We’re back, and this time around we’ll be crowning our number 1 villain! *Ques applause*
In case anyone missed numbers twenty through eleven, go ahead and take a minute to catch up. The post can be found right here.
10. Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990)
Kicking off the countdown is the ever so graceful Annie Wilkes from the 1990 adaption of Stephen King’s Misery. Obsessed with the romantic novelist Paul Sheldon, Annie somehow stumbles upon his car in the middle of a blizzard and takes him back to her place for some exceptional fun. Coming out of the book-closet, so to speak, Wilkes reveals she’s Paul’s number one fan and ensues to ask for his current WOP, critique it like the copy editor from Hell, and asks him to rewrite it to her specific liking. Annie Wilkes may just seem like a fandom crazed kind of girl, but when she takes a whack at James Caan’s leg, you know everything’s game. All in all, Annie Wilkes is serious about her fan fiction, people.
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9. Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Following the murder of her parents as a young girl, O-Ren Ishii went total badass and climbed her way up the Tokyo Yakuza leader board. Portrayed on screen by Lucy Lui in Quentin Tarantino’s film, Ishii is mostly quiet, aside from occasional manic outbursts, giving this one-of-a-kind villain extra zest–and a little more to be fearful of.
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8. Douglas Rain as HAL9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
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Joined by Frank and Commander Dave along with our other three hibernating astronauts, HAL9000 makes the sixth member of the crew on Discovery, designed specifically to mimic the human brain. Infamous for blaming everything on “human error”, HAL thinks his mission is far too important to actually leave anything in the hands of said puny humans and takes matters into his own hands in the form of flat-lining our three hibernating astronauts and throwing Frank out into space. I’ve sat through countless screenings of Space Odyssey, thanks to my dad, and in case you were wondering why HAL is so awesome and what the most used catch-phrase in my home is, here you have it:
7. Kevin Spacey as John Doe in Se7en (1995)
John Doe tried to “play husband” with Gweneth Paltrow, got turned down, and ultimately decided this entitled him to head-chopping rights. Must I say more?
Also, is it just me or does Kevin look like a bald John Cusack here?
6. Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Primarily known as the “Jew Hunter”, Hans Landa isn’t the friendliest man in Germany. Shosanna, the only Drefus to escape Landa’s floorboard-bombing, as some would call it, promptly at the beginning of the movie, runs into Colonel more than she’d like throughout IB. Once taking on the alias Emmanuelle Mimieux and becoming the owner of a cinema down in Paris, she wins over the heart of actor Fredrick Zoller and at a brunch in meeting with various producers and actors, she comes across the one and only. If there has ever been a movie scene that has given me goosebumps, it’s the moment where Hans Landa sits down with Shosanna Drefus at the restaurant and tells her she needs to wait for the fresh cream to eat her desert. The uncertainty of being recognized and the hate she displays while he sits there with this light smile like he has no care in the world is just so horrible.
5. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)
Anton is a ruthless killing machine, incapable of doing things any other way but his own. Upon being hired by men in search of drug money, he kills them on his own terms and sets off to find the missing cash for himself. Though a man of violence, he doesn’t lack class, seeing as he likes to keep your fate in the palm of his hands with the flip of a coin. Just like the movie as a whole, the conclusion is left to be interpreted by viewers, but I think I’m right when I say that Anton Chigurh doesn’t learn his lesson at the end of the road. For those of you that don’t remember, Chigurh gets into an accident, takes some helpless kids shirt, uses it as a sling, and goes off on his merry way. It’s been said his ‘stealing’ of the clothing symbolizes no end to his crimes, and I’m not one to put that theory down. Something tells me Anton Chigurh will never change his ways. Aside from being my most-feared villain, Anton might just take the cake for worst hairstyle, too.
4. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)
When Norman Bates isn’t creepily studying birds and their unusual habits, he’s either flirting with Marion Crane, watching her through a hole in the wall, getting rid of her dead body, playing Mommy, or killing other people. Norman likes long romantic drives to the nearest body of water and spends his free time switching back and forth between his mom’s personality and his own. His best noted features are his big brown eyes and his severe case of schizophrenia. Lucky for y’all, Mr. Bates here is single, jailed, and more than ready to mingle.
3.Too-Many-Guys-To-List as Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episodes III-VI
My all-time favorite good guy gone bad, Darth Vader is a mentally tormented sith lord with hopes of getting his son to join him in his conquest to rule the galaxy. The man is responsible for the death of his secret wife, -Queen Amidala- Obi Wan Kenobi, oh, and chopping his son’s arm off. Skilled in the arts of death-choking, as thoroughly displayed at least once in every film from episode III on if you count the deleted scene of Darth choking an Imperial officer in VI, and other qualities of such nature, Darth Vader is someone too easily displeased and probably our most irritable villain on the list.
2. Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)
It’s an understatement to say that Heath Ledger is the best Joker to-date. Sorry Jack Nicholson.
Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Joker on screen is equal parts chaotic, destructive, and maddening. Pure brilliance through and through. His inability to understand human compassion and to bare any form of sympathy is barbarically magical. What Heath Ledger did for Joker in The Dark Knight will never be replicated, and while this may be saddening, it is also so beautiful, because Ledger has, in this huge way, left an iconic piece of himself for movie buffs everywhere to treasure for times to come.
1. Anthony Hopkins as Doctor Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Topping the charts at number one is our cannibalistic Hannibal Lector! The Lithuanian psychologist is just as smart as he appears, and maybe just as crazy. Anthony Hopkins magnificently weaves Hannibal’s insanity into the intelligence he has and morals he’s capable of. Despite the fact that it’s most certainly obvious Hannibal is deranged, you can’t help but question yourself every now and then. He’s just that good.
Even locked up in a maximum security cell, Hannibal is still deadly as ever, and of course, manages to escape by the end of the film, mindbogglingly Jodie Foster multiple times in the mist of it all. Hannibal Lector is one of the most frighteningly sane-but-not-sane villain’s in movie making history, and that’s what makes him the best of the worst.
So there you have it, folks. The conclusion of our two part villain face-off! Thanks for reading and hope you all enjoyed the list! Let me know what you all think in the comments.
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