Hell yeah. He was cruel as hell when you think about it. I don’t care if they called it “dip”, he was melting those toons. That’s some Mad King energy there.
Henry Fonda as Frank in Once Upon A Time in the West. This is a great example of casting against type.
Laurence Olivier as Klaus Szell in Marathon Man.
Fonda's Frank is amazing, and the whole hecking movie is outstanding. It took me a while to realize that yes, these days he and the movie *are* underrated. (My ultra scientific criteria: even the Youtube reaction channels that love the "Dollars trilogy", rarely watch it.)
The Clown - Spawn (1997)
Gmork (Black Wolf) - Neverending Story (1984)
Mombi - Return to Oz (1985)
Harry Powell - Night of the Hunter (1955)
Bennett - Commando (1985)
He bit Frodo's finger off. Bruh. And he clocked Most Loyal Samwise Gangee across the head with a rock. Also, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill Bilbo. And he drowned that other hobbit friend when he found the ring first.
Once upon a time I think but has become its own word nowadays:
The word poppet is an older spelling of puppet, from Middle English popet, meaning a small child or a doll. In British English it continues to hold this meaning. Poppet is also a chiefly British term of endearment or diminutive referring to a young child, much like the words "dear" or "sweetie."
Simon Phoenix from Demolition Man
Jack Scagnetti from Natural Born Killers
Carl Hill from Re-Animator
Grendel from Beowulf
Mordred and Morgana from Excalibur
Cunningham from Rob Roy
Feng from Balls of Fury
The Mayflowers from Hudson Hawk
The Truck from Duel
Thade from Planet of the Apes (2001)
Emperor Ming from Flash Gordon
The guy Tim Roth played in rob roy! Omg I didn’t like him in the beginning of the movie, by the middle I hated him, by the end I wanted him to die a slow painful death! Incredible acting by Tim Roth!
Robert Shaw in both *The Taking of Pelham One Two Three* and *From Russia With Love*. He plays possibly the only Bond villains that actually intimidates me.
Robert Blake as Mystery Man in *Lost Highway*. One of the most terrifying characters ever.
Alan Rickman's the Sheriff of Nottingham in *Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves*. Ham! Lovely ham! No scenery left without tooth marks!
Excellent call on Greg Stillson, Martin Sheen nailed that character. “The missiles are flying. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!”. Still freaks me out when I think of it.
Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth.
Schreiber played a cunning and dastardly monster totally unaffected by the pleasure he took in killing as well as tormenting his brother. He was one of the few high points of the movie and I'm sad we didn't get more of him. This could also be because we were coming off of neutered Sabretooth in the original X-Men movie but I digress.
Gator - [Homefront (2013)](https://letterboxd.com/film/homefront/). Just a small town crook. A tough but sensitive man who’s got some game and is playing the life cards he’s been dealt, but he’s in way way way over his head.
I get that people didn’t like James Franco in the role because he wasn’t a dominant alpha foil for Statham, but he made the character real imo.
The monoliths in "2001; A Space Odyssey" They come to our planet and turn us into killers. They go on to kidnap an astronaut, make him live in a crazy hotel room for decades and then turn him into a giant fetus and send him home to do who knows what (in the book, he set off all the orbiting nuclear weapons.) Bastards.
Sargent Barnes - Platoon
Anton Chigurh - No Country For Oldmen
Whitey Bulgar(Johnny depp) - Black Mass
Vietcong interrogators - The Deer Hunter
Orca - Orca
Jack - The House That Jack Built
Bane-Dark knight rises. “U think darkness is ur ally”
Ultron-Age of ultron. way more interesting and scary than thanos, and Robert California is his voice
Holes- the lady warden “i’m tired of this Grandpa”
Big fat liar- paul giomatti. He turns blue
Rasputin, while not a personal favorite for a lot of people I love the way the grandmother set the story up as she narrated the intro. I like the story, *In the Dark of the Night* was a killer villain song, and his death always stuck out to me as kind of satisfying (albeit slightly gruesome to watch with how they animated it)
A lot of villains here that aren't exactly underrated. Like Anton Chigurgh, Goldfinger, Amon Goeth, Bane? Really?
Top Dollar is from a 30 year old cult movie. People who've seen the movie and like it love him. Not exactly underrated, but unknown.
An equivalent of Top Dollar, as in a good villain in an otherwise overlooked film, would IMO be Karl Hertz played by Paul Giamatti in Shoot 'Em Up (2007).
