Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Come on, man.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

He really is that stupid.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Open Thread: Bad Guys

Open Thread: Bad Guys

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I am catching up on Black Lightning this evening, and I thought – not for the first time – that Tobias Whale is the creepiest bad guy that I have ever seen in a film or TV show.

Professor Moriarty in the TV show Elementary also creeped me out, though I don’t exactly know why.

Who would you name as your best/worst bad guys in film or TV?

Totally open thread.

Update:  Sort of related…  (has to do with TV) I am finishing Season1 of Crossing Lines, which I paid for on Amazon Prime, and I have Season 3 recording on Tivo, but I cannot find Season 2 streaming anywhere.  This show keeps me engrossed while I am walking on the treadmill, so I would really like to find Season 2!

In the meantime, I just downloaded Season 1 of Bosch for when I finish the final 2 episodes of Crossing Lines, Season 1.

Reader Interactions

248Comments

  2. 2.

    Wileybud

    One of the best, yet underrated, bad guys in cinema was Clarence Boddicker as played by Kurtwood Smith in the original Robocop.  No evil super powers, just plain evil with a side of nasty.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Allan Rickman as Hans Gruber.

    Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lechter.

    David Prowse/James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.

    Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddiker.

    Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa

     

    Oh…Donald Trump as “President”.

  7. 7.

    feebog

    You will love Bosch, one of the finest detective series ever made for television.  And based on one of the best fictional detectives of all time.  They are filming season 7 now, and they have just announced a spinoff of the series with the great Mimi Rodgers, who is a recurring character in the current series.

  19. 19.

    zhena gogolia

    Sherlock had some pretty scary bad guys. Lars Mikkelson creeped me out. But best of all was the evil cab driver played by the great Phil Davis in A Study in Pink.

    You have hit upon a topic that I am being very garrulous about.

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    Orson Welles as Hank Quinlan. Yes, I know he’s not supposed to be the bad guy.

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Rickman was a terrific Sheriff of Nottingham too.

    “And cancel Christmas!”

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gvg: Danny DeVito?  He was indeed creepy in that role.  Pee Wee Herman played the Penguin’s father!

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I thought maybe you were holding a grudge because earlier this week when I saw a bunch of comments from “Bau.” in spam, I hit “trash and ban” just as I saw your email address and recognized my mistake.

    You were only banned for maybe 60 seconds, but I thought you must have sensed it somehow.  How could I ban my favorite commenter????

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    I nominate CGB Spender, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, The X-Files‘ shadowy assassin, serial liar, Deep State power player, quisling to our alien would-be conquerors, and arrogant flouter of no-smoking zones, who has been killed off several times in the show’s history but keeps coming back to do yet more villainy.

  26. 26.

    Mo MacArbie

    The Abominable Snowman in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer freaked me right the fuck out.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Mo MacArbie: I think The Thing was the scariest movie I saw as a kid.  I think there may have been a creepy hand thing as part of that movie, but I don’t really remember the details.

  30. 30.

    Poe Larity

    Bosch is good but Welliver and Hector must have had some falling out as they aren’t really partners in the last few seasons. It’s like two detective series and they have chats in the office.

  31. 31.

    bbleh

    Clancy Brown, both as the Kurgan in Highlander (yeah whatever) and as Brother Justin in Carnivàle was a great bad-guy, at least in part because he clearly enjoyed the roles.

  32. 32.

    Sloane Ranger

    Robert Hardy as Charles Augustus Milverton in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. He oozed a kind of oily avuncular malevolence from every pore. And those pince nez glasses!

  39. 39.

    Dagaetch

    FYI @WaterGirl, Bosch gets MUCH better in season 2 and remains equally good after that. S1 was a bit…formulaic.

    Person of Interest had some great antagonists. Carl Elias, played by Enrico Colantoni and Root, played by Amy Acker, were incredibly morally complex and really made you consider different points of view. And even the ‘baddest’ bad guy, Greer, wasn’t a cackling supervillain out to conquer for no reason, he honestly believed that humanity couldn’t govern itself and thought in his twisted way that he was saving them. Just a great, great show all around.

  41. 41.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Remember Oliver Twist? That cotton candy rumor of a movie which somehow nailed Best Picture? It becomes an entirely different film the moment Oliver Reed makes his appearance as Bill Sykes. He was a terrifying monster.

