Are These The 10 Best Villains In The History Of Cinema?

Are These The 10 Best Villains In The History Of Cinema?

There’s plenty of heroes out there, but what people really go crazy for is a great villain. Over nearly a century feature filmmaking has delivered some pretty mesmerizing, fascinating and memorable villains on the big screen. But which ones are truly the best?

Well, the folks atCineFixhave attempted to answer this seemingly impossible question by counting down theTop 10 Movie Villains of All Time. And don’t worry, Christopher Nolan fans, becauseHeath Ledger’s take onThe JokerfromThe Dark Knightis on the list. However, you might not be so happy with some of the choices for best movie villains.

If you’ve got 12 minutes, here’s the whole countdown, complete with an examination of each villain fromCineFix:

For those who are just looking for the list to begin offering alternatives in the comments, here you go:

#10.Sauronfrom The Lord of the Rings

#9.Lil Zefrom City of God

#8.Max Cadyfrom Cape Fear (both the original and the remake)

#7.The Jokerfrom The Dark Knight

#6.Reverend Harry Powellfrom The Night of the Hunter

#5.Hannibal Lecterfrom The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon

#4.Hans Beckertfrom M

#3.Anton Chigurhfrom No Country for Old Men

#2.Norman Batesfrom Psycho

#1.Frank Boothfrom Blue Velvet

While I have an appreciation for including some of the lesser celebrated villains from the history of cinema, such as Max Cady, Reverend Harry Powell and Hans Beckert, and even some perfectly acceptable modern choices from City of God and No Country for Old Men, this list does seem like it intentionally tried to be more obscure. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but how are you going to make a list like this and excludeDarth VaderfromStar WarsorThe Wicked Witch of the WestfromThe Wizard of Oz?

Sure, Sauron fromLord of the Ringsis the embodiment of evil. That’s fine. But Sauron is also just a glaring, flaming eye on a tower.Daniel Day-LewisasBill the ButcherinGangs of New Yorkis far more terrifying of a bad guy than that. Whoopsie-daisy!

Anyway, this is bound to spark some debate in the comments, so sound off with your picks for the Top 10 Movie Villains of All Time and let’s see if you’ve got something better.