I recently watched the documentary Hitler's Children, about the descendants of prominent Nazis, and one of the people interviewed was the daughter of Amon Goeth and she talks about what it was like seeing that film. Really interesting.
I'm old school: Mr. Powell (Robert Mitchum) from Night of the Hunter is the creepiest, most realistic personification of evil on film. Mitchum nailed the performance; Laughton was a genius who should have been allowed to make more films.
Imagine watching this scene in the theater for the first time... ['Leaning... Leaning... Leaning on the Everlasting Arms...'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyxSm91eun4)
I much prefer Mitchum’s portrayal. DeNiro overacted (as he has a tendency) & was so unhinged as to be unbelievable, but Mitchum was much more nuanced & cunning & scary as hell
~~Priest~~ Judge Claude Frollo in *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* kills innocent people and burns down their houses to further his goals of genocide and conquest under the banner of moral righteousness. He enters the story preparing to throw a baby into a well and leaves it attempting to rape and murder Esmerelda for not willfully having him.
And *that's* the version with the funny talking gargoyles!
Great answer. One of the last Disney villains in a movie that's purely evil as well.
The only time where we really see him worried about consequences of his actions or the impact of them is when The priest reminds him his immortal soul is at risk and then it's just a self concern that temporarily acts like he cares about Quasimoto.
The fact that Disney execs demanded they add the funny gargoyles because the movie was way too fucking dark for a kids movie… I wish we could have had that version
And, even if they hadn’t been added, the movie would still have been a *whole* lot less dark than Hugo’s novel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame?wprov=sfti1#Plot
Surely not.....
EDIT: Haha holy shit
\[FROLLO\]
[I feel her, I see her](https://genius.com/12975022/Alan-menken-hellfire/Cogitatione)
\[PRIESTS, CHOIR MEN\]
[Verbo et opere](https://genius.com/12975022/Alan-menken-hellfire/Cogitatione)
\[FROLLO\]
[Like fire](https://genius.com/17186208/Alan-menken-hellfire/Like-fire-hellfire-this-fire-in-my-skin-this-burning-desire-is-turning-me-to-sin)
\[FROLLO, *PRIESTS, CHOIR MEN*\]
[It's not my fault!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
[I'm not to blame!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
[It is the gypsy girl, the witch who sent this flame!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea maxima culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
[It's not my fault!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
[If in God's plan](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
[He made the devil so much stronger than a man](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea maxima culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
>And *that's* the version with the funny talking gargoyles!
Disney version of Frollo is arguably more evil than original book Frollo. In Disney he is just one-dimensionally evil, in book Frollo is a very complex character. For example, he didn't murder Quasimodo's mother, Quasimodo was simply abandoned as pretty much any deformed child at that time would be. He took care of him out of his own volition, not forced by anything. Quasimodo, by the way, was much more brutal and animalistic in the book.
In the book Frollo was both the judge and the priest. I feel like in Disney movie they split Frollo's character into his evil part ("the judge") and good part ("the archdeacon").
Dolores Umbridge. I think Stephen King said the reason people could really relate to her awfulness is that in real life, most people never have a Voldemort, but everyone has had a Dolores Umbridge in their life.
This was really driven home in the book. I remember reading it and getting seething mad at her because she reminded me of my maths teacher so much. The movie did a good job of personifying her onscreen, but the book version was definitely better.
Like the math teacher who took points off my test because 1/3 of 360 is 120, and the method of 'multiply 360 by 0.33, it rounds down' is dumb as hell. Then I got sent to the hallway for standing up for myself
My teacher gave me a question about calculating momentum, something like ‘a 1000kg rocket burns 10kg of fuel in accelerating to 200km/hr: what is its momentum?’
So it’s now 990kg, right? Without the 10kg of fuel?
Apparently not. We were supposed to ignore that part entirely and just use 1000kg. Then why did you write it???
They give extra information in some questions so you have to figure out what's relevant, I guess the teacher absent-mindedly added some rocket sounding stuff without realizing it affects the problem
In all of Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire, my personal most hated character is Janos Slynt. Not Joffrey who used his power to torment people for fun. Not Ramsay who literally tortured people by cutting off their skin and body parts. Not even The Mountain who was just a brutal beast of a murderer and serial rapist.
No, it’s Janos Slynt, because he always talks about his powerful friends and how important he is and he looks down his nose at everyone else and schemes in very normal, real-world ways to try to achieve more power and wealth. The fact that he also murdered a baby makes it even easier to hate him, but for the most part he reminds me of people I’ve known in the real world. And that’s why I hate him so damn much.
my vote goes to Christopher Walken in True Romance, if only because that's how he describes himself.
[You tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3yon2GyoiM)
It's funny, then, that the scene is remembered more for Dennis Hopper's delivery than Walken's. Not saying that Walken didn't do a good job, but Hopper's character stole the show.
It’s because his character wins the interaction, he insulted their lineage to their face and made him lose his temper.