  44. 44.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Robert Mitchum as Max Caddy (Cape Fear) and Harry Powell (Night of the Hunter).

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Couldn’t get into Bosch. OTOH, among Prime originals liked Goliath and the tongue super glued to cheek Patriot. The latter being a rare case of the second season being even better than the first.

    Hm. Gotta cogitate on bad guys for a bit, perhaps with the aid of a song and dance. ;)

  49. 49.

    eponymous

    Casey Affleck – The Killer Inside Me.

    Full disclosure: All I saw was a trailer. It freaked me out so much I couldn’t stand to look at Casey Affleck in anything else for awhile.

  52. 52.

    wvng

    Buffalo Bill/Jame Gumb in Silence of the Lambs. He was modeled on a number of actual serial killers and was chillingly realistic.

  54. 54.

    khead

    Damien creeped me out in The Omen.

    Michael Myers creeped me out in Halloween.

    The alien creeped me out in Alien.

    That pretty much covers what scared the shit out of me and had a lasting impact.

  56. 56.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    Christopher Lloyd playing Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

    Leonardo DiCaprio playing “Monsieur” Calvin J. Candie in Django Unchained.

    Billy Drago playing Frank Nitti in The Untouchables.

  58. 58.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Harry Dean Stanton screaming “avenge me” to his sons  in Red Dawn.

    Selfish old wingnut shoulda told his kids to keep low and keep safe. Instead, he expected a vendetta.

  59. 59.

    FridayNext

    The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang gave me nightmares.  He was played by a ballet dancer Sir Robert Helpmann.

    And Katherine Bates’ Annie Wilkes in Misery was creepy as shit.

  61. 61.

    RSA

    Michael Emerson as Ben Linus in Lost

    Bill Paxton as Dad Meiks in Frailty

    Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd

    And going back to childhood, Benny Hill as the Toymaker in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

  64. 64.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    As to bad guys I like, Crowley in Supernatural tops the list.

  65. 65.

    khead

    Also, when I watch RoboCop (or even Star Trek VI) now I always expect Kurtwood Smith to call SOMEone a dumbass.

  66. 66.

    Fester Addams

    Smoothie (Patrick Fischer) in Happy! (2017-2019) comes to mind. Kinda wish he hadn’t, though.

  68. 68.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in “The Departed”. He’s seriously demented, but not one dimensional.

  72. 72.

    James E Powell

    Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) on Lost

    Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) in Gone Girl

    Sgt Barnes (Tom Berenger) in Platoon

    Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

    I’d say Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) and Omar Little (Michael K Williams) from The Wire, but I’m not sure they’re villains

  73. 73.

    Kent

    Not necessarily the scariest.  But some of my favorite villains were on the series Justified.  Margot Martindale was fabulous as the mob boss matriarch.  And Walten Goggins was fabulous throughout as the local Nazi drug kingpin Boyd Crowder.

    for truly creepy   Both the original Cape Fear with Mitchum   And the remake with DeNiro are hard to beat

  75. 75.

    raven

    I bought the DVD of “Tom Horn” a couple of years ago and we’re just getting around to watching it now. It should have been Steve McQueen’s last movie but he made one more that was sort of a stinker. This is a beautifully filmed and great story of the west just as it was turning.

  76. 76.

    phein61

    @Mo MacArbie: 
    My wife’s cousin is the spitting image of Rudolph’s Abominable Snowman, and another cousin is the spitting image of Hermie, the elf dentist. It’s our Christmas special favorite.

    My favorite film bad guy of all time is Robert Mitchum in “Night of the Hunter.” Although he did kill Shelley Winters, so at least he has that going for him . . .

  77. 77.

    hotshoe

    @zhena gogolia: Yes, more please, if you have lots more to say.

    I think Andrew Scott’s Moriarty is too … umm … cute … to be terrifying, but he does have that amazing ability to bring out his inner psycho with only a tiny movement of his eyelids.

    Phil Davis as the murderous cabbie, though, seems more realistic, and that’s more frightening somehow.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    Woefully incomplete quickly thrown together list:

    Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death
    George Sanders in     Man Hunt
    Robert Ryan in Crossfire
    Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar
    James Cagney in White Heat
    The creepy dudes in Dark City, particularly the little kid
    Jessica Walter in Play Misty for Me
    Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man
    Siân Phillips in I, Claudius
    Desslok in Star Blazers
    .

