Rachel McAdams as Regina George in “Mean Girls. “CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, and Tom Hiddleston have made movies iconic by playing the villain. Femmes fatales like Megan Fox and Sharon Stone added their own flare to villainous ladies.
The “Harry Potter” series wouldn’t have been the same without Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort. Jack Nicholson is great at being unhinged . .
. well, pretending to be unhinged on-screen, at least. One of his most famous roles is the Joker in 1989’s “Batman.
“”Batman. “Murray Close/Getty ImagesHis real-life eccentricity and lively nature seem to be part of the foundation of his bad guy characters, enabling him to completely disappear into his villainous roles. Even though Nicholson wasn’t the first on-screen Joker (that’d be Cesar Romero in the 1966 camp classic “Batman”), he truly made the role his own.
And, as the 33rd anniversary of the 1989 film “Batman,” just passed, it’s fitting that we delve into how much he made that movie the iconic film it is today. Nicholson’s portrayal of the Joker was eerie, and his peculiar mannerisms accentuated just how sociopathic the core of the Joker is. For many, Nicholson will always be the defining Joker, even though Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger both took home Oscars for playing him in other movies.
But prior to his legendary performance as the Joker, Nicholson also terrified audiences as the homicidal maniac Jack Torrance in 1980’s “The Shining. “”The Shining. “Warner Bros.
Nicholson’s slow descent into madness in “The Shining” was eerie, but it made for a classic film and a master-class for villainy. Nicholson’s character, Jack Torrance, starts the film as a relatively normal man (if a little troubled and dealing with alcoholism), but his slow descent into madness spurred on by the ghosts haunting the Overlook Hotel remains genuinely terrifying 42 years later. And, of course, attempting to murder his family with an axe was definitely a different level of unhinged villainy that only Nicholson could pull off.
Jolie absolutely embodied the archetypal antihero when she played the disturbed mental patient and trouble-starter Lisa in “Girl, Interrupted” back in 1999. “Girl, Interrupted. “Archive Photos/Stringer/Getty Images”I’m playing the villain, baby, just like you want.
I try to give you everything you want. ” That chilling line said by Lisa, portrayed by Angelina Jolie, in 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted” is a definitive turning point in the dramatic film that focuses on a group of young women living inside a mental institution. Jolie’s performance as Lisa, a woman inside the mental institution along with main character Susanna (Winona Ryder), was so captivating that it even earned her an Oscar.
Jolie played the classic fairy tale villain in the 2014 Sleeping Beauty re-telling “Maleficent” and its 2019 sequel, giving her more depth. “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. “Associated PressIn the original Disney movie, Maleficent was simply painted a cruel fairy who was painfully jealous of Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty.
As a punishment for not inviting her to the new princess’s christening, she curses Aurora with eternal sleep. But in the 2014 re-telling, “Maleficent,” it becomes clear that Maleficent was actually mistreated by Aurora’s parents for years. While some of Maleficent’s actions were evidently mean-spirited, like her cursing Aurora to spite her parents, they were somewhat understandable — and that comes down to Jolie’s nuanced performance.
In both “Girl, Interrupted” and “Maleficent,” Jolie did an excellent job at convincing the audience that her characters were not entirely bad, just misunderstood. Megan Fox proved in the infamous 2009 teen horror flick “Jennifer’s Body” that she’s good at being deliberately offensive, and still making you root for her. “Jennifer’s Body.
“20th Century FoxMovie bad guys don’t always come in the form of deranged super-villains or hard-hearted exiled queens. Sometimes, they can be in the form of a mean girl whose second language is insults, just like in “Jennifer’s Body. “Fox’s natural off-camera snarkiness and dry sense of humor works in her favor when it comes to her playing a mean girl, enhancing her believability on-screen — specifically in the 2009 cult classic in which Fox plays Jennifer Check, a succubus who is obsessed with killing boys after a demonic sacrifice gone wrong.
Sure, she technically becomes a serial killer, but you pretty much remain on her side the entire movie, even rooting against the supposed “hero” Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried. Even Needy herself is sucked into Jennifer’s plans, that’s how charismatic Fox is in this role. In 2012’s “Django Unchained,” Leonardo DiCaprio deepened the movie and stunned audiences as the vehemently racist and violent slave owner Calvin Candie.