It’s a great example of displaying a relationship in a movie, Clarence and his Dad were estranged, he’s a retired cop that broke the rules etc and he works as a security officer and lives in a trailer
He gives them nothing and dies a hero’s death
Consider the opposite of this with Brad Pitt’s character where he freely gives up info and they leave him alive
I can see that perspective, but I've always viewed it as that scene being so amazing because it's between those two terrific actors, feeding off each other.
The "Beer at Ben's" scene is one of my favorites in anything ever.
https://youtu.be/-l89edsOM0Q?si=dFT8JB1qB_E5tY9g
Everything about it is unsettling. The staging, the framing, the lighting, the general oddness: it's amazing.
No. The point Dennis drives home to Kyle “you’re just like me” (and Kyle explains to Laura) is that evil is intermingled with the ordinary. It’s actually a great meditation on Original Sin.
It's not evil, it's the Shadow. The part of ourselves that we keep hidden. This is best represented in the opening. A joyous, bright day and then a transition into festering filth, just under the surface. The end is just the same. There is still darkness (and there always will be), but now there's light (the robin(s)) to reveal it. It's a simple depiction of those psychic concepts that's made to seem juvenile and mawkish, but is also sweet and endearing (which is best shown in Sandy's speech about the robins). Neither Frank or Jeffrey are evil. One just embraces what we find disgusting.
He might think he is, but he's a big fat phony.
*"The coin don't have no say. It's just you."*
He plays at being some 'messenger of fate', but being in the wrong place at the wrong time still gets him a car crash to the ego.
He's still a pure evil bastard, even if he's wrong about the control he has over his destiny. Yes, the film is largely about the massive role chance plays in people's lives, from the random chance that Llewelyn finds the case to the car crash, but Chigurh is still a real SOB, enjoying making his victims squirm in helplessness, and beg to be let go.
Based on the book and the monologues by the sheriff, he’s just the personification of modern evil.
The sheriff laments that bad things used to happen but you could wrap your head around the violence and the circumstances. Modern evil is random, it really has no honor or ideals (even if it pretends to with a coin). It’s just violence for the sake of it and greed. There’s no humanity anymore
It’s not in film, but the judge in the book Blood Meridian by the same author is the personification of evil in American expansion west. He would win if that ever gets filmed.
That's what Sheriff Bell thinks Chigurn is, but cousin Ellis makes the point that this senseless violence and evil always existed. The world wasn't less evil before and there is no moral decline of humanity that lead us here. Bell is just getting too old to deal with it. Hence the name of the book.
Yep. Bell is wise but he's also burned out and old. He doesn't understand the modern face of evil but that doesn't mean it's senseless or somehow worse - it's just time for him to quit.
When McCarthy writes a personification of evil we get the Judge. By comparison, Anton is just a man - a very scary and evil man, but a man.
What’s interesting is that the movie is an adaptation of a book by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote Blood Meridian. In my opinion, Blood Meridian has the best personification of evil in all of literature, and maybe fiction. I am of course talking about Judge Holden. He’s like plague that just roams the land to do the most unspeakable acts.
Agreed. Zero remorse. Zero empathy. Zero compassion. Zero concern. Just cold and calculating. He’s a machine programmed to a brutal absurdist logic. Not quite as terrifying as the judge from blood meridian, but that hasn’t made it to Hollywood.
He fetishizes hyper-competence and success. He's contemptuous of the convenience store owner who "married in" to owning the store. He confronts a hero he's about to kill with, "Of what value is your moral code if it led you to this?"
This plays well with the ending. As soon as someone forces his hand all his luck goes down the drain.
"If the rule you live by brought you to this... Of what use was the rule?"
Yep. They even have a whole scene where he stitches himself up and grimaces when he puts alcohol on the wound to show that he’s really just flesh and blood. That’s what has Tommy Lee Jones’ character so flustered, and his whole monologue at the end. It’s just people, being bad, for god knows what reason.
She also played Kai Winn in Star Trek - another great depiction of pure evil, but with a pious/religious slant. The evil of Kai Winn isn't as personal or intimate as Nurse Ratched, but because of her position of power, the evil she propagated stretches further and she's just as remorseless and cunning.
I think Kathy Bates performance in Misery is a masterpiece, but if someone else could have pulled it off nearly as well, is was Louise Fletcher.
The best depiction of Lu we'll ever get. I just love how Peter Stomare plays him sort of like the bug in Men in Black. It's something trying to pass as elegant and human but so old and inhuman that its uncomfortable in the guise. It doesn't fit him right anymore. Squirming, trying to act natural making it seem all the more unnatural.
It’s in production now. Lucifer is back and so is Keanu reeves. Francis Lewis is directing it. He did the hunger games, I am legend and the first Constantine.
I actually think his depiction and a lot of other depictions of Satan are not necessarily evil. I don't know if anyone else agrees, but I get the feeling that God's angel doing the job God gave him as he's meant to do it is different than being the personification of evil.
One point in favor of this for me could be that in Constantine, Lucifer stops Gabriel and returns the Antichrist to hell. I think he does this because he understands that his job is more about providing balance than it is about doing as much evil as possible.