  80. 80.

    Craig

    John Huston as Noah Cross in Chinatown. One of the most horrifying characters in cinema

  81. 81.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Iselin

    Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates

    Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing

  82. 82.

    Laura W.

    Unfortunately, only season 1 of Crossing Lines is available. Seasons 2 and 3 are even available as dvds. I really liked that show.

  83. 83.

    James E Powell

    @Wileybud:

    Kurtwood Smith was also pretty evil  [SPOILER ALERT] as the father of the kid who kills himself in Dead Poet’s Society.

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    James Mason in The Verdict.

    Charles Dance in Game of Thrones.

    Heath Ledger’s Joker

    Laurence Olivier’s Nazi dentist in Marathon Man

     

    John Wick. Good Guy? Bad Guy? Angel of Death

  86. 86.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader (someone else took Trump as President)

  87. 87.

    RSA

    @FridayNext: Oh, thanks for your comment! I was mixing up characters (and actors) in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was the Child Catcher I was thinking of.

  88. 88.

    Kristine

    @zhena gogolia: I don’t know what it is about the Mikkelsen family. Definitely agree about Lars. Then there was Mads as Hannibal Lecter.

    If my degree of hatred counts for anything, Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. Classic abuser behavior towards Rey, his envy of her abilities obvious. A blazing incompetent with way too much power.

    Sean Harris as Solomon Lane in MI: Rogue Nation was so creepy. He had a habit of invading peoples’ spaces that made him that much creepier. His voice just added to the overall effect.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    One more which just popped into the cranium.

    Angus Scrimm in the original Phantasm

  93. 93.

    prostratedragon

    @Wileybud:  Saw this last night for the first time in years, and wow, you’ve got a point.

    I’ve got a little list. This is not exhaustive (it’s an exhausting subject, isn’t it), and in no particular order, ’cause evil merely is, but here are some highlights:

    • Gregory Anton by Charles Boyer, Gaslight (1944); the earlier version played by Marius Goring is pretty bad also. A kind of stupid unawareness that he projected drives me up a wall.
    • Noah Cross, Chinatown. Need a reason?
    • J.J. Hunsecker, Sweet Smell of Success; but do not overlook
    • Sidney Falco from the same place. People who use other people’s entire lives, and for very small reasons to boot.
    • Windom Earle, Twin Peaks, who has no excuse for his bullshit.
    • Neither does Michael Corleone, really. Glamorized, hell.

    Since asking me something invariably causes volumes of well-formulated thought to flee my mind, I consulted Wikipedia and found additionally these: HAL 9000; Harry Powell The Night of the Hunter; Eve Harrington, All About Eve; Harry Lime The Third Man; Frank Booth Blue Velvet (honorable mention to Ben, though no action is contingent on him); Eleanor Iselin The Manchurian Candidate, all provocatively bad.

    For a more personal touch, just thought of Harry from To Sleep with Anger and his Twin Peaks counterpart, Hank Jennings, Insidious planters of tiny, evil seeds. Got a real thing about evildoers who want to be loved by their victims.

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Rand Careaga:

    Charles Dance as the implacably malevolent family lawyer Tulkinghorn in the 2005 BBC Bleak House has always stuck with me.

    Scarier as a Victorian solicitor in Bleak House than as a medieval warlord in Game of Thrones.

  99. 99.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Are we doing spoilers? Igby Goes Down is going on twenty years old, but as I recall the character who’s revealed as the villain is… a surprise for a couple of reasons

  101. 101.

    RSA

    @prostratedragon:

    Eleanor Iselin The Manchurian Candidate

    Good one. I think the characterization of women as villains in the movies tends to be be much narrower than with men, but that’s a great one.

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    Walter Brennan as Old Man Clanton in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946). An evil man, vicious to the very end. The stark black and white photography gives added impact.

  103. 103.

    prostratedragon

    @RSA:
    Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd

    See? I just watched that, dammit!

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Josie: ​

    Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear.

    Haven’t seen Cape Fear, but yes on The Night of the Hunter.​

  105. 105.

