembered through Bela Lugosi (in 1931’s Dracula) and Christopher Lee (in 1958’s Horror of Dracula); both men inhabited an iconic portrayal that’s defined the character and vampires overall for generations. (Fun fact: Did you know vampires didn’t necessarily have fangs in popular culture until Christopher Lee wore them?) A symbol of the aristocracy being blood-sucking predators over the poor. Count Dracula is sexyandsinister, the only one of the original Universal Monsters who could steal your breath away.
Greed is good. So Gordon Gecko believes. A shark in Brooks Brothers tailoring, Gordon Gecko looms large over Oliver Stone’s Wall Street with Michael Douglas in an Oscar-winning performance. The physical embodiment of American capitalism’s cutthroat heartlessness, Gordon is a textbook psychopath whose viciousness and cunning is practically unstoppable until he’s undone by his protege (Charlie Sheen). While he’s not an actual murderer like American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman, they could theoretically be neighbors, and it’s frightening to realize you wouldn’t easily know which one has actual blood on his hands.
They called him “Mr. Glass.” Before the rise of superhero blockbusters, M. Night Shyalaman deconstructed the genre’s tropes and conventions with his cerebral thriller Unbreakable. Sitting opposite Bruce Willis' David Dunn is Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, a steely but eloquent art collector and comics obsessive who seeks out David Dunn to become the hero of his own villain story. In some ways, Shyamalan’s movie and its villain predicted the toxicity of fandoms – not merely the entitlement, but the determination to live out a narrative that exists only to them.
Villainy has never been so…white. In Jordan Peele’s searing sci-fi horror Get Out, Allison Williams plays the deceptively amiable Rose, a photogenic white girl from a liberal upper middle class family from cozy upstate New York. But what her boyfriend Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) doesn’t know is the ancient evil that his girlfriend descends from. Ultimately, the genius of Rose is how unassuming and harmless she appears – until slowly, she is revealed to be the most disturbing one of her entire clan. Just watch how she eats her cereal.
The blueprint for allDisneyvillains, The Queen (or “Evil Queen,” as if her whole deal wasn’t already obvious) is the ultimate antagonist from the Magic Kingdom. Classically evil, the Queen wants nothing more than to be “The Fairest in the Land” and thus plots to kill Snow White out of her own insecurity. The embodiment of vanity, sadism, and cruelty, the Queen is why so many fear their own stepparents. While Disney has spawned other like-minded villainesses like Maleficent and Cruella De Ville, the Queen still reigns supreme.
Hans Gruber wants you to think his takeover of Nakatomi Plaza is for radically noble intentions. But really, he’s just in it for the money. In Die Hard, Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber shows up uninvited to the Nakatomi Christmas party posing as a terrorist mastermind who demands the release of political prisoners around the world. His actual goal, however, is to steal hundreds of millions in bearer bonds from the Nakatomi vault. He would get away with it, if a certain shoeless cowboy wasn’t at the party too. Through a handsome performance by Alan Rickman, Hans Gruber is a villain who is unusually calm, charismatic, and even a bit funny. Just because he’s not imposing doesn’t mean he isn’t powerful.
The scary thing about Anne Wilkes, from Rob Reiner’s 1990 movie Misery (based on the Stephen King novel) is that you can imagine her among the hordes at Comic-Con. Predating the modern era’s alarming abundance of fans with parasocial relationships to creators and even fictional characters, Kathy Bates stars in Misery as a nurse who kidnaps an author (James Caan) to write a new ending for her favorite book series. The brilliance of Bates' Oscar-winning role is how her hospitality grows hostile, fostering a false sense of security before her plan is unveiled. We all want happy endings, but Anne Wilkes is doing whatever it takes to get hers.
Jang Kyung-chu is plainly evil, but what’s frightening about him is what that unlocks in the “good guy.” In the pitch black horror-thriller I Saw the Devil, Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) is a bus driver and serial killer who preys on young women. After he kills the fiance of special agent Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), it’s Soo-hyun who embarks on a vengeful warpath for Kyung-chul, making I Saw the Devil one of the rare times that it’s the protagonist who is the “monster” of a monster movie. Kyung-chul is legitimately psychopathic who lacks empathy and remorse for all the blood he’s spilled, his ultimate evil is in dragging a good man like Soo-hyun into the mud with him.
