Top 10 Movie Villains

Heavy breathing and large figures in cloaks and masks usually only visit us in our nightmares but Darth Vadar seems to creep into our thoughts any time we think of villains. Ruler of the galaxy and Dark Lord of the Sith, does it make him more villainous that he started his days as a good Jedi Knight before turning to the dark side? Maybe. Either way, the fact that the films are as popular now as they always were means that the fearsome enforcer is one of the best.

Without a shadow of doubt, man, woman and child will be familiar with the Wicked Witch of the West no matter what era they were born in. “How dare she try and stop Dorothy from getting home,” I hear you all cry in chorus from the comfort of your sofas. And rightly so. It is no fault of Toto, the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow, nor Dorothy herself, that her house had to land on the witch’s sister – who was equally as wicked anyway.

I must admit, that without the compelling and terrifying performance given by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight two years ago, The Joker would never have made it into my top ten list of villains. I’m not sure if it is the smudged make-up that makes the character appear more real or his state of insanity that mimics the minds of real criminals, but the 2008 adaptation of the Batman film has definitely resulted in the mad man moving up a couple of notches on the villain scare scale.

Glen Close’s bunny boiler character proves that you don’t have to have warts and all to be classed as a villian. In fact, the more aesthetically pleasing your looks, probably the more dangerous you are. I think men will still have a soft spot for Alex’s long legs and melting gaze, but us ladies know that ‘the other women’ are literally fatal. Clawing her way into bed with Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) before vying to break up his marriage by taking deadly measures, Alex Forrest is the ultimate female villain icon.

There are times during this film when I actually feel sorry for Hannibal the Cannibal, which just goes to show how manipulative he can be. He ate people, lots of people, so he is totally evil. Horrifyingly visual without being gory, Hannibal is so thrilling that you can’t take your eyes off the screen even if you want to. The reality that villains like this actually exist make this character all the more scarier. I won’t go in to it too much though for the fear of being added to his menu!

What characteristics define a villain? Killer? Check. Phsycho? Check. Scary looking? Check. Brother? That’s right, this is the factor that clarifies Michael Myers as a full blown villain. Going around killing random strangers is gruesome and sick enough, but terrorising whole generations of your family is so evil that there is not a word to describe the act. Replayed and remade many times, this villian has the ability to send a shiver down your spine everytime, regardless of how many times you have seen it.

By far, the fur loving, chain smoking dog snatcher tops all animated villains and makes it to my top ten of all time too. Her character was one of the best Disney villains to date and her obsession with making a fur coat from the beautiful skins of Dalmation puppies is just an absurd thought. Despite the original film being nearly 50 years old, the name Cruella De Vil has been used to describe many evil people in every day conversations!

As it is all about the magic, it is not impossible for evil blood to actually be running through the bones and veins of Lord Voldermort. As the series of books and films have gone on, the villain has become darker and more dangerous. Seen as Harry Potter is one of my most loved fictional characters, I hate ‘He who must not be named’ even more. His face is so ugly and the most frightening aspect of Harry Potter and as he killed off Dumbledore, there is no doubting that if he were real, there’d be quite a large hate campaign against him.

Personally, I could not choose who played the better villain as Catsor Troy, because both John Travolta and Nicholas Cage were bad-asses. While Cage was just plain mental, Travolta was wierd and slimy but it goes without saying that when you sleep with someone else’s wife, try and get frisky with their daughter while you look like their dad and set fire to people, not to mention planting a bomb that would kill hundreds, you definitely qualify for villain status.

It goes without saying that if you can be killed in you sub-concious then the person (or thing) that manages to do the dirty deed is nasty to the core. With menacing blades for fingers and a face that looks like it lacks a few layers, Freddy Krueger is a must mention for the top ten villains. Having been a child murderer in his former life, he came back to haunt the streets of children in his afterlife following being burnt to death by angry parents.