Memorable Movie Villains

Sinister and Psychotic Film Characters From the Last Four Decades

Jun 28, 2009

Cool as ice, magnetic and almost unstoppable, these cinematic bad guys were totally lacking in the compassion department. Some were human and others were not.

They command your attention. They have no redeeming qualities and possess eerie, disturbing personas. A convincing villain has no moral compass from which the audience can draw empathy or decency. Despite their malevolence, the villains have more fun and take pleasure in taunting, confusing and even eluding their good guy counterparts whenever they like. Here is a list of some of the vilest bad guys that have ever appeared on movie screens from the 1960s to the present day.

Quiet and articulate, it was only towards the end of the film that it became apparent just how insane this man really was. He loved his dead mother and enjoyed wearing her clothes when he killed people with a kitchen knife.

Few characters in film history have evoked such strong emotional reactions as this darkly cloaked figure. The sound of his respirator and his ability to choke somebody from across the room pointed to a being more mechanical than human, with no pity, remorse or shame.

All work and no play certainly didn't make Jack a dull boy when, after losing his mind in the isolated Overlook Hotel, tried to chop his wife and son into sushi. The film was based on the novel written by Stephen King.

An efficient killing machine traveled back in time from 2029 to 1984 with one mission, to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future resistance leader against a race of machines. Arnold's powerful cyborg killed everyone who stood in his way including shooting up a police station full of cops and gunning down innocent bystanders.

Fists, bullets, grenades or even losing its limbs couldn't stop this assassin made of liquid metal, who had the ability to perfectly mimic people and objects. With a steely gaze and an instinct to kill whoever it copied, it had a broader repertoire of interpersonal skills than Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator. But, there was absolutely no way to talk it out of doing its job.

This remake of the 1962 film featured De Niro as a muscled version of Max Cady. He was a cigar smoking, bible-quoting lunatic who terrorized his former lawyer Sam Bowden, played by Nick Nolte. Set free from prison after fourteen years, Cady wanted Bowden and his family to learn all about loss. He killed their family dog, beat and raped one of Bowden's colleagues and tried to seduce their young daughter.

He not only killed people, he ate them! This brilliant psychiatrist was criminally insane and used a combination of charm and intimidation to gain the trust of a young FBI agent, Clarice Starling. To escape custody he killed a couple of cops and used the face of one of them as a disguise.

This deranged nut sliced the ear off of a cop, doused him with gasoline and almost set him on fire while grooving to the sounds of a '70s radio program. He made it look cool to be bad.

Shooting Jewish prisoners for target practice was despicable enough and an uncomfortable reminder of Nazi atrocities in World War II.

This LAPD officer used highly questionable tactics to rid the streets of criminals. Clever and rotten to the core, he went so far as to point a gun at his new student, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) in order to get him to smoke weed. Harris used this as a tool to blackmail the rookie detective.

This hitman with a goofy haircut liked to use a compressed air pistol and a pump action shotgun when disposing of his victims. He made difficult decisions, such as whether or not to kill an elderly gas station attendant, by flipping a coin.

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