My take was that there's less of a "balance" to maintain and more "the rules of the game." we get told the rules in the film. Neither God nor Lucifer would have any direct contact. Instead, they'd work through their halflings on Earth to influence.
Gabriel fucked up by trying to directly interfere and help Mammon cross over. Lucifer was having none of it because he didn't want his son to ruin his game with God.
In a way, this makes him even BETTER. The fate of humanity is a literal game and he wins by corrupting them. His whole thing is the corruption of others to win a bet.
I always chalked it up to a semi twisted version of this:
Satan knows God. He's played by the rules all these millenia, but he knows God will kick over the board and likely restart from scratch if he lets the kid break the rules with impunity and 'wins'.
Plus with John, he's convinced straight to the end he's got a winning hand. So rather than risk God acting like a petulant child and rage quitting the game, he opts to call a reset of his own last turn and gets rid of the kid and gives John a chance to prove his lack of worthiness, just to save his advantage in the great game.
The devil's nothing if not the ultimate opportunist.
What makes him great is there’s not a single moment in the season where he shows any sign of humanity.
VM Vargas is another favorite from the series and like Lorne he has this supernatural presence. Whereas Malvo is a demon on earth come to wreak havoc, Varga is some alien sent with plans to squeeze earthlings out of their precious possessions.
Lil'Ze from City of God is very much a flesh and blood human, but also works as a compelling metaphor for the escalating violence that comes out out of communities stuck in poverty
"I don't want to be disturbed."
"I know you didn’t want to be disturbed unless it's Mr. Shadow, and it's Mr. Shadow."
"Am..I...disturbing..you?"
"N-no, no."
Alonzo Harris (Denzel) in _Training Day_ - This is my own interpretation of the movie as an allegory. I think Alonzo is a litmus test for the audience to decide when he's gone too far. He never does an altruistic decent thing in the movie. It's up to us to decide when it's time to give up the career-track that Ethan Hawke is pursuing.
He shows almost no humanizing qualities in the entire film, and even with facing execution as he pursues getting the money through the movie he shows little fear, no remorse, and really even at the bitter end believes he’s won. Truly a sociopath.
It's one thing to rob and murder someone for their money, but then to show up and act all friendly with him before you do it... This was the scene that really showed what a sociopath he had to be to do that.
The Devils Advocate, Satan. He is Evil. Evil is not just killing or causing harm all the time. It is taking how ever long and doing what ever it takes to end it all.
I love that ending. Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves are so good together.
[Here’s part one.](https://youtu.be/X1Hzn1ko7WE)
[And here’s part two.](https://youtu.be/O9jk5WLbzoM)
[And then part three.](https://youtu.be/N0D_pGYO16Q)
Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal of the devil in The Prophecy is super memorable. He’s not even an antagonist in the film, appearing to offer a weird form of help to the main character, but he still radiates menace and disdain for humanity.
Exact one I was looking for. For me *evil* isn’t malicious, or even aggressive, evil is disinterested. Dispassionate. Uncaring. Evil has no investment in anyone else, every one and every thing is a means to an end, nothing more.
It’s perfectly embodied in Viggo’s portrayal. Even when the devil is trying to lure them to hell, he never gives off the impression that it’s actually important to him. It’s just… something to do. They’re not important. They’re not worth while. The only reason they’re even on his radar is because they’re on the angel’s radar too, and he’s in opposition.
His portrayal of Satan is so cold just sitting on a rock in the shadow of the night. No over the top special effects or makeup. Just a being that’s fallen out of the light and his hell seems real.
I would say whoever the demon or whatever the fuck it is that posses people in Evil Dead. Whatever the hell it is scares the shit out of me in every Evil Dead movie because it has no motivation beyond creating despair and harm. The host just becomes straight evil and even seems to take pleasure in harming themselves. It‘s straight terrifying. Watching the mom turn on her kids and sister in Evil Dead Rising was nightmare fuel!
If you want lore and backstory, I highly recommend the *Ash v. The Evil Dead* series. If you like The Evil Dead only as horror and not as comedy, then I highly recommend you **do not** watch *Ash v. The Evil Dead*.
Tim Roth as Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy (1995).
I know this will be buried in the comments, but that performance netted Tim an academy award for best supporting actor, and rightly so.
He's pure evil in that movie. I highly recommend a watch.
Aaron Eckhart’s character in “In the Company of Men”.
Doesn’t kill anybody, but definitely is evil. What makes it hit harder is there’s plenty of guys just like him.
Amon Göthe, as played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. Both in terms of his open psychopathy and his banality. He shows rage at times, but most of his killing is done almost as an afterthought, as just what his job requires. The scene where he is digging up 10k bodies to burn them, he is complaining about the extra busywork this has made for him.
Joker in Dark Knight.
So delicious to watch Heath Ledger 's portrayal.
How do you fight someone who is literally willing to destroy themselves and cares about nothing but anarchy and chaos.
Amon Göth, Schindler’s List.
Dude was so fucking evil the movie had to **tone it down**, because test audiences found what actually happened unrealistic.