Forged from the childhood traumas of horror maestro Wes Craven, the supernatural killer Freddy Krueger – the central villain in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise – is perhaps the ultimate movie slasher. Between his burnt fedora, clawed garden glove, and sickening red-green Christmas sweater (intentionally chosen by Craven because of how the colors clash to the human eye), Freddy out-swaggers both Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and all else who dare rack up a body count. Famously played by Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger is evil incarnate (just look up his hair-raising origin story) who in lifeanddeath targets Elm Street’s teenagers in their dreams. With razor-sharp claws and a killer sense of humor that cuts just as deep, Freddy Krueger not only reinvented slasher films, he remade it in his vicious image.
The magnificence of “The Shark” is that his mystique came out of practicality. Throughout the making of Steven Spielberg’s unstoppable summer horror Jaws, the animatronic shark that played the movie’s man-eating great white kept breaking down. (Turns out, water and machines don’t mix!) To get around its malfunctions, Spielberg only showed the shark in key moments throughout the movie. This wound up a stroke of genius, as the shark’s sparse appearances gave him the power to be anywhere in the ocean, at any time. Fun fact: His affectionate nickname “Bruce” by the production crew was inspired by Steven Spielberg’s lawyer.
In Michael Mann’s dark L.A. noir Collateral, Tom Cruise plays Vincent, a contract killer embarking on a series of hits in a single night. A silver fox with a silver tongue, Vincent convinces a hapless cabbie (Jamie Foxx) to drive him around the City of Angels as an accomplice, ironically giving Foxx’s character the ride of his life. Cool and composed almost all the way through, so much of Vincent shines when he meets an unexpected character: Foxx’s sick and bedridden mother. Vincent may not be Tom Cruise’s all-time greatest character, but as one of the few times he’s been the antagonist, he’s unforgettable.
Be prepared! Seeking the throne of Pride Rock is Scar, the jealous (and low-key flamboyant) brother of Mufasa who orchestrates the king’s death and dispatches his hyena henchmen to kill Mufasa’s son and heir Simba. Portrayed by the stirring Jeremy Irons, Scar steals the show with his powerful villain anthem “Be Prepared” – which Irons blew out his voice recording. A triumph of a Disney villain, it’s a testament to both Irons as an actor and Disney’s filmmakers riffing over Shakespeare in all the best ways.
Max Cady isn’t just vengeful, he’s brilliantly petty. In Martin Scorsese’s horror-thriller Cape Fear, frequent collaborator Robert De Niro puts on a scary face to play Max Cady, a convicted rapist who finally walks free after 14 years in prison. Now, Max is determined to torture his former attorney (Nick Nolte) by making his life – and the life of his beautiful family – a living hell. The genius of Max’s schemes is that he’s not simply out for blood but to make their blood boil, antagonizing an innocent family within the bounds of the law. Max Cady doesn’t need chainsaws or hockey masks to be a terror as he’s already got his brains.
Guillermo del Toro’s known hatred towards fascist regimes is most evident in his 2006 masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. Played by Sergi López, Captain Vidal is the evil stepfather of the main protagonist Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) who dutifully serves in the Civil Guard of Francoist Spain. An indefensible psychopath, Vidal exists as the picture-perfect archetype of a loyal soldier who ruthlessly carries out the will of their leaders. While López was primarily known as a comedy actor in his native Spain, his performance in del Toro’s movie demonstrated his incredible range to portray the monstrosity of men.
Ambition and betrayal are under the spotlight in All About Eve, with Anne Baxter playing the title character in an Oscar-nominated performance. In All About Eve, a seemingly starstruck Broadway fan, Eve Harrington (Baxter) becomes close to her stage idol Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Eve emotionally manipulates Margo to sympathize with her and fold her into her inner circle, after which Eve unveils her true intentions to replace Margo as Broadway’s newest starlet. Through its antagonist, All About Eve plays out the eternal war between youth and experience, between trust and deception, all for an attentive audience.
Sometimes, it’s all in the name. Springing from the original Ken Kesey novel, Nurse Ratched (played by Louise Fletcher) of 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is the cold and passive-aggressive caretaker whose authority over a mental hospital is undermined by rebellious patient Randle (Jack Nicholson). A symbol of corrosive power in white tennis shoes, Nurse Ratched isn’t simply evil but comfortable in her meager position of privilege that allows her to exercise fear against those under her. But Ratched’s true terror lies in the fact that those above her just don’t care very much to know how she’s running things.