“Django Unchained. “MiramaxWe were used to seeing DiCaprio as the angel-faced Romeo in “Romeo + Juliet” or the disarmingly sweet Jack in “Titanic,” but when he assumed the role of Calvin Candie, he embodied the villain perfectly. The way that DiCaprio transformed when he played this monster is so good that you can’t envision the film without him.
Candie was sadistic, racist, and his ego completely blinded him to the horrific nature of his actions. If you need more convincing, just watch this video of DiCaprio actually slicing his hand open and continuing to stay in the scene. DiCaprio made audiences love to hate (and hate to love) him as Jordan Belfort in 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” playing another unlikable character.
“The Wolf of Wall Street. “James Devaney/Getty ImagesAdapted from the real Jordan Belfort’s memoir of the same name, DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in “The Wolf of Wall Street” film was supreme casting. He was even nominated for an Oscar for the role.
During the entire film, DiCaprio convincingly behaved as a charismatic, narcissistic hedonist who comfortably scammed others for selfish reasons in the corporate world and you couldn’t tear your eyes away from him. Between “Django” and “Wolf of Wall Street,” we’re now seeing a pivot of DiCaprio playing more complicated characters (see: “The Revenant,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Don’t Look Up”), and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Almost nobody plays a better anti-hero better than the “Godfather” breakout star and acting icon Al Pacino.
“The Godfather. “CBS Photo Archive/Getty ImagesPacino has never failed at bringing a certain level of menace to movies that were dependent on that element to ensure authenticity, and nowhere is it more clear than in the 1972 epic “The Godfather” and its two sequels. Much of those movies’ acclaim can be traced back to Pacino and his impactful performance as the core anti-hero, Michael Corleone.
Originally, Michael has no desire to be sucked into the family business (aka the mob), but over the course of the trilogy you watch with horror as Michael descends into depths of organized crime, taking over as the new boss. Spoilers for a 48-year-old movie, but Michael even organizes the killing of his own brother, Fredo, for going against the family. Pacino’s portrayal of Michael epitomized the entire “good guy, gone bad” trope in the best (i.
e. , compelling) way possible. In the 1983 film “Scarface” Pacino plays Tony Montana, a no-nonsense drug king-pin whose greedy ambitions were the source of his downfall.
“Scarface. “UniversalWhat was so intensely scary about Pacino as Tony, aka the titular Scarface, was the way that he used his eyes. Pacino’s cold dead looks made the character that much more aggressive and hostile, conveying that his character’s sole focus was always his own selfish desires, with little concern about anyone or anything else.
Anything that prevented Tony, a ruthless drug lord who immigrated from Cuba to Miami, from acquiring his goals was fair game for annihilation, and Pacino’s performance in the legendary final scene solidified just how willing he was to die protecting his infamous legacy. Robert De Niro is a grade-A actor in pretty much every role of his, specifically his villainous ones. One of his most terrifying characters of all time is Max Cady in “Cape Fear,” released in 1991.
“Cape Fear. “Archive Photos / Stringer/Getty ImagesIn “Cape Fear,” De Niro stars as Max Cady, a convicted rapist who makes it his sole mission in life to get revenge on his lawyer, played by Nick Nolte, who was so disgusted by his crimes that he botched his defense of Cady. Part of what makes “Cape Fear” so insidious is the combination of the menacing score and De Niro’s truly unsettling wordless stares.
If anyone can make you feel truly scared just by standing and staring, it’s De Niro. Rarely does Denzel Washington play the bad guy — but the time he did, he earned him an Oscar in 2002 for “Training Day. ” That’s how good he was at being bad.
“Training Day. “screenshot/Training dayWashington’s performance as the dangerously corrupt LAPD officer Alonzo Harris in “Training Day” was intensely dynamic and elicited emotions of fear and disdain, like every real villain should. Harris was extremely self-serving, loved to scheme, and seemed like he was one bad day away from losing his mind.
The way Harris connived to set people up to further his own agenda, and preyed on members of lower-income communities was distasteful, but was also a raw depiction of many people’s reality, as he was loosely based on a real corrupt LAPD cop. That’s why Harris is so scary — there really are police officers like him out there. Out of all his bad guy roles, Anthony Hopkins’ role as Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” was the most disturbing and purely villainous — in no uncertain terms, absolutely nothing about his character was redeemable.