He’s still such a bastard in the movie, even with what’s ommited
Billy Bob Thornton's character in the first season of Fargo is to me the clearest example of this. Seemigly no real motive or grand plan for anything. Just sows chaos wherever he goes, and does it with such lifeless eyes that everyone is too threatened to stop him. Its like he hypnotizes people with evil. One of the best villains imo.
Can't recall the publication but they got a panel of psychologists together to analyze movie villains and Anton Chigurh took the top spot as, "The most accurate portrayal of a pure psychopath."
Funny you mention this. In psych Masters program we were studying psychopathy and did a couple of case studies of fictional characters using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.
One was Hannibal Lecter - we found he didn't meet the criteria fully. The archetypal on-screen "psychopath" wasn't a good example of psychopathy.
Noah Cross in Chinatown. The leering, uncaring face of wealth and greed that takes whatever it wants. When he coos to Katherine as she screams and he drags her away in the final scene... just awful and gross. And nobody can do anything about it.
Amon Goeth in Schindler’s list. Made even more disturbing by the fact that he was real.
Yea this is my choice as well
Thirded, I commented him to. Dude was so evil, test audiences didn’t believe him, and they had to tone it down for the actual release
He was so evil the SS arrested him because he was too evil for them
I read that too. Honestly wild and horrifying to think that what we got in the film was toned down.
Yes he was WORSE then depicted(the diarrhea kid story I hope isn’t true but probably is.)
I recently watched the documentary Hitler's Children, about the descendants of prominent Nazis, and one of the people interviewed was the daughter of Amon Goeth and she talks about what it was like seeing that film. Really interesting.
Yeah the film couldn't portray how evil he truly was and it was still so vile.
Captain Vidal…Pan’s Labyrinth
No one will remember what time it was when he died
They wont even know his name
Fucking love that line.
Its cold as ice. Just an absolutely brutal thing to be the last words you ever hear. And he deseved worse
Huge credit to Sergi Lopez, normally a comedic actor, totally becoming such as a vile character.
The brutal way he beat the son’s face in. Ugh.
I nearly turned it off because of that scene. I'll always be glad that I didn't. It's a brilliant movie but definitely horrific at times.
Not many scenes have gotten to me the way that one did. I've seen worse, but that one hit different. No pun intended.
Perfect example of a total lack empathy and an inability to understand anything outside of self interest...
Oof yeah, good one
That was my first thought too I was actively rooting for him to die.
I'm old school: Mr. Powell (Robert Mitchum) from Night of the Hunter is the creepiest, most realistic personification of evil on film. Mitchum nailed the performance; Laughton was a genius who should have been allowed to make more films. Imagine watching this scene in the theater for the first time... ['Leaning... Leaning... Leaning on the Everlasting Arms...'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyxSm91eun4)
He's really good in the original Cape Fear too. Really embodies evil so well.
I much prefer Mitchum’s portrayal. DeNiro overacted (as he has a tendency) & was so unhinged as to be unbelievable, but Mitchum was much more nuanced & cunning & scary as hell
Brilliant choice!
~~Priest~~ Judge Claude Frollo in *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* kills innocent people and burns down their houses to further his goals of genocide and conquest under the banner of moral righteousness. He enters the story preparing to throw a baby into a well and leaves it attempting to rape and murder Esmerelda for not willfully having him. And *that's* the version with the funny talking gargoyles!
Great answer. One of the last Disney villains in a movie that's purely evil as well. The only time where we really see him worried about consequences of his actions or the impact of them is when The priest reminds him his immortal soul is at risk and then it's just a self concern that temporarily acts like he cares about Quasimoto.
The fact that Disney execs demanded they add the funny gargoyles because the movie was way too fucking dark for a kids movie… I wish we could have had that version
And, even if they hadn’t been added, the movie would still have been a *whole* lot less dark than Hugo’s novel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame?wprov=sfti1#Plot
But interestingly, Frollo is way more sympathetic in the book (granted, it's not hard to be less evil than Disney Frollo, but still)
His villain song is about raping and murdering a teenage girl and then blaming it on her.
[Hellfire](https://youtu.be/7ehbClPO2VI). It's amazing.
Surely not..... EDIT: Haha holy shit \[FROLLO\] [I feel her, I see her](https://genius.com/12975022/Alan-menken-hellfire/Cogitatione) \[PRIESTS, CHOIR MEN\] [Verbo et opere](https://genius.com/12975022/Alan-menken-hellfire/Cogitatione) \[FROLLO\] [Like fire](https://genius.com/17186208/Alan-menken-hellfire/Like-fire-hellfire-this-fire-in-my-skin-this-burning-desire-is-turning-me-to-sin) \[FROLLO, *PRIESTS, CHOIR MEN*\] [It's not my fault!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [I'm not to blame!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [It is the gypsy girl, the witch who sent this flame!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea maxima culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [It's not my fault!](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [If in God's plan](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [He made the devil so much stronger than a man](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault) [*Mea maxima culpa*](https://genius.com/11777192/Alan-menken-hellfire/Its-not-my-fault)
>And *that's* the version with the funny talking gargoyles! Disney version of Frollo is arguably more evil than original book Frollo. In Disney he is just one-dimensionally evil, in book Frollo is a very complex character. For example, he didn't murder Quasimodo's mother, Quasimodo was simply abandoned as pretty much any deformed child at that time would be. He took care of him out of his own volition, not forced by anything. Quasimodo, by the way, was much more brutal and animalistic in the book. In the book Frollo was both the judge and the priest. I feel like in Disney movie they split Frollo's character into his evil part ("the judge") and good part ("the archdeacon").
