20. Pennywise
It
“They all float down here!”
With exception of John Wayne Gacy, Pennywise wins the award for scaring children and adults alike out of their wits. I’m willing to wager a good portion of today’s clown fear is directly related to the creepy evil that was Tim Curry. Absolutely malevolent and terrifying as the sadistic clown that lured children to their deaths. Manical and devilish Pennywise is a haunt that young or old you just don’t forget.
19. Mickey and Mallory
Natural Born Killers
Mickey: I love you, Mal.
Mallory: I know you do baby, and I’ve loved you since the day we met.
18. John Doe
Se7en
“Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? An obese man… a disgusting man who could barely stand up; a man who if you saw him on the street, you’d point him out to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him; a man, who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn’t be able to finish your meal. After him, I picked the lawyer and I know you both must have been secretly thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!”
17. Khan
Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan
He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares Maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!
Ricardo Montalban gave the performance of his career as Khan Noonien Singh, James T. Kirks greatest adversary ever. He was maniacal, methodical, and somehow all the same charming. He becomes the bane of the Enterprises existence as he hunts Kirk down in a twisted desire for vengeance. He grabs the screen each time he’s on it and makes The Wrath Of Khan by far the best Star Trek film of all time.
16. Darth Maul
Star Wars-Episode One: The Phantom Menace
One of the most formidable foes ever created was spawned in Darth Maul. By execution and the pure mystery of his elusive character was one of the most dangerous and exciting villains ever onscreen. Ray Park’s amazing athletic and martial arts talents, along with frightening makeup made Darth Maul possibly the most exciting aspect of The Phantom Menace and certainly one of the most memorable villains of all time.
15. Lord Of Darkness
Legend
Tim Curry makes the list again as yet another terrifying creature. Legend is a film I find vastly underrated and part of it’s appeal is the villain the “Lord Of Darkness” played by Curry. His voice was loathsome and would send chills up your spine. If his persona and defeating voice isn’t enough to strike fear into the hearts of his audience his physical being is a nightmare to look at. Some horrid twist of bull and man with a plan to rule the world in his utter darkness while forcing a beautiful innocent to be his slave: *shudders*. He is frightening.
14. The Wicked Witch
The Wizard Of Oz
“I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE”
Judy Garland was a huge part of what made The Wizard Of Oz so important, but The Wicked Witch Of The West was the other half. Margaret Hamilton was sinister, calculating, and divinely wicked. She made the Wicked Witch absolutely terrifying, but also intriguing and enigmatic. The book “Wicked” and “Son Of A Witch” probably wouldn’t have been written without her powerful performance. She was the perfect villain.
13. The Joker (Ledger and Nicholson)
Batman
“Batman… Batman… Can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in, where a man dressed up as a *bat* gets all of my press? This town needs an enema!”
When you look back and actually read the lines the Joker has in this film, it’s not sensational writing, but Nicholson’s performance made each and every delivery of those lines into something more. The Joker was larger than life, but Nicholson’s interpretation walked that fine line between being a cartoon and something completely different. He was sadistic and homicidal, but also charismatic and hilarious. Nicholson’s Joker is one of the best character interpretations ever onscreen. However, I wouldn’t dare compare his Joker to Ledger’s. Each carry a genius that is very separate from one another, and the likeness only remains in the name. Nicholson managed to make the movie called Batman more about the Joker. That’s talent.
“Oh, you. You just couldn’t let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You are truly incorruptible, aren’t you? Huh? You won’t kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won’t kill you because you’re just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”
Heath Ledger’s Joker is the best male performance of 2008 hands down. His maniacal depiction of The Joker as a twisted sociopath with no real intention or motivation behind his actions makes him a vicious foe who craves nothing more than chaos, danger, and destruction. The most interesting aspect of the performance was the layers behind the Joker’s seemingly mindless behavior. Even as gruesome as the Joker was, there was something sadistically charming about him. It was Ledger’s truly owning and living the character that made the Joker something so much more profound than a silly comic villain. I found myself breathless during each scene he was in, and unable to move. I can’t speak more highly of what he achieved, and to rise above the expectations I had, I literally find myself dumbfounded. His demonic portrayal of the classic villain is staggering.
12. The T-800/Model 101
Terminator
“I’ll be back.”