“The Silence of the Lambs. “Orion PicturesObviously, Hopkins is nothing like the psychopathic serial slayer Hannibal Lecter in his everyday life, but his performance in “The Silence of the Lambs” was so genuinely unnerving that it made you think he could be. If you didn’t know any better, you might just think that Lecter was a run-of-the-mill criminal, until he casually drops that he loves eating human beings with a nice glass of Chianti.
Lecter is the ultimate unapologetic villain that has gone down in film history as one of the most nefarious characters ever, and Hopkins’s portrayal of the cannibal was epic — so epic, in fact, that he won an Oscar for it. Only Helena Bonham Carter could make Voldemort fan-girl Bellatrix Lestrange just as disturbing as the infamous “Harry Potter” villain Voldemort himself. “Harry Potter.
“Warner Bros. As the 15th anniversary of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and the 13th anniversary of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” approaches, it’s mandatory that we discuss Helena Bonham Carter’s truly unhinged performance as Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix was a die-hard Voldemort supporter, and her obsession with her pure-blood lineage led her to do some harsh things to whoever she labeled as her enemy.
Eccentric and sociopathic, Bellatrix only cared about her loyalty to the cold-blooded Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. Although she had limited time in the “Harry Potter” series, Bonham Carter still is one of the most discussed and analyzed actors in the series, because of how memorable she was as Bellatrix. Let’s not forget about Mrs.
Lovett from “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber on Fleet Street,” released in 2007. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. “Paramount PicturesBonham Carter’s character significantly contributed to the horror of “Sweeney Todd,” because of her diabolical entrepreneurial endeavors.
Mrs. Lovett was even more disturbing then Depp’s character Sweeney Todd because she baked meat pies out of his murder victims, and knowingly fed them to the unsuspecting citizens of London. Not only was her character was an accomplice, but she also was the one who floated the idea of making pies out of Todd’s murder victims.
She combined murder with capitalism . . .
if that’s not villainy at its finest, then we don’t know what is. Sharon Stone is one of Hollywood’s most notable femmes fatales, most famously in 1992’s “Basic Instinct. “”Basic Instinct.
“TriStar Pictures/Guild Film Distribution/UGCStone is everything that a female villain should be when she plays one: beautiful, bold and cold. In “Basic Instinct,” Stone’s character Catherine had no regard for human emotions or genuine interpersonal connections, since she was driven solely by being able to manipulate and control people. But it wasn’t just that Catherine desired control and had the ability to persuade others to do her bidding that was frightening.
Her love of the cat-and-mouse game with Nick, a detective played by Michael Douglas, showed that she thought of her actions as a game, and didn’t care that she was playing around with people’s lives. When it comes to playing the villain in a teen movie, aka the “mean girl,” Rachael McAdams takes the cake with her performance as Regina George in the 2004 film “Mean Girls. “Rachel McAdams as Regina George in “Mean Girls.
“CBS Photo Archive/Getty ImagesMcAdams is probably best-known today for her role as Regina, the haughty head honcho of the Plastics in one of the best teen comedies ever, “Mean Girls. “The way McAdams had teens everywhere nervous about high school because of the possibility of encountering someone like Regina George speaks to how well she did as portraying a mean queen bee who loved to scheme, steal boyfriends, and put down everyone else around her. One of the most alarming bad guys in movie history by far is Voldemort, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the “Harry Potter” film series.
“Harry Potter. “Warner BrothersAside from Voldemort’s look being the physical manifestation of evil (kudos to the “Harry Potter” costume team), Voldemort’s aura was acutely sinister. Fiennes superbly captured the core aspects that makes a character a villain —namely, murdering anyone in his way, playing all of his followers against each other, plotting his revenge for over a decade in the shadows — inhabiting the role so fully that you can’t envision anyone else as Voldemort besides him.
Tom Hiddleston cemented his character Loki as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) most likable bad guy, portraying the supervillain with dimensionality. “The Avengers. “Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesHiddleston became a fan-favorite after his debut in “Thor” in 2011, and later appearances in “The Avengers,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame” proved his staying power.
There’s a compelling argument to be made that Thor, as played by Chris Hemsworth, is the second-most beloved character in his own franchise, just behind Loki. As played by Hiddleston, you are somehow always on Loki’s side, or delighted to be spending time with him even as he attempts to subjugate the entire human race to his rule as a god-king. There’s a reason that Loki is one of the only villains in the entire MCU to stick around for as long as he has: Because Hiddleston is immensely charming, more than a little devilish, and easy on the eyes.
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