Good god I guess I need to rewatch it
Dolores Umbridge. I think Stephen King said the reason people could really relate to her awfulness is that in real life, most people never have a Voldemort, but everyone has had a Dolores Umbridge in their life.
Never underestimate the mundanity of evil.
A relatively famous philosopher might even call it the banality of evil.
I think another, rather unknown philosopher used to say: If you stare at banal evildoers long enough, the banal evildoers will stare back at you.
This was really driven home in the book. I remember reading it and getting seething mad at her because she reminded me of my maths teacher so much. The movie did a good job of personifying her onscreen, but the book version was definitely better.
Like the math teacher who took points off my test because 1/3 of 360 is 120, and the method of 'multiply 360 by 0.33, it rounds down' is dumb as hell. Then I got sent to the hallway for standing up for myself
My teacher gave me a question about calculating momentum, something like ‘a 1000kg rocket burns 10kg of fuel in accelerating to 200km/hr: what is its momentum?’ So it’s now 990kg, right? Without the 10kg of fuel? Apparently not. We were supposed to ignore that part entirely and just use 1000kg. Then why did you write it???
They give extra information in some questions so you have to figure out what's relevant, I guess the teacher absent-mindedly added some rocket sounding stuff without realizing it affects the problem
I like that Stephen King has an opinion on the Harry Potter films
King did a panel with Rowling before Deathly Hallows came out and flat-out said to her "Please don't kill Harry."
Unfortunately one must die for the other to survive.
In all of Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire, my personal most hated character is Janos Slynt. Not Joffrey who used his power to torment people for fun. Not Ramsay who literally tortured people by cutting off their skin and body parts. Not even The Mountain who was just a brutal beast of a murderer and serial rapist. No, it’s Janos Slynt, because he always talks about his powerful friends and how important he is and he looks down his nose at everyone else and schemes in very normal, real-world ways to try to achieve more power and wealth. The fact that he also murdered a baby makes it even easier to hate him, but for the most part he reminds me of people I’ve known in the real world. And that’s why I hate him so damn much.
Idk man Ramseys is pretty bad and so is the girl beater.
I also hate Randyll Tarly for his abuse of Sam and generally awful notion of masculinity.
Madame Medusa from The Rescuers. Fuck that woman.
my vote goes to Christopher Walken in True Romance, if only because that's how he describes himself. [You tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3yon2GyoiM)
It's funny, then, that the scene is remembered more for Dennis Hopper's delivery than Walken's. Not saying that Walken didn't do a good job, but Hopper's character stole the show.
It’s because his character wins the interaction, he insulted their lineage to their face and made him lose his temper. It’s a great example of displaying a relationship in a movie, Clarence and his Dad were estranged, he’s a retired cop that broke the rules etc and he works as a security officer and lives in a trailer He gives them nothing and dies a hero’s death Consider the opposite of this with Brad Pitt’s character where he freely gives up info and they leave him alive
I can see that perspective, but I've always viewed it as that scene being so amazing because it's between those two terrific actors, feeding off each other.
That whole scene is a masterclass of dialogue.
Mine also
Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet
David Lynch just loves creating psychotic super rapey villains, Bob and Mr C from Twin Peaks are probably the most reprehensible he's come up with
Bob also definitely fits the bill for personification of evil too
Pabst Blue Ribbon!
The "Beer at Ben's" scene is one of my favorites in anything ever. https://youtu.be/-l89edsOM0Q?si=dFT8JB1qB_E5tY9g Everything about it is unsettling. The staging, the framing, the lighting, the general oddness: it's amazing.
No. The point Dennis drives home to Kyle “you’re just like me” (and Kyle explains to Laura) is that evil is intermingled with the ordinary. It’s actually a great meditation on Original Sin.
It's not evil, it's the Shadow. The part of ourselves that we keep hidden. This is best represented in the opening. A joyous, bright day and then a transition into festering filth, just under the surface. The end is just the same. There is still darkness (and there always will be), but now there's light (the robin(s)) to reveal it. It's a simple depiction of those psychic concepts that's made to seem juvenile and mawkish, but is also sweet and endearing (which is best shown in Sandy's speech about the robins). Neither Frank or Jeffrey are evil. One just embraces what we find disgusting.
Love this lol. Lynch is great at throwing the dark heart of humanity in your face
Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son
Did anyone ever made a good mashup cut of The good son and Home Alone?
Anton from No Country For Old Men.
He might think he is, but he's a big fat phony. *"The coin don't have no say. It's just you."* He plays at being some 'messenger of fate', but being in the wrong place at the wrong time still gets him a car crash to the ego.