    WhatsMyNym

    WaterGirl:  Ovation TV has the rights to Crossing Lines and is broadcasting it (if you can get the station) and it’s looks like they might show it on the website as well.  They just started the 2nd season.

  107. 107.

    prostratedragon

    @James E Powell:  I think Stringer is, in the matter of young Barksdale at least. He’s also tragic on several levels, but then so are many villains.  Omar I don’t think is one, notwithstanding.

  112. 112.

    Jackie

    The flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz terrified me as a child and still give me the heebie-jeebies.

  115. 115.

    glc

    Fascinating. Mostly in terms of what I have missed over the years.

    I was definitely freaked out by Cape Fear but then I was 13 and not into the genre. A little older, fortunately, when I saw Psycho. Anthony Perkins disturbs me  even when he is the love interest. Which I mean as a compliment.

  118. 118.

    Mathguy

    James Mason as Richard Straker (the vampire’s right hand man) in Salem’s Lot.
    Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert (the serial killer) in M.
    Heath Ledger as the Joker.

  119. 119.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax: Ordinary People is an interesting case. She caused a lot of damage, but I think somehow she herself was quite damaged as well and no one around her seemed cognizant of it. Since she hadn’t willfully caused the central calamity, I always felt a bit sorry for her.

  120. 120.

    prostratedragon

    And yes, those flying monkeys got me but good when I was about 10, in an aisle seat at a live performance (Goodman Theater).

  121. 121.

    Peale

    Yoo Ji Tae’s character in Oldboy. The cruelty of his revenge is extreme and not commensurate with the injustice it was trying to correct.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Not a traditional villain, but Nicole Kidman in To Die For. Still the best thing I’ve ever seen her do on screen. And then… the other guy

  125. 125.

    Almost Retired

    Soames Forsyte in the Forsyte chronicles/saga.  Especially since the character was played by otherwise likeable actors (Damian Lewis, Eric Porter).  The character was low-level evil, and powerless to disrupt lives much beyond his immediate circle.  But he wreaked havoc on the people closest to him.  Soames wasn’t historic-level vile, but he was the mundane devil we know.

  126. 126.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Josie:

    How could I forget? Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West.

     

    Years later, while discussing the scene in which Frank and his men slaughter an entire family, Fonda told an interviewer: “Sergio had cast me because he could imagine the audience at that moment saying, ‘Jesus Christ! It’s Henry Fonda!’”

  127. 127.

    mrmoshpotato

    @prostratedragon: And yes, those flying monkeys got me but good when I was about 10, in an aisle seat at a live performance (Goodman Theater).

    Did actors come running down the aisles?

  129. 129.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Pat Hingle as Bobo Justice in The Grifters. Also, though it’s more complicated, Anjelica Huston. And Annette Benning.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    ???

    Both my seventy something mom and a relative got asked out in the vaccine line. Im telling you ppl are ready. This summer will be wild— Kaitlyn Greenidge (@surlybassey) March 7, 2021

  131. 131.

    NotMax

    @prostratedragon

    Remember standing in line outside waiting to be let in for the next showing.

    Usually when the previous patrons exit there’s chattering about what they just saw. This was the only occasion I ever witnessed when an entire audience filed out in utter silence.

  132. 132.

    Suzanne

    Ehhhhh my father-in-law was taken to the hospital via ambulance. Neither he nor my MIL have been vaccinated yet. He apparently hasn’t been taking his anti-seizure meds for two weeks. EHHHHHH.

  133. 133.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kent:

    Mitchum’s original Cape Fear psycho was scarier, as his menace was more subdued. And given the time, the whole subject was beyond tense.

  134. 134.

    TiredOfItAll

    Christopher Walken in “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead”.

    Christopher Walken in “True Romance”.

    Christopher Walken.

  136. 136.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Brachiator:

    Laurence Olivier’s Nazi dentist in Marathon Man

    As a dentist-phone, that movie scared (and scares) the shit out of me.

    “Is it safe?” (Shudder)

  142. 142.

    TiredOfItAll

    @NotMax

    I admit, the man can dance, ‘specially when he does The Continental.

    But I think he has resting villain face.

  147. 147.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    Morgan Woodward – the mirrored sunglasses boss aka “The Man with No Eyes” in Cool Hand Luke

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    You want scary?  Nurse Ratched.  The less said about Pennywise, the better.