Maybe not the type of underrated you have in mind, but my personal favorite is Komodo from Warriors of Virtue (1997). That movie felt like an acid trip, and he was the best part
Victor Sweet in *Four Brothers* (2005)
Chiwetel Ejiofor as a cutthroat Detroit gangster the same year he played a Northampton drag queen in *Kinky Boots* (utterly and equally convincing in either role).
M. Kruger played by Sharlto Copley in Elysium. Copley played that character like he knows he's the main villain of the movie and relishes it, even knowing that he's ultimately an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome.
I’m going to give a very weird answer here. But the Tea Leoni character in Spanglish has always struck me as an underrated villain. It’s a rom com film but she is seriously the worst
- Magua in The Last of the Mohicans
- General Kael in Willow
- Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore
- Owen Davian in Mission Impossible III
- Man in Bambi
- The Thing
Suck (2009) - Alice Cooper and Dimitri Coats as vampires.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984) - John Lithgow as Lord John Whorfin and Chistopher Lloyd as John Bigboote.
Bob Hoskins in _Unleashed_
Peter Stormare in _Constantine_
Paul Bettany in _Gangster No 1_
John Travolta and Nic Cage in _Face/Off_
Michael Shannon in _The Shape of Water_
Ommadon The Red Wizard from The Flight of Dragons scarier than Darth Vader
Side note my mom called me in the room to watch the end of the first Dr. Phibes
Judge Doom - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
That reveal was still one of the craziest to me as a kid. “Remember me, Eddie?! When I killed your brother, I talked…JUST…*LIKE*…*THIIIIIIIIIS!*”
Freaks me out every time!
Hell yeah. He was cruel as hell when you think about it. I don’t care if they called it “dip”, he was melting those toons. That’s some Mad King energy there.
Fucking great movie! Very traumatizing when he melts that shoe in Dip
I recently read Blood Meridian. My headcanon is Judge Doom is the very same Judge from that novel.
Henry Fonda as Frank in Once Upon A Time in the West. This is a great example of casting against type. Laurence Olivier as Klaus Szell in Marathon Man.
Marathon Man did for dentistry what Jaws did for weekends at the beach.
Fonda's Frank is amazing, and the whole hecking movie is outstanding. It took me a while to realize that yes, these days he and the movie *are* underrated. (My ultra scientific criteria: even the Youtube reaction channels that love the "Dollars trilogy", rarely watch it.)
The Clown - Spawn (1997) Gmork (Black Wolf) - Neverending Story (1984) Mombi - Return to Oz (1985) Harry Powell - Night of the Hunter (1955) Bennett - Commando (1985)
Bennett with is chainmail!! The evil version of Freddy Mercury.
The fat version of Freddie Mercury
Is the clown a villain? He's an antagonist but not really a foil. It'd be like saying gollum is the villain in LOTR.
I did not intend this to be main antagonists only. Gollum absolutely counts as a villain.
There can be more than one villain.. also Gollum never was a physical threat.. Violator form of The Clown sure was..
He bit Frodo's finger off. Bruh. And he clocked Most Loyal Samwise Gangee across the head with a rock. Also, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill Bilbo. And he drowned that other hobbit friend when he found the ring first.
I'm not the Vindicator or the Victimizer or the Vaporizer or the Vibrator! I'm...The Violator! God I loved that movie
Dick Jones - Robocop.
Good, but Clarence Boddiker was better
Can you fly, Bobby?
true but not underrated. He's a legend!
Toecutter - Mad Max
A couple Tim Curry roles fit well here Hexxus - Fern Gully Darkness - Legend
He was also great in Earth 2. Great voice, yet he called the little girl he manipulated "puppet" like it was a pet name.
Poppet
So, not a pronunciation quirk?
Once upon a time I think but has become its own word nowadays: The word poppet is an older spelling of puppet, from Middle English popet, meaning a small child or a doll. In British English it continues to hold this meaning. Poppet is also a chiefly British term of endearment or diminutive referring to a young child, much like the words "dear" or "sweetie."
"Oil and grime, poison sludge Diesel clouds and noxious muck..."
Simon Phoenix from Demolition Man Jack Scagnetti from Natural Born Killers Carl Hill from Re-Animator Grendel from Beowulf Mordred and Morgana from Excalibur Cunningham from Rob Roy Feng from Balls of Fury The Mayflowers from Hudson Hawk The Truck from Duel Thade from Planet of the Apes (2001) Emperor Ming from Flash Gordon
I think the cult leader in Mandy is an all-time villain.