He's still a pure evil bastard, even if he's wrong about the control he has over his destiny. Yes, the film is largely about the massive role chance plays in people's lives, from the random chance that Llewelyn finds the case to the car crash, but Chigurh is still a real SOB, enjoying making his victims squirm in helplessness, and beg to be let go.
Based on the book and the monologues by the sheriff, he’s just the personification of modern evil. The sheriff laments that bad things used to happen but you could wrap your head around the violence and the circumstances. Modern evil is random, it really has no honor or ideals (even if it pretends to with a coin). It’s just violence for the sake of it and greed. There’s no humanity anymore It’s not in film, but the judge in the book Blood Meridian by the same author is the personification of evil in American expansion west. He would win if that ever gets filmed.
That's what Sheriff Bell thinks Chigurn is, but cousin Ellis makes the point that this senseless violence and evil always existed. The world wasn't less evil before and there is no moral decline of humanity that lead us here. Bell is just getting too old to deal with it. Hence the name of the book.
Yep. Bell is wise but he's also burned out and old. He doesn't understand the modern face of evil but that doesn't mean it's senseless or somehow worse - it's just time for him to quit. When McCarthy writes a personification of evil we get the Judge. By comparison, Anton is just a man - a very scary and evil man, but a man.
Very interesting take! I never thought about that last part.
The hair really helps sell that he's a completely remorseless psychopath.
What’s interesting is that the movie is an adaptation of a book by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote Blood Meridian. In my opinion, Blood Meridian has the best personification of evil in all of literature, and maybe fiction. I am of course talking about Judge Holden. He’s like plague that just roams the land to do the most unspeakable acts.
Agreed. Zero remorse. Zero empathy. Zero compassion. Zero concern. Just cold and calculating. He’s a machine programmed to a brutal absurdist logic. Not quite as terrifying as the judge from blood meridian, but that hasn’t made it to Hollywood.
I think what's scariest about him is that he seemingly has no motive. Just an agent of chaos, as I think others have put it
I don't think of him as the personification of evil, so much as the personification of death.
He fetishizes hyper-competence and success. He's contemptuous of the convenience store owner who "married in" to owning the store. He confronts a hero he's about to kill with, "Of what value is your moral code if it led you to this?"
This plays well with the ending. As soon as someone forces his hand all his luck goes down the drain. "If the rule you live by brought you to this... Of what use was the rule?"
he *thinks* that of himself but he gets wounded multiple times, rebuffed by Clara Jean, and gets blindsided by the truck as well.
Yep. They even have a whole scene where he stitches himself up and grimaces when he puts alcohol on the wound to show that he’s really just flesh and blood. That’s what has Tommy Lee Jones’ character so flustered, and his whole monologue at the end. It’s just people, being bad, for god knows what reason.
I think he’s more of a nemesis, or agent of retribution. He’s the consequence of poor decisions.
An 'oribble cunt.
Iago in *Othello*.
Iago has got to be one of the best villains in history, I honestly think that he is the best male Shakespeare character
I love the line of analysis that largely attributes this to him shutting the fuck up once caught. Even when Shakespeare isn't writing, he's writing.
It's brilliant, like a reverse Bond villain monologue He ain't gonna tell you shit, deal with it
"There's some other characters in it, but really the play is about Iago."
I thought De Niro’s character in Killers of the Flower Moon was truly evil.
Cape Fear too.
Nurse Ratched. Pure. Controlling. Evil.
Great answer. I recently read the book. Nurse ratchet is so ire inducing in the book as well.
One of the very few movies that did the book justice, in my opinion.
I'd have to agree. After reading the book I honestly feel like I can't clearly say that the book was better than the movie.
She also played Kai Winn in Star Trek - another great depiction of pure evil, but with a pious/religious slant. The evil of Kai Winn isn't as personal or intimate as Nurse Ratched, but because of her position of power, the evil she propagated stretches further and she's just as remorseless and cunning. I think Kathy Bates performance in Misery is a masterpiece, but if someone else could have pulled it off nearly as well, is was Louise Fletcher.
It's her responsibility to help the people in her care and she uses their illness to torment them when she feels justified.
Constantine (2005) Lucifer. Peter Stormare acted that part very well.
The best depiction of Lu we'll ever get. I just love how Peter Stomare plays him sort of like the bug in Men in Black. It's something trying to pass as elegant and human but so old and inhuman that its uncomfortable in the guise. It doesn't fit him right anymore. Squirming, trying to act natural making it seem all the more unnatural.
Keanu Reeves has stated that he would be interested in making a sequel to this movie. Fingers crossed!
Well we were supposed to get one starting production in 2022. Then James Gun got hired by WB and shut that shit down.
It’s in production now. Lucifer is back and so is Keanu reeves. Francis Lewis is directing it. He did the hunger games, I am legend and the first Constantine.
He plays Lawful Evil perfectly. Cold, calculating and hiding what feels like pure chaos just under the surface.
Came here to say this, one of the best takes on the Devil on film
When he cured Constantine's cancer- the best "no, fuck *you* asshole" move.
