Ranking Villains

I've been collecting and ranking villains in fiction ever since I was 13. This is my collection. Warning: possible spoilers for the media they appear in.

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Pitch Black

Voiced by: Jude Law Villainy level: 9 Appears in: Rise of the Guardians

Are you afraid of the boogeyman? This corpse-colored, yellow-eyed dude is one of my favorite animated villains. I always enjoy fearmongering guys, and he was no exception. Pitch Black is a boogeyman who thrives on people's nightmares. He's a real chatterbox, and his words are rather poisonous and manipulative. He tries to get sympathy from the protagonist, Jack Frost, by tapping into his insecurities. But Pitch is revealed to be completely heartless, even threatening to kill a child ('There are other ways to snuff out a light'). In the end, Pitch falls into a black hole along with his own fear. I love his design and animations and how he moves through the shadows, appearing all over the place. Jude Law's performance was magnificent. I also tried reading the Guardians of Childhood books, but sadly I couldn't get into it.

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Scarlemagne

Voiced by: Dan Stevens Villainy level: 8 Appears in: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

This show sure is good at creating repulsive characters that are still… funny? Scarlemagne is the main villain of seasons 1 and 2. He was introduced as a piano-playing mandrill with a Victorian aesthetic who, laughing maniacally, controls other primates through his… own sweat. Absolutely gross! I couldn't believe what I saw! He had no redeeming qualities and, unlike Jamack, Scarlemagne could not be excused for his war crimes in any way, and his personality had not an ounce of mercy! So I could enjoy his madness without worrying about him ever getting turned good. Until the episode 'Sympathy for the Mandrill', that is. Scarlemagne's backstory was quite tragic, as he started out as a science experiment…and was betrayed by his own father figure. In captivity he already spoke quietly of world domination, but after his escape he almost immediately let loose in manic behavior. After this episode, Kipo, the main character, gave him way too many chances to turn 'good'. Even after he literally tried to drown hundreds of people in liquid gold. I was losing my mind over her daring to go up to him again and again, claiming there was goodness in him, to which he simply responded with maniacal laughter each time. It made for an interesting dynamic, but it got kind of bizarre after a while. Scarlemagne hadn't become a good guy, but the main character pretended he had. But the tyrannical ape did not regret the destruction he had caused and the lives he had ruined. But hey, if a naive main character is the price for an enjoyable villain's screen time, I'll have no problem paying it this time, I thought to myself. And then… in the final episodes of the series, with all the extra chances and love Kipo had given him, the Joker Mandrill sacrificed his own life to save hers. I was absolutely amazed. I can't recall ever seeing such a repulsive character who is ultimately made into a hero in a surprisingly believable way. Scarlemagne, or Hugo, is a classic villain at heart who has spent a little too much time with someone who would never let him down.

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Jamack

Voiced by: Jake Green Villainy level: 7 Appears in: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

A frog toad man. I don't exactly get excited at the sight of a frog with a tie and a mustache… but when the writers and animators appreciate a character so much, it's hard not to do the same. My sister had already seen Kipo in its entirety, and urged me to watch it too. As usual, I put it off for a long time. The setting of a post-apocalyptic world with mutated beasts never grabbed me. The thing that eventually drew me in? Most mutated animals can speak. And that makes the story suddenly interesting. When Jamack first appeared, I felt little joy. However, when he started talking, my opinion immediately changed. He is a sarcastic, selfish guy who chases the main character all the time. But through the protagonist's mercy and her capacity for forgiveness, he slowly but surely changes and begins to realize that his actions may not be as justified as he thought. It was very entertaining to watch his character development, but unfortunately he barely appeared anymore after season 1. In season 3, he even seemed to have lost his sarcastic personality, and was just one of the friendly mutants in the background. This doesn't dilute his presence in season 1, thankfully, and during my rewatch, I was just as charmed as before, if not more so.

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King Candy

Voiced by: Alan Tudyk Villainy level: 8 Appears in: Wreck-it Ralph

My expectations of this movie weren't very high. It was obvious that the main character wasn't going to be much of a villain, even though he was, well, a bad guy. Ah, but then King Candy showed up! A funky little freak who had a suspicious vibe about him. I believe King Candy was the start of Disney's awful twist villain era, and to this day King Candy is the only one who was actually excellently executed. Obvious spoilers! There once was a very popular game called Turbo Time. It was a racing game and the main character, Turbo, was always in first place. But then a new game came out that became more popular, and Turbo was so jealous that he went into that game to disrupt everything. This made everyone think the game was broken, and they got rid of that game and Turbo forever. Or so they thought. Turbo invaded another game, Sugar Rush. There he pretended to be 'King Candy', a character that didn't even exist in the first place. He twisted everything and everyone to suit his needs, willing to remove other characters' memories and even kill if someone got in his way. For a movie that looked as innocent as this, King Candy was absolutely frightening. Especially Turbo's character design is the stuff of nightmares. Glowing yellow eyes, yellow teeth and sickly grey skin.