    You want charismatic?  Vader.

    You want oddly appealing romantic couple?  Spike and Drusilla.

  152. 152.

    cain

    @The Thin Black Duke: ​ Speaking of which I am out in my patio smoking a cigar and having
    whisky’s as a celebration of our win tonight ! And some nice 79s funk and bunch of other stuff​
     

    Eta apparently Nicaraguan cigars are better than cuban these days .. paired with a Westward 100 proof super smooth whiskey.
    Anybody else a cigar aficionado?

  156. 156.

    Mike in NC

    I nominate Donald Fucking Trump, Russian asset, to be one of the worst persons who ever lived.

  159. 159.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles

    Keenan Wynn in Dr. Strangelove

  160. 160.

    Ann Marie

    Tobias Whale and Elementary’s Moriarty are two of my favorites too.  Also, Billy Burke as Phillip Stroh in multiple episodes of Major Crimes.  Really creepy and really smart.

    Mark Sheppard is fun as a sort of villain on Leverage.

  162. 162.

    mrmoshpotato

    Everyone in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

    I’ve never seen a movie where I felt bad at the end. Not sorry for the characters, but sorry for myself.

  164. 164.

    billcinsd

    I had Peter Lorre in M, but was beaten to that one.

    I’m adding Max Schreck as Count Orlov in Nosferatu

  169. 169.

    MissBarbie

    @debbie: You beat me to it. I saw J Bardem on some late night television show with that bowl cut. He joked that his hair had its own fan club.

  171. 171.

    Tehanu

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    My all-time favorite is James Mason.

    Mine too, and not just as a bad guy. He was great as a noble hero, as a pathetic loser, as an intrepid explorer, as a sad old man, as — well, as anything.

  173. 173.

    Amir Khalid

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has a cast of four really unpleasant characters, but none of them exercises the kind of malign power over the others that marks an actual villain.

  175. 175.

    catclub

    @Kent: ​
    &nbsp

    ;for truly creepy Both the original Cape Fear with Mitchum And the remake with DeNiro are hard to beat

    yeah, beat me to it.

  178. 178.

    catclub

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     

    You want scary? Nurse Ratched. The less said about Pennywise, the better.

    Glenn Close Fatal Attraction. Angela Lansbury Manchurian Candidate.

  181. 181.

    opiejeanne

    @WaterGirl: Jack Elam as John Wesley Hardin. For some reason his performance in the somewhat obscure movie “Dirty Dingus McGee” made me want to hide under the seat in the theater

     

    But Javier Bardem in No Country still gives me chills.

  182. 182.

    catclub

    @Chief Oshkosh: The Flying Monkeys in The Wizard of Oz really freaked us out as kids.

     

    I could watch the Flying Monkeys, I could not watch the scene in the forest right before they arrive.

  183. 183.

    J_A

    One of the best (worst) villains ever is Tim Piggott-Smith as Roderick Merrick in The Jewel in the Crown.

    His resentment, his sadism, his racism, his misogynism,  his sociopathic lack of empathy.  Is there anything he doesn’t excel at?

  185. 185.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @The Thin Black Duke: The movie is just called Oliver.  Or possibly Oliver!, and I’m not going to look it up.  (But, as you know, a definite Yes for Oliver Reed as Bill Sykes.  Nightmares when I first saw the movie at age 9.)

    Alan Rickman (again), in Closet Land, which is just one of the creepiest films I’ve seen. If his character has a name, I don’t know it.

    David Warner as Jack the Ripper in Time After Time.

  190. 190.

    burnspbesq

    Mr. Morden from Babylon 5. Dude would have been a perfect fit in the Trump White House.

    Hyman Roth from The Godfather, Part 2.

    Sheriff Cobb from Silverado.

    Capt. Dudley Smith from L.A. Confidential.

  191. 191.

    burnspbesq

    There is only one George Smiley, and Sir Alec Guinness is his name.

    Gary Oldman was amazing as the bent cop in The Professional.

  193. 193.

    Craig

    Linda Fiorentino as Wendy Kroy in The Last Seduction. Just unrelenting evil femme fatale, but such a thoroughly watchable nightmare person.

  196. 196.