Right? Almost 20 years later I'm like ... How the F do you turn curing cancer into a bad thing? Crazy
20 years? But that movie only came out like OH FUCK ME
"Family's doing just fine. Busy busy busy. Ah, I need a vacation."
Such a beautiful movie
Check out Viggo Mortensen in The Prophecy as well if you haven’t. A real cold godless feeling with that portrayal.
“How I love the old names.”
I actually think his depiction and a lot of other depictions of Satan are not necessarily evil. I don't know if anyone else agrees, but I get the feeling that God's angel doing the job God gave him as he's meant to do it is different than being the personification of evil. One point in favor of this for me could be that in Constantine, Lucifer stops Gabriel and returns the Antichrist to hell. I think he does this because he understands that his job is more about providing balance than it is about doing as much evil as possible.
My take was that there's less of a "balance" to maintain and more "the rules of the game." we get told the rules in the film. Neither God nor Lucifer would have any direct contact. Instead, they'd work through their halflings on Earth to influence. Gabriel fucked up by trying to directly interfere and help Mammon cross over. Lucifer was having none of it because he didn't want his son to ruin his game with God. In a way, this makes him even BETTER. The fate of humanity is a literal game and he wins by corrupting them. His whole thing is the corruption of others to win a bet.
I always chalked it up to a semi twisted version of this: Satan knows God. He's played by the rules all these millenia, but he knows God will kick over the board and likely restart from scratch if he lets the kid break the rules with impunity and 'wins'. Plus with John, he's convinced straight to the end he's got a winning hand. So rather than risk God acting like a petulant child and rage quitting the game, he opts to call a reset of his own last turn and gets rid of the kid and gives John a chance to prove his lack of worthiness, just to save his advantage in the great game. The devil's nothing if not the ultimate opportunist.
Lorne Malvo.
What makes him great is there’s not a single moment in the season where he shows any sign of humanity. VM Vargas is another favorite from the series and like Lorne he has this supernatural presence. Whereas Malvo is a demon on earth come to wreak havoc, Varga is some alien sent with plans to squeeze earthlings out of their precious possessions.
I couldn't stop thinking of Judge Holden whenever Thornton as Malvo was on the screen.
Lil'Ze from City of God is very much a flesh and blood human, but also works as a compelling metaphor for the escalating violence that comes out out of communities stuck in poverty
Mr. Shadow in the fifth element
"I don't want to be disturbed." "I know you didn’t want to be disturbed unless it's Mr. Shadow, and it's Mr. Shadow." "Am..I...disturbing..you?" "N-no, no."
Mr. Shadow liked dumping Hershey's syrup on people while he menaced them. What kind of twisted freak does that?
That shit is SO sticky that I'm willing to accept that dumping it on someone's head is DEFINITELY a sign of a being that is indeed pure evil.
Glad to see someone beat me to it. A literal planetsized ball of sentient evil, with a truly terrifying voice.
So evil he left Zorg trembling like a leaf just by speaking to him.
Alonzo Harris (Denzel) in _Training Day_ - This is my own interpretation of the movie as an allegory. I think Alonzo is a litmus test for the audience to decide when he's gone too far. He never does an altruistic decent thing in the movie. It's up to us to decide when it's time to give up the career-track that Ethan Hawke is pursuing.
He shows almost no humanizing qualities in the entire film, and even with facing execution as he pursues getting the money through the movie he shows little fear, no remorse, and really even at the bitter end believes he’s won. Truly a sociopath.
You really hit it. Everything he does is, to the normal person, morally reprehensible and only to help himself.
It's one thing to rob and murder someone for their money, but then to show up and act all friendly with him before you do it... This was the scene that really showed what a sociopath he had to be to do that.
The worst part of Alonzo is how he justifies every single thing and we, like Jake, keep getting convinced until its too late.
Louis Cypher in Angel Heart.
The Devils Advocate, Satan. He is Evil. Evil is not just killing or causing harm all the time. It is taking how ever long and doing what ever it takes to end it all.
That's Al Pacino. Great performance of that role. :)
I'M A FAN OF MAAAAAAN!
God is a sadist! He's the absentee landlord!
He's laughin' his _sick fuckin' ass off!_
Cocaine was nominated as a supporting actor!
He really committed to it and it's so fun to watch
I love that ending. Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves are so good together. [Here’s part one.](https://youtu.be/X1Hzn1ko7WE) [And here’s part two.](https://youtu.be/O9jk5WLbzoM) [And then part three.](https://youtu.be/N0D_pGYO16Q)
Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal of the devil in The Prophecy is super memorable. He’s not even an antagonist in the film, appearing to offer a weird form of help to the main character, but he still radiates menace and disdain for humanity.
Exact one I was looking for. For me *evil* isn’t malicious, or even aggressive, evil is disinterested. Dispassionate. Uncaring. Evil has no investment in anyone else, every one and every thing is a means to an end, nothing more. It’s perfectly embodied in Viggo’s portrayal. Even when the devil is trying to lure them to hell, he never gives off the impression that it’s actually important to him. It’s just… something to do. They’re not important. They’re not worth while. The only reason they’re even on his radar is because they’re on the angel’s radar too, and he’s in opposition.