Schwarzenegger is a cyborg and initially programed as an assassin and military infiltration unit. In the 1984 first film the T-800 has been sent back in time by Skynet to kill Sarah Connor. In this film Arnie is the coldest of the cold, the meanest of the mean. His dead pan deliveries with one liners that are still adored today made this character scary with a cruel sense of comedy. In the context of the stories, this plot device provides a certain continuity for the human characters, by exploiting their emotional familiarity with a particular “human” visage. What is more scary than an indestructible machine that looks like a human and ABSOLUTELY will not stop until you are DEAD!
11. The Predator
Predator
How can you not fear this triumphant villain who inspired not only sequels but a new collaboration of films (though the quality unfortunately dissipates with each sequel) involving the Aliens series. The original Predator is clearly one of the most frightening villains of all time. We learn immediately what tough guys are sent to the jungle. They are the baddest of the bad but also ripe for the picking of this evil foe who sees them as nothing more than a jungle safari. The tension is excruciating and the terrifying alien revealed at the end only adds to the nightmare of this film. The Predator is a true villain, and the second film only offers more greatness from this. Get ready for Predators this summer.
AMEN!!! Pennywise haunted my childhood like no other. To this day, I’m not sure I want to ever see that TV show (movie) ever again. John Doe is awesome because the entire movie, we know everything plays out on his own terms from start to finish and we are powerless to change anything. Finally Predator is simply deadly and that’s what makes it a great villain. It can kill you in so many ways and there is basically no way to escape it!
Great list which is getting better and better (as it should)
So many people have clown phobia just because of Pennywise. I’m still haunted by:
“They all float down here!”
Ahhhhhhhh………terrifying
And John Doe is one of my favorite characters of all time. I still think aside from Lester Burnham that JD is one of his greatest performances ever, even if so brief. The ending would have never felt so sinister if not for him.
Mickey and Mallory!! So glad you put them on this list!!! Just keeps on getting better and better!!
They are villains that I absolutely adore! And one of the best movie couples ever!
Heath Ledger… #1… period. I SAY FOUL!
I love and get aggravated at these lists all at the same time. I haven’t felt so alive since my child was born… haha.
Also, I knew Star Wars fell on this list and I said to myself Vader better be top 10 DANGIT… and I think he might be… hmmm???
P.S. Please… no Hannibal Lecter in the Top 5.
Great post!!!
Hahahaha………….thanks Kai.
I will tell you this much…………You are right about one and wrong about the other………..stew over that! ha!
Which means I’d bet everything I own that Vader and Lecter are in the Top 5… CURSES!!!
You could be right but then again you could be wrong. Bwahahahahahaha!
I was right!
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I still say Jack Nicholson bests him as the Joker, I’m alone but so be it.
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You are alone… like desert island alone.
Kai B. Parker recently posted..THE HAPPY 101 AWARD
Great list Heather! That wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz used to absolutely terrify me!
Thanks Olive. The Wicked Witch might be an old villain but that doesn’t mean she isn’t still evil as they come!
I’m currently reading the witch’s story (Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the East) and though it’s a little AU and I feel sympathy for her, the REAL wicked witch is still scary. And her catch phrase is brilliant.
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REALLY good book. I read it a few moons ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Elphalba was not without flaws, but still somehow likable.
“Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?” – there’s just something both poetic, and yet awesomely sinister about that original Joker quote. I kind of wish they had thrown in it in with Ledger’s because it is just that great.
Terminator is an awesome villain, but T2 and T3 really calmed down his legend as a villain because he became such a sacrificial hero character.
Eagerly awaiting the top 10
The original Arnie in the first Terminator is still the scariest for me. Robert Patrick still made the list, but I remember watching Arnie when I was a kid and just having Reeces voice play over and over in my head, “He absolutely will not stop UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD.” There is something lingering about that, even down to it’s last moment when she crushes him and the red in it’s eyes barely go out. It’s been repeated since, but deserves the credit where credit is due.
And I thought people might get mad that I threw both Jokers together, but I love them equally, just for two entirely different reasons. And you’re right about that quote. Nicholson kills it when he says. Just utterly brilliant.
Another list of 10 tremendous movie villains.
NBK was one hell of a provocative movie, and a delirious trip down hell and back. And in Mickey & Mallory we had the totally deranged versions of Bonnie & Clyde.
John Doe was also awesome, but benefited, I’d say, more from John Cusack’s eerie performance & that provocation of Brad Pitt’s character in the climax. A superb villain nonetheless.