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Hannibal Lecter

Actor: Anthony Hopkins Villainy level: 8 Appears in: Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal

Hannibal Lecter. He might be the most well-known villain from the thriller genre. He is most infamous in The Silence of the Lambs, where he's already locked up in prison. He likes to eat people, and is heavily guarded. His interactions with FBI student Clarice Starling can almost be described stomach-turning. His escape from prison is one of my favorite scenes ever.

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Pinhead

Actor: Doug Bradley Villainy level: 8 Appears in: the Hellraiser franchise

Pinhead is the most recognizable villain from the Hellraiser movies. He appears in all of them. He's one of the Cenobites, people who once cracked the box of death or something (it's honestly still kind of a vague concept to me) who get turned into Cenobites and have to send other people who crack the box to hell. Pinhead has a very sketchy club of Cenobites. In the third movie, he's a very, very nice guy. He even starts pretending to be Jesus as he walks through the church! Unfortunately, he hardly appears in parts 5, 6, 7 and 8, and the wonderful sense of humor he had in part 3 is nowhere to be found.

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Bane

Actor: Tom Hardy Villainy level: 8 Appears in: The Dark Knight Rises

Bane is the villain from The Dark Knight Rises. He spent almost his entire life in the Peña Duro Prison, a prison deep underground from which you can never get out. But Bane was released. He went to Gotham to fight Batman and destroy Gotham City. While Bane didn't even come close to The Joker, he was still a really entertaining and menacing villain. His character design is great, I liked it even better than how he looked in the comics. His voice sounds like he's speaking into an empty can of Pringles.

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General Grievous

Voiced by: Matthew Wood Villainy level: 7 Appears in: Star Wars

I believe Grievous is somewhat of a meme these days, but he was the only character in the Star Wars movies I actually liked. General Grievous is a strange cyborg, appearing in Star Wars III. He was trained by the oh-so-mighty Sith Lord Count Dooku, and is a true sword master. He killed many Jedi but was eventually killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi himself. This guy immediately drew me in, from the first moment he appeared on screen. With his gremlin-like design and behaviour, his cape, and continuous coughing, I knew he would be my favorite character. Grievous looks very much like a robot, but he has a heart in his metal body and you can still see some "flesh" around his eyes. Unfortunately, he barely appears in the film. I believe there are other media where he plays a role, but from what I understand, he never really has that much screen time.

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Freddy Krueger

Actor: Robert Englund Villainy level: 9 Appears in: A Nightmare On Elm Street

A freaky man who murders you in your dreams. Freddy Krueger is probably my favorite horror movie villain, and I watched the entire Elm Street franchise when I was 14. It's no wonder Krueger is one of the most popular horror characters: his kills are all creative and original because he isn't bound by the laws of reality. His threatening presence did wane a little as the movies went on, but he never failed to be entertaining because of his dumb jokes and hysterical personality. I like his design a lot. Apparently Wes Craven researched what color combination hurts your brain the most, and so he had Kreuger wear a Christmas sweater. I don't think anyone else ever nailed Freddy Krueger like Robert Englund did, not in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, nor in the latest Elm Street movie.

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Ghostface

Voiced by: Roger L. Jackson Villainy level: 7.5 Appears in: the Scream franchise

Ghostface could be anyone. It's a great concept for a horror movie franchise and never failed to entertain, but I like to see Ghostface as a single malevolent being. The way he toys with people before he murders them is terrifying. The very first phone call scene still haunts me. I can't really elaborate on Ghostface personality, but all that matters is that he causes fear. Which is enough for a franchise like this.

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Hans Landa

Actor: Christoph Waltz Villainy level: 7 Appears in: Inglorious Basterds

Hans Landa is a colonel of the Nazis. He thinks he's the best colonel and really likes his nickname, the Jew hunter. The guy is very intelligent and cunning. He speaks many languages fluently. German, French, English and Italian. He seems to enjoy it when people are afraid of him. He has a fantastic maniacal laugh, which he only uses once in the whole movie at the perfect moment. Hans Landa is a wonderfully written villain who deserves absolutely no redemption.