    SFAW

    Although not a character with much screen time, for me as a child it was the Gremlin in “Terror at 20,000 Feet”; the scene where the curtain is ripped back freaked me right-the-fuck out. [And, in case there are any wiseasses out there (looking at YOU, NotMax): No, Bill Shatner was not scarier.]

    I have a soft spot for Andrew Scott’s Moriarty. He was scary in a different way, almost matter-of-fact in his evil, and definitely having fun in his evil. Much better than Jared Harris’s version. [I don’t remember much about the Moriarty in the Jeremy Brett series, unfortunately, although I liked Brett’s Sherlock.]

    Other than those, I’m drawing a blank re: whether there was anyone (not already mentioned) who creeped me out. Will probably think of a couple after this thread has died.

  199. 199.

    Kirk Spencer

    I’ll add Terry O’Quinn in the 1987 The Stepfather. Yeah, the opening scene helps a lot, but it still takes acting to constantly carry off the impression “there’s something evil in that normality”.

  202. 202.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    “Your wife has a beautiful neck.” BEST. LINE. EVER.

    Nah, it’s “I never drink … wine” by Bela Lugosi. [For the Drac-like movies. For other movies, it’s either “Well, nobody’s perfect” or “Mein Fuehrer, I can walk!”]

  203. 203.

    Jackie

    Steve Railsback as Charles Manson in Helter Skelter and Ted Bundy’s portrayal by Mark Harmon. The eyes were so creepy. It took years for me to see Mark Harmon as someone other than Bundy.

  208. 208.

    James E Powell

    James Woods in Ghosts of Mississippi

    James Woods in Once Upon a Time in America

    James Woods in real life

  210. 210.

    Kristine

    I haven’t watched the Netflix series Jessica Jones, but friends have mentioned David Tennant’s character as pretty darned creepy.

  211. 211.

    Anya

    Tyler Hayward of Wandavision is the worst villain in the history of villains because he is so lame.

  212. 212.

    James E Powell

    @J_A:

    I was exaggerating, but I was completely unsuccessful in getting any of my friends to watch more than one episode.

  215. 215.

    Martin

    The Borg. I don’t find most villains to be that creepy because they’re always given some human sensibilities and shortcomings. There’s always got to be a weakness. Even virtually indestructible heroes like the Hulk and Superman can be pushed back, stunned, delayed, etc. Most villains will try to justify their actions, pause to consider killing someone. The Borg should not have been defeatable in Star Trek as they were described. Terminator/Skynet falls somewhat in the same category.

    The scariest to me as a kid were the spaceships/aliens in the original War of the Worlds. They were a notch worse than the flying monkeys.

    @TiredOfItAll: Christopher Walken in ‘More cowbell’. The way he kept pushing the band members into conflict without a single care.

  218. 218.

    patrick II

    @Josie:
    I am with you 100% about Robert Mitchum, especially in Night of the Hunter.  I am surprised there are so many mentions of him in the comments considering how old the films are. But he conveyed such an undercurrent of threat. He was such a fine actor.

  220. 220.

    Martin

    @NotMax: Yeah. The initial introduction by Q was really good, but as they made them part of the landscape they had to keep screwing with them and nerfing them.

    That’s really the problem with villains – they have to lose, and so they can’t really be as bad as they need to be.

  222. 222.

    TiredOfItAll

    Personally, I am utterly terrified by Transformers. And those dancing Boston Dynamics robots freak me the f*ck out. I’ll take flying monkeys over metal death machines any day of the week.

  226. 226.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Dean Wormer in “Animal House”
    Illinois Nazis in “The Blues Brothers”​​

  228. 228.

    piratedan

    sure its late but….

    Bob Guinton as The Warden on The Shawshank Redemption

    Imelda Staunton from Happy Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

     

    these petty tyrants of power frighten the shit out of me for some reason, maybe because we know that they are out there amongst us every damn day.

  229. 229.

    Tony Jay

    ‘Ralphie Glick’ in the TV Miniseries of Salem’s Lot. Haven’t been able to sleep with the curtains open since I was seven.

    The ship itself in Event Horizon and the house in Haunting of Hill House. Redeeming features they have none, they just want you forever and ever and ever….

  230. 230.

    Chris Johnson

    Seriously, no mention of this one?

    Kevin Spacey. Glengarry Glen Ross, Seven, The Usual Suspects, Baby Driver. And apparently, real life.

