All heroes are defined by their villains. The greater the threat, the more the hero must overcome and therefore demonstrate his or her worthiness. A great villain immediately improves any film, even those where the villain is the “hero” the audience is supposed to follow. But with just one act, one line, or even one look these characters become iconic and etch themselves into the psyche of moviegoers everywhere. They’re so compelling it’s hard to root against them, but they tend to be so damn evil that you love when (if) they get their comeuppance. Now there’s a supercut devoted to some of cinema’s greatest monsters, non-actual monster division (the shark from Jaws being the lone exception).
In an incredibly well done short by CLS Videos, the editor crosses decades, genres, and even character alignments to deliver some of the most memorable villains the silver screen has to offer. The lawful evil of Hannibal Lecter and Nurse Ratchet is combined with the chaotic evil of Heath Ledger’s The Joker and the neutral evil of the aforementioned shark. All come together in this six minute clip that goes through many of the characters that have scared audiences, shocked them, and generally impressed with just how stone cold ruthless they can be. For those interested, CLS Videos also did a rundown of each scene from the video and its source material.
So catch up with some old fiends and remember how they were able to command the screen with their icy menace. Or by just being loud and psychotic like Scarface and Joe Pesci’s character from Goodfellas.