One of the most influential horror movies of all time also has one of the most frightening horror movie villains of all time. Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) is an unassuming, if slightly off-putting motel manager whose mother is alittletoo comfortable staying inside their home that looms over everything. While Psycho has problematic readings regarding gender identity and transphobia, Bates remains a striking figure whose ghastly secrets and troubled psychology have left indelible scars on the horror genre. Many have thought twice about stepping into their own showers, and it’s all because of a costume wig and chocolate syrup.
Nothing in the Matrix is real, but the threat of its agents are. In the Wachowskis' revolutionary sci-fi film franchise, the machines exercise their collective will over The Matrix via emissaries called agents who are too powerful for any one person – except for “The One.” In the film, the main nemesis agent is the iron-like Agent Smith, whose deliberate speech and lack of expression make him unnerving as he is threatening. While the sequels see Agent Smith amass far more power than even the machines care for, his first appearance is unforgettable, as is his delivery of the words “Mr. Anderson.”
The real-life Nazi war criminal Amon Göth made his black mark in history, and actor Ralph Fiennes left it all on the screen in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. The harrowing World War 2 picture dramatizes the efforts of German industrialist Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson) and how he saved around a thousand Polish-Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Embodying the unfiltered evil of the Nazi regime for the film is Göth, commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. While Fiennes has played other iconic villains in his movie career, nothing compares to the factual reality of his Göth.
With just three words in the form of a question – “Why so serious?” – The Joker earned his place in cinematic history. In Christopher Nolan’s epic 2008 superhero tentpole The Dark Knight, the late Heath Ledger plays Batman’s famed arch-enemy The Joker, reimagined as a domestic terrorist seizing on post-9/11 paranoia. That Ledger died months before the film’s release added a haunting aura to his acclaimed portrayal. Between the spectacle of Ledger’s transformation and the overall threatening vibe of the Joker himself, The Dark Knight became more than just a big superhero movie but the must-see event of its decade.
Talk about heavy metal. Years after Arnold Schwarzenegger played the fearsome T-800, his successor T-1000 (played by Robert Patrick) seeped into our nightmares in a most eerie vision of our future. In James Cameron’s T2, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent from the future to protect an adolescent John Connor (Edward Furlong) from assassination by Skynet after they send a cutting-edge model T-1000, capable of liquifying itself to get anywhere it needs to. (The visual effects were groundbreaking for its time, and to be honest, it still holds up.) In various interviews, Robert Patrick revealed he studied hawks to inhabit the overall vibe of a predator.
All slashers owe a debt to John Carpenter and his creation, Michael Myers. In 1978, Carpenter unleashed Halloween, still one of the most defining horror movies ever made. The movie follows suburban teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) as she endures one deadly Halloween and fights off a mute killer, Michael Myers (Nick Castle). Dressed to kill in a workwear jumpsuit, a repainted Captain Kirk mask, and armed with a humble kitchen knife, Michael Myers lets his actions speak louder than words – and it’s why he’s still an icon.
Lord Vader sure has a way of taking your breath away, doesn’t he? Arguablytheicon of George Lucas' inescapable Star Wars franchise, Darth Vader is the baddest of them all, a Sith Lord dressed head to toe in black and red. While his physical state is frail from being burnt by the molten lava of Mustafar, his artificial enhancements mixed with fearsome samurai-style armor make him the imposing muscle for the real dark lord of them all, Emperor Palpatine. From enslaved farm boy to emotionally tortured Jedi padawan to the biggest villain that’s ever swung a lightsaber, Darth Vader is too iconic for words, which is maybe why his breathing is iconic.
“Hello, Clarice.” In Jonathan Demme’s unrivaled psychological crime thriller Silence of the Lambs, FBI trainee Clarice (Jodie Foster) reluctantly consults with infamous cannibal and serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to track downanotherruthless murderer, Buffalo Bill. The magic of Demme’s masterpiece is that while Hannibal stays behind bars, it’s unclear who is actually a prisoner and who is using whom. Clarice is resolute and determined to uphold justice, but she is permanently changed by the darkness of Hannibal. It’s no wonder Hopkins took home the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance.
Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he’s your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.
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