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Daryl Van Horne

Actor: Jack Nicholson Villainy level: 7 Appears in: The Witches of Eastwick

I found this movie in a dark corner of the internet. First watching it when I was 13 because I enjoyed The Shining so much and wanted to see more of Jack Nicholson's performances, I was in for a whole different kind of disturbing. Daryl Van Horne is the devil but he pretends to be human. He tries to get 3 women to have his children, who themselves don't know they are witches. At first you think he's just a good person just trying to show these witches what they really are. And so the women all sleep with him, apparently swayed by his unhinged charms, and become pregnant. However, another woman, befriended by the 3 witches, is possessed by him and dies. This causes the witches to retaliate, and they overpower him by performing voodoo. One of Daryl's main personality traits is that he's extremely sexist, having an entire speech about how women are a mistake made by god. It's quite satisfying when he's defeated at last. Once again Jack Nicholson's performance was great, but I would not recommend this movie to anyone unless you plan on watching it alone.

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Jack Torrance

Actor: Jack Nicholson Villainy level: 8 Appears in: The Shining

The Shining was the first horror movie I watched, and I was intrigued by the character of Jack Torrance. Jack Torrance is a man with several mental problems who goes to an isolated hotel with his wife and his little son for work. But this hotel is cursed: a long time ago, a man chopped up his own wife and daughters with an axe. Jack is not afraid of this ghost story. That would never happen to him, he says with a laugh. Once he arrives at the hotel, his son starts having strange visions and Jack goes completely crazy. The son, Danny, sees strange phenomena everywhere and senses that his father wants to murder them. Jack's wife also soon finds out that something is wrong and tries to leave the hotel. But it has snowed heavily and the telephones are no longer working. Suddenly Jack comes running with an axe. Danny escapes from a window, but his mother can't get through. She locks the door and grabs a kitchen knife to defend herself. This is where Jack chops through the door with the axe and says his infamous line 'Here's Johnny!' after which his wife cuts him. Finally, he gives up and goes after his son into a maze. There he loses his way and freezes to death. After watching this one, I came to the realization that perhaps horror movies might contain even better villains than the ones I'd seen so far. I set out to watch all classics.

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The Sheriff of Nottingham

Actor: Alan Rickman Villainy level: 7 Appears in: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

The Sheriff of Nottingham is part of a group of masked people who rob and loot. He makes poor people pay a lot of taxes so that he gets more luxury. But as soon as the Sheriff hears from some fortune teller that Robin Hood is going to kill him, he wants to have at least SOME legacy. In the form of, uh, kids! And so he aggressively marries Marian against her will. Once again I highly enjoyed Alan Rickman's performance as a villain.

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Loki

Actor: Tom Hiddleston Villainy level: 8 Appears in: various Marvel movies

Loki, the god of mischief from Asgard, is a great villain. At the beginning of the movie Thor, he pretends to be good, helping his brother with everything. But in secret, he schemes. He knows that Thor will become king and he will not. Loki does everything he can to take down Thor and then he finds out he was adopted, which drives Loki to become even more diabolical. In The Avengers, Loki comes to Earth and starts a rampage, killing 80 people in 2 days, and as soon as he gets to prison he manages to escape almost immediately. After the first Avengers movie, Loki wasn't taken seriously as a villain by the writers anymore, and it's often brushed over that he's comitted mass murder. The show Loki didn't interest me in the slightest, even though I tried watching it.

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The Joker

Actor: Heath Ledger Villainy level: 9 Appears in: The Dark Knight

Almost everyone knows this crazy criminal: the Joker from the Batman comics. But I'm specifically addressing my favorite interpretation of the character. In The Dark Knight, the Joker kills a lot of people, robs banks and makes buildings explode, but it's not about the money with him. He just wants to show Batman that the world is as insane and chaotic as he is. He also likes to let people choose between two lives and tells them just before they die about how he got his scars. No one knows how he actually got them, since the story is different each time, which is one of the many bizarre aspects of the character. The Joker is very comical, but still menacing enough to feel like a serious threat.

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Severus Snape

Actor: Alan Rickman Villainy level: 8 Appears in: Harry Potter

Severus Snape is a fantastic villain. I never considered him a hero, even after he turned out to be plotting against the dark lord. He was still a villain to many students. Snape is an interesting character and the only character in all of Harry Potter that I enjoyed watching. This may partly be because of Alan Rickman's haunting performance, but he also had some excellent lines of dialogue and chemistry with most other characters. He made my skin crawl, which is something even Voldemort didn't accomplish. If I were Harry Potter, however, I would not be naming my child after this bastard if it were the only name left in the world.