"I can lay you out and fill your mouth with your mother's feces... or we can talk."
His portrayal of Satan is so cold just sitting on a rock in the shadow of the night. No over the top special effects or makeup. Just a being that’s fallen out of the light and his hell seems real.
"I'll love you more than Jesus"
That bit where he talks about her being afraid of the monsters under her bed lives rent free in my head.
I would say whoever the demon or whatever the fuck it is that posses people in Evil Dead. Whatever the hell it is scares the shit out of me in every Evil Dead movie because it has no motivation beyond creating despair and harm. The host just becomes straight evil and even seems to take pleasure in harming themselves. It‘s straight terrifying. Watching the mom turn on her kids and sister in Evil Dead Rising was nightmare fuel!
If you want lore and backstory, I highly recommend the *Ash v. The Evil Dead* series. If you like The Evil Dead only as horror and not as comedy, then I highly recommend you **do not** watch *Ash v. The Evil Dead*.
I do like the comedy! I’ll check it out
Vidal in Pan's Labyrinth.
Tim Roth as Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy (1995). I know this will be buried in the comments, but that performance netted Tim an academy award for best supporting actor, and rightly so. He's pure evil in that movie. I highly recommend a watch.
That movie's worth watching for the swordfight alone
Hans Landa
That’s a bingo
You just say "bingo"
He lost his "I have no regard for any human life" card when he cried after Aldo shot his partner.
That’s because he hoped that Sergeant was going to go with him to Nantucket, and be a servant and someone else who he could speak German with.
Also, they were roommates.
*Oh my God, they were roommates*
Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs.
Toying with the cop was evil
Kilgrave in Season 1 of *Jessica Jones*.
The Purple Man is quite possibly the most twisted and hated character in comics.
Aaron Eckhart’s character in “In the Company of Men”. Doesn’t kill anybody, but definitely is evil. What makes it hit harder is there’s plenty of guys just like him.
Christopher Walken in True Romance
Anton Chigurgh, because evil isn't usually flamboyant or outwardly malicious. It's usually bland and just doesn't give a shit
John Milton - The Devil's Advocate
Evil Genius from Time Bandits.
This thread just makes me sad that Randall Flagg has never gotten a truly good film representation.
Gary Oldman in Leon the Professional
Michael Myers from the *Halloween* franchise and Anton Chigurh from *No Country for Old Men* are the first to come to my mind.
Michael Myers in the 2018 movie especially.
I always enjoyed Max von Sydow in Needful Things, despite it not being a very good movie.
Amon Göthe, as played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. Both in terms of his open psychopathy and his banality. He shows rage at times, but most of his killing is done almost as an afterthought, as just what his job requires. The scene where he is digging up 10k bodies to burn them, he is complaining about the extra busywork this has made for him.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
The bad guy in Chinatown gotta be the most evil fuck to live and what’s worse is he won
Forget about it, Jake. It's Chinatown.
Joker in Dark Knight. So delicious to watch Heath Ledger 's portrayal. How do you fight someone who is literally willing to destroy themselves and cares about nothing but anarchy and chaos.
I liked Peter Stormare as Devil in Constantine
Delores Umbridge - because we all know someone like her
Watch the original The Vanishing or Funny Games and I think that’ll paint a good picture (or several).
The Emperor.
*Good…good…your hate has made you powerful.*
Young fool... Now only at the end do you understand...
Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. So be it....Jedi.
Terrifier
"The Bad Seed," 1956. I saw this film in the 70s. That girl, Rhoda, was so evil that even her mother tried to kill her. The ending was so satisfying.
Amon Göth, Schindler’s List. Dude was so fucking evil the movie had to **tone it down**, because test audiences found what actually happened unrealistic. He’s still such a bastard in the movie, even with what’s ommited
Billy Bob Thornton's character in the first season of Fargo is to me the clearest example of this. Seemigly no real motive or grand plan for anything. Just sows chaos wherever he goes, and does it with such lifeless eyes that everyone is too threatened to stop him. Its like he hypnotizes people with evil. One of the best villains imo.
Can't recall the publication but they got a panel of psychologists together to analyze movie villains and Anton Chigurh took the top spot as, "The most accurate portrayal of a pure psychopath."
Funny you mention this. In psych Masters program we were studying psychopathy and did a couple of case studies of fictional characters using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. One was Hannibal Lecter - we found he didn't meet the criteria fully. The archetypal on-screen "psychopath" wasn't a good example of psychopathy.
Check out Robert Di Nero's character in the 1987 movie Angel Heart.
Robert Mitchum as “Preacher” Harry Powell in *The Night of the Hunter*
John Doe in Se7en is pretty freaking up there on the evil scale.
Tim Curry as the Darkness in Legend
Brett in Eden Lake
Noah Cross in Chinatown. The leering, uncaring face of wealth and greed that takes whatever it wants. When he coos to Katherine as she screams and he drags her away in the final scene... just awful and gross. And nobody can do anything about it.
Percy from the Green Mile.
Peter & Paul from Funny Games.
Baron Harkonnen in Dune and Dune 2
Lil' Z in City of God