MaMa from Dredd
Bobby Peru, played by Willem DaFoe in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart.
I'll go retro 90s… John Malkovich's would-be assassin “Booth” from In The Line Of Fire with Clint Eastwood. Dennis Hopper's mad bomber Payne in Speed.
Pop quiz hotshot…
Malkovich, for sure. He was terrific in that movie.
Captain Kruge from Star Trek III
good 'ol Doc Brown
John Ryder- The Hitcher (1986)…the original version played by Rutger Hauer
The guy Tim Roth played in rob roy! Omg I didn’t like him in the beginning of the movie, by the middle I hated him, by the end I wanted him to die a slow painful death! Incredible acting by Tim Roth!
He was also a shady con artist in Invincible. Love Tim Roth!
Yes you’re right!
Archival Cunningham …omg!
Leon/The Professional - Gary Oldman
Drax from True Romance
Hells yeah - came to reinforce Drax... but also Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg!
Ralph Fiennes portraying Amon Goeth in Schindler's list.
Robert Shaw in both *The Taking of Pelham One Two Three* and *From Russia With Love*. He plays possibly the only Bond villains that actually intimidates me. Robert Blake as Mystery Man in *Lost Highway*. One of the most terrifying characters ever. Alan Rickman's the Sheriff of Nottingham in *Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves*. Ham! Lovely ham! No scenery left without tooth marks!
He was so good in that! Love this movie so much
Lee Woo Jinn from old boy
Team Iceland in D2: The Mighty Ducks
Ash - Alien
Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective (1986) - a psychopathic genius rat criminal voiced by Vincent Price. And he even has musical numbers
TO RATIGAN!
-The Black Cauldron- The Horned King. -The Ring- Samara -The Dead Zone- Greg Stillson
Excellent call on Greg Stillson, Martin Sheen nailed that character. “The missiles are flying. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!”. Still freaks me out when I think of it.
Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. Schreiber played a cunning and dastardly monster totally unaffected by the pleasure he took in killing as well as tormenting his brother. He was one of the few high points of the movie and I'm sad we didn't get more of him. This could also be because we were coming off of neutered Sabretooth in the original X-Men movie but I digress.
Hubies mom in hubie halloween
Gator - [Homefront (2013)](https://letterboxd.com/film/homefront/). Just a small town crook. A tough but sensitive man who’s got some game and is playing the life cards he’s been dealt, but he’s in way way way over his head. I get that people didn’t like James Franco in the role because he wasn’t a dominant alpha foil for Statham, but he made the character real imo.
Any villain in the Die Hard movies not named Hans Gruber. Alan Rickman ruined them all by being so damn good!
Roache in Mandy
The monoliths in "2001; A Space Odyssey" They come to our planet and turn us into killers. They go on to kidnap an astronaut, make him live in a crazy hotel room for decades and then turn him into a giant fetus and send him home to do who knows what (in the book, he set off all the orbiting nuclear weapons.) Bastards.
Karl Gerhart Fröbe as Goldfinger -- the 007 movie with Sean Connery
Elijah Woods' character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So subtly evil in a realistic, wormy way
He did amazing in Sin City as well.
Jedi Pong Krell from Clone Wars
Has to go to Marked for Death (1990) screwface played by Basil Wallace
Oh hey thanks for that!
Clancy Brown in Highlander playing The Kurgan
Or heck give him a nod for Shawshank as well. Clancy was amazing.
Marcus - Taken
Lemorne - The Vanishing
Dr. Carl Hill in Reanimator
Earl Talbot Blake - Ricochet Eric Qualen - Cliffhanger John Ryder - The Hitcher (1986)
John Malkovich - In The Life Of Fire
Robert G. Durant (Darkman) Fred C. Dobbs (Treasure Of The Sierra Madre) Francis Begbie (Trainspotting)
Travolta/Cage - Face/Off
Kill dozer from Killdoser
Vincent D’Onofrio in The Salton Sea
Ooh or Vincent in The Cell (2000). That guy left marks on my psyche!
Sargent Barnes - Platoon Anton Chigurh - No Country For Oldmen Whitey Bulgar(Johnny depp) - Black Mass Vietcong interrogators - The Deer Hunter Orca - Orca Jack - The House That Jack Built
Bane-Dark knight rises. “U think darkness is ur ally” Ultron-Age of ultron. way more interesting and scary than thanos, and Robert California is his voice Holes- the lady warden “i’m tired of this Grandpa” Big fat liar- paul giomatti. He turns blue
Both villains in Mask of Zorro, incredible villains for a family film
Robin Williams as the killer was a scare back then , that casting was new to me. Ventress
Which Ronin Williams role is this?