    I don’t get why this guy isn’t being cited as an ultimate villain. They can’t all be Margaret Hamilton, a cool person who got to play a great villain. I’m thinking, sometimes an actor is channelling something real, and though that implies a terrible price is being paid, you get something you wouldn’t get otherwise.

  231. 231.

    tokyokie

    Dead thread, I know, but another vote for Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter and the original Cape Fear. I’d also throw in Laurence Olivier and William Devane from Marathon Man; Olivier is the main bad guy, but the death of Devane’s character is the one for which the audience cheers. And I would be remiss if I didn’t do a shout-out to Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes in Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.

  235. 235.

    Geminid

    Alan Arkin terrorizing the blind Audrey Hepburn, in Wait Until Dark. She gets him in the end, though.

  239. 239.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Gyp Rosetti in Boardwalk Empire

    Ramsey Bolton and Joffrey Lannister in GoT

    Andrew the Nazi and Tuco Salamanca in Breaking Bad

    Glad to hear you are enjoying Black Lightning.  We watched season 1 but then lost interest sometime in season 2.  Really just found other stuff we liked more.  But it’s a fun and silly show that sometimes has some great messages about social justice.  We really enjoyed seeing a comic/superhero story in a super-Black setting for a change.

  240. 240.

    Tokyokie

    @Craig: The actor who plays Ryunosuke Tsukue in Sword of Doom is the great Tatsuya Nakadai, for whom one can make a compelling argument is the world’s best living actor. He has a face that seems incapable of expressing joy, and when he tries, he’s only scarier.

  241. 241.

    Heidi Mom

    @UncleEbeneezer:

     

    @UncleEbeneezer: My husband and I once had a discussion about whether Ramsey or Joffrey was the more evil.  Then it occurred to me that the most evil character was neither of them, but Stannis Baratheon, for one absolutely unforgivable act committed in pursuit of his supposed destiny.

  243. 243.

    JimV

    Dr. Hannibal Lecter in “Silence of the Lambs”.

    Siskel & Ebert had what Ebert called their biggest disagreement ever about this film in their review show.  Ebert thought it was a great movie (as did I–had to then buy the book, which was even better), Siskel was thumbs-down because “it glamorizes serial-killers”. It turned out Siskel was right, it caused an explosion in serial-killer plots and made Hollywood somehow make Thomas Harris write a sequel in which Lecter was the hero (which semi-disgusted me).

    In SotL, it is clear that Lecter is an egotistical psychopath, who knows all along from past history who Buffalo Bill is and where he lives, but pretends to figure out things the FBI has missed from slight clues in the case files. Clarice Starling is the hero of that movie, not Lecter. However Sir (then Mr.) Anthony Hopkins did an amazing, mesmerizing performance. Since then I have made it a point to see every movie he is in, figuring that if I ever made a movie, Sir Anthony would come to see it.

  244. 244.

    JustRuss

    No love for Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood?  I find his plucky, hard-scrabble businessman revealed to be a remorseless monster to be terrifying because it’s completely believable.

  245. 245.

    opiejeanne

    @JimV: My sister’s ex worked as an extra in movies for many years, and one day he was working on something with Hopkins in it. My nieces were there with their dad and when he got a call that he was needed, Hopkins offered to babysit them. He fed them lunch in his trailer and played a board game with them until Tony came back from his scene.

    This was about a year after Silence of the Lambs had been released and my reaction was visceral horror.

  246. 246.

    bluefoot

    @Kristine: omg, I had to stop watching Jessica Jones partly because of Tennant’s character. Way too believable. The show also had IMO one of the depictions of the aftermath of trauma in an abusive relationship I’ve ever seen.

  247. 247.

    DaveInOz

    @WaterGirl: Have you tried https://justwatch.com. You can add the streaming services that you have and it will recommend movies and TV series for you. You can also search for particular items and see where they are being streamed.

    I’ve discovered loads of content that Netflix has never recommended for me.

  248. 248.

    Nelson

    A lot of great villains in the Harry Potter series:
    Alan Rickman as Snape (yeah, turns out not to be a villain in the end, but still, wonderfully creepy)
    Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange (that girl had issues)
    Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy (nobody does sneering arrogance better)
    Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge (I was really disappointed that she didn’t receive some explicit comeuppance at the end of the series)

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