The Joker, ah, can’t really have enough of that deliciously twisted & maniacal sociopath. Heath Ledger’s Joker, as you observed, certainly was terrific. But somehow Nicholson’s over-the-top Joker takes the crown for me. Maybe because I’m a huge admirer of that guy.
T2 might have been the bigger blockbuster and a better made movie, comprising, in my opinion, some of the most groundbreaking SFX ever seen on screen, but the 1st part was the scarier of the two – despite, and maybe because of, the lower budget. Its difficult to pick between T800 from the 1st part or T1000 from the 2nd, but I’ll go with your choice. That role made me, and I’m embarrassed to admit it today, a huge fan of Arnie when I was a kid.
Wow, never guess you’d put Predator so high, and am quite delighted as well. I quite liked the film – the 1st part, that is, and I feel its a vastly underrated film cos it was a pretty good action flicks. As a kid I loved the film, though haven’t seen it for quite sometime now.
Thank you for the very thought provoking input and taking the time to reflect on everything.
I felt like once we had reached the top twenty, there aren’t going to be too many of the characters people were actually going to argue with, just perhaps the order that they are in.
I always dug the T1000, but that original Arnie was the shit!
I am a little shocked that Darth Maul is so high up on the list. Dont get me wrong, I’m a die hard Star Wars nerd. But the fact is that he was over-hyped. I mean seriously Jar Jar got more screen time than Darth Maul. I think in order to be a serious contended for villian, there needs to be more involved in the characters story. I mean Darth Maul was introduced and killed in the same movie. Yeah he killed Qui-Gon, but thats it. One good fight and poof!! His double ended light-saber was pretty cool, but he played little more than another thug in the Cantina basically. I know there is only 10 more spots before you get to #1 but considering all the excellent Star Wars villians (Vader, The Emperor, Boba Fett) I cant wait to see the other seven!!!!!
Darth Maul is the steamed cookies to me and always will be. I think he said two lines throughout Phantom Menace, and that meager battle scene where he kills Qui Gon is one of the best battles ever in the history of cinema. I wish he had been in more films, but then again lets think about how briefly Boba Fett was in ESB and ROTJ……….not exactly a huge role, and yet he’s one of the most epic bad guys ever? Same story, different dude. Plus I loved the controversy and discussion about whether or Greivous’s organs were remnants of Maul………….(they weren’t)………….and treading the land of nerdom, I’ve read both Darth Maul books and that mother fucker was one nasty dude, far more badass than the Emperor in my thoughts.
Wait for the top ten and you might hate it, but I think you’ll feel redeemed.
Agree with Heather on this. He doesn’t have much screen time, but he makes the most of what he had.
I thought for sure that The Joker would’ve been top 5. Disappointing, but can’t wait to see the next installment!
Like I stated earlier, at this point I think all the choices are reasonable top twenties, but there will be personal grievances about where those top twenty belong on the list. Hope you dig the top ten.
The list keeps getting better and better. Nice job! I’m surprised no flack over pitting Nicholson and Ledger in the same slot here….I understand it’s the character and not the actor, but Nicholson’s was very cartoon-y. I’m not a Kevin Spacey fan, but John Doe is a great character and he was phenomenal here (before he became a star kind of)….nice inclusion. Looking forward to the end of this great, well-rounded list. I have never seen Predator…..should I?
It was a Burton film though, I felt Nicholson’s was supposed to be cartoony, and posting both of them only furthers my argument that either joker was not better than the other, just different.
Go. See. Predator. DO IT NOOOOOOOOOOW!
Heath Ledger totally blew Jack Nicholson’s Joker outta the water — no contest for me.
I could have lived the whole rest of my life without seeing that picture of Pennywise again. It haunted my dreams for a solid YEAR after I saw “It.”
On an unrelated note, have you ever thought of adding the Beast of Auuuuugggggghhhhhh from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” to your Monster Madness?
Like others have said, I probably would’ve had the Joker higher on my list, but when you’re talking all-time evil villains, the top 25 or so are going to be all in the same category.
This is list is Totally MESSED UP!!! Since you put Anton Chigurh, Norman Bates,and the T-1000 should not be lower than Darth Maul. Darth Maul had a cool double lightsaber and all but Come on Anton Chigurh was much more bad ass(he won an Oscar BTW and deserved it).
Where’s the other 40? Where’s the access button?