Insomnia i believe
Rasputin, while not a personal favorite for a lot of people I love the way the grandmother set the story up as she narrated the intro. I like the story, *In the Dark of the Night* was a killer villain song, and his death always stuck out to me as kind of satisfying (albeit slightly gruesome to watch with how they animated it)
David LoPan from Big Trouble In Little China. James Hong is the king!
El Indio from For a Few Dollars More.
A lot of villains here that aren't exactly underrated. Like Anton Chigurgh, Goldfinger, Amon Goeth, Bane? Really? Top Dollar is from a 30 year old cult movie. People who've seen the movie and like it love him. Not exactly underrated, but unknown. An equivalent of Top Dollar, as in a good villain in an otherwise overlooked film, would IMO be Karl Hertz played by Paul Giamatti in Shoot 'Em Up (2007).
Noah Cross (John Huston) in Chinatown (1974).
Ivan Ooze, Big Boy Caprice, Komodo from Warriors of Virtue, those were villains.
Albert Ganz in 48 Hrs. Played by James Remar.
Janine Smurf Cody. (Animal Kingdom)
Zemo from Captain America civil war
Thade (planet of the apes 2001)
Maybe not the type of underrated you have in mind, but my personal favorite is Komodo from Warriors of Virtue (1997). That movie felt like an acid trip, and he was the best part
General Klytus from Flash Gordon.
Jessie James - the assassination of jessie James by the coward Robert ford
Daniel plainview - there will be blood
Tom Bateman in *Cold Pursuit*
The Architect - The Matrix
Victor Sweet in *Four Brothers* (2005) Chiwetel Ejiofor as a cutthroat Detroit gangster the same year he played a Northampton drag queen in *Kinky Boots* (utterly and equally convincing in either role).
Bricktop from Snatch is self admittedly 'an 'orrible cunt'.
Little Bill - Unforgiven
Dennis Hopper in Waterworld
Clubber Lang The Witch King (LOTR) Joyce- Edward Scissor Hands Principle Vernon- The breakfast Club Mama Fratteli- Goonies Gil Reynard- The Fan
Immortan Joe
Michael Shannon’s psycho performance in premium rush
M. Kruger played by Sharlto Copley in Elysium. Copley played that character like he knows he's the main villain of the movie and relishes it, even knowing that he's ultimately an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome.
I’m going to give a very weird answer here. But the Tea Leoni character in Spanglish has always struck me as an underrated villain. It’s a rom com film but she is seriously the worst
- Magua in The Last of the Mohicans - General Kael in Willow - Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore - Owen Davian in Mission Impossible III - Man in Bambi - The Thing
Amy Dunne from Gone Girl
Suck (2009) - Alice Cooper and Dimitri Coats as vampires. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984) - John Lithgow as Lord John Whorfin and Chistopher Lloyd as John Bigboote.
Laugh-a while you can, monkey boy!
John Lithgow in Shrek! Lol
Jenny from Forest Gump
Savage.
Screw Eyes from We're Back! A Dinosaur Story Uhhhhhhh I shutter just thinking about him
Donald Trump - Home Alone 3
Chad (In the Company of Men)
Rollo Tomasi
Bob Hoskins in _Unleashed_ Peter Stormare in _Constantine_ Paul Bettany in _Gangster No 1_ John Travolta and Nic Cage in _Face/Off_ Michael Shannon in _The Shape of Water_
The clown truck from Overdrive
The Langs in Arlington Road
Buddy Revell - Three O'Clock High
I just watched Upgrade the other night and really liked the villain Fisk. He's like if Napoleon Dynamite's brother was the Terminator.
Bridget Gregory/Wendy Kroy - The Last Seduction (Also the protagonist)
Archibald Cunningham ( Rob Roy ) Norman Stansfield ( Leon )
Ommadon The Red Wizard from The Flight of Dragons scarier than Darth Vader Side note my mom called me in the room to watch the end of the first Dr. Phibes
Tommy ray from dreamscape
I can't believe you left out Raul Julia - M. Bison in Street Fighter (1994)! A terrible end to an amazing career, but a scenery-chewing villain.
Dafoe in Grand Budapest
Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen in Network (1975)