Have you ever wondered why some girls seem to be attracted to the bad guy? Show a girl two guys, one a straight-flying gentleman who'll treat her right and the other a no-good punk who's only out for what he can get, and as likely as not she'll pick the bad 'un. Believe it or not, this mentality is not reserved for the fairer sex. All of us crave the sense of danger that comes from association with the despicable. Who can say they encountered a particularly villainous character in a film or novel, and not found something appealing about that character?

The villain is as old as the narrative itself. As long as people have been telling stories, be it biblical or folk-tales, there have always been baddies. All heroes need an antagonist, something to set their quest in motion. The virtue of the righteous can only be measured by their valour against evil. This, it may be argued, has been celebrated by the silver screen more than any other medium of fiction.

Unlike novels, which are at their best when offering a slice of reality, cinema was born in a spirit of escapism. Central to this is the image of the sneering, moustache-twirling villain tying damsels to train-tracks. Throughout its history cinema has given us many baddies to despise and relish in equal measure. This invites the question; who are the greatest movie villains?

Before we can begin to answer that question, we must establish just what it is that makes a good villain. There are several measures for the bad-guy. For instance, a baddie is the one who places challenges that reflect the goals of the hero. Consider The Godfather. One might think it's a film rife with villains. However, this is a film that concerns itself entirely with the evil that men do. There are no "goodies" in The Godfather and thus it offers us no real baddies. In addition, a true villain must hold an infinite influence over all the film's characters and events. In Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, we have the perfectly evil Sheriff Cooley, who creates many challenges to test our heroes. But his role is incidental. He bears no hold over the events of the narrative. Thus, he can't really be considered a bad-guy.

The most important mark of great villain, however, is how much we love to hate him. Like the dizzy teenaged girl preoccupied by a handsome stranger with a leather jacket and bad attitude, there must be a recognition of the danger inherent in the villain, and a point to which we find being associated with that danger... thrilling.

So, let the hissing begin, as I give you the fifty greatest ever screen villains.

50. Dr Pretorius
From: Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Played by: Ernest Thesiger
Speak no Evil: "To a new world...of gods and monsters."

No word better describes Dr Pretorious than "camp". Yet the genius of the character is his ability to convince us utterly of his deep-rooted cunningness, even while we balk at his suggestive posturings. He may feel he "flatters" himself by comparing himself to the Devil, but for the audience the two are easily comparable. Who else could manipulate both the Monster and Dr Frankenstein to do his bidding the way Pretorius does?


49. Loren Visser
From: Blood Simple (1983)
Played by: M. Emmet Walsh
Speak no Evil: "I don't care if you're the Pope of Rome, President of the United States, or even Man of the Year " something can always go wrong."

Blood Simple is a different kind of Private Eye film. In most P.I. yarns, we are with the detective all along as he progressively finds the clues and puts two and two together. Here we have all the clues from the off, and we watch with glee as each character stubbles over them, getting any conceivable answer other than four. Visser, too, is not our typical detective. A disgusting swine (morally and physically); he doctors photos and plants evidence in order to confuse the situation rather than solve it. But he get caught in his own trap, and embarks on a murderous quest for a crucial clue that actually doesn't exist - tying him to a crime he technically didn't commit.

48. Francis Dollarhyde/The Tooth Fairy
From: Manhunter (1986)
Played by: Tom Noonan
Speak no Evil: "Take my word for it. I'm smiling."

Hannibal Lector fans will forever argue over just who gave the superior performance of favourite serial-killer, but there is much less debate over the Buffalo Bill character in Silence of the Lambs and his Manhunter counterpart. Unlike Bill, the Tooth Fairy is an essay in controlled mania. He is calm and ordered, but utterly lost to his deranged conception of 'becoming the dragon'. In Red Dragon, Ralph Feinns gave a performance of Dolarhyde much more faithful to that of Thomas Harris' novel (even down to the correct spelling). However, it's Noonan's portrayal of the character that's the most celebrated. He allows us to see the demons that drive him, letting us understand him, perhaps even pity him, while never allowing us to forget what he is capable of. As the film's tagline states, "Enter the mind of a serial killer... You may never come back."

47. Cesare Enrico Bandello
From: Little Caesar (1930)
Played by: Edward G. Robinson
Speak no Evil: "This game ain't for guys that's soft."

As stated earlier, the villain is marked by his opposition to the good-guy. But what if the good-guy is society in general? Before being shown Little Caesar, audiences in 1930 were given a title-card that claimed this story was not simply fiction, that characters like Rico were very much real and needed to be dealt with. According to producer Darryl F. Zanuck, "Every other underworld picture has a thug with a little bit of good in him. He reforms before the fadeout. This guy is no good at all." Rico is cinema's first real gangster. Despite Robinson's tiny stature, he gives a towering performance as the rising crime-boss. For all great performances of the criminal overlord, from Cagney to (to an extent) Brando's turn as Vito Corleone, it all started here.

46. Major Arnold Toht
From: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Played by: Ronald Lacey
Speak no Evil: "We are...ahe...not thirsty."

How could the world fall in love with a ridiculous, jumped-up B-movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark? Exactly because it's a ridiculous, jumped-up B-movie! Often overlooked as the lesser of Spielberg's great films, it is in fact his masterpiece. Nowhere else has his understanding of the thrills of Saturday matinee cinema been put to greater use. Central to this is the archetypical villain. Though the script expects us to view Indi's professional rival Belloq as the bad-guy, it was torture-expert Toht who really captured the audience's attention. The film never identify his agency (even his name is known only by the end-credits), but we are clearly meant to link him to the Gestapo. So memorable was Lacey's sniffling, Peter Lorri-styled performance, it would forever become the standard portrayal of comic visions of Gestapo agents (see Herr Otto Flick in the BBC sitcom Allo Allo).

45. Tetsuo Shima
From: Akira (1988)
Played by: Nozomu Sasaki (voice)
Speak no Evil: "I'm not Akira!"

A one-time introverted weakling, Tetsuo Shima suddenly finds himself with psychokinetic abilities so powerful they are beyond his control. Tetsuo can be seen as an unwitting villain or perhaps even a Shakespearian tragedy. When granted power beyond one's understanding, it can only end in personal destruction. With the suggestion, "It was too difficult for Tetsuo...of course, too difficult for us," the central message of humanity in the atomic age could not be clearer.

44. Biff Tannen
From: Back to the Future Trilogy (1985-1990)
Played by: Thomas F. Wilson
Speak no Evil: "Butthead!"

We all know a Biff Tannen. He's the testosterone-driven, meat-headed bully we've all encountered at some stage in our adolescent life. Throughout the Back to the Future Trilogy we meet various versions of Biff; young, old, badly-wired (literally) psycho, and old-west outlaw. Each is meticulously imagined and shows a great range for an actor as underused as Wilson. However, they are all essentially just different interpretations of the one character. Like all bullies, Biff is rendered powerless when he can't get his way by force. Equally, he is most terrifying when allowed operate unchecked.

43. King Kong
From: King Kong (1933)
Played by: Tonnes and tonnes of plasticine
Speak no Evil: umm, "raarrr!"

The Creature Feature' is a quintessential film in the history of cinema, and King Kong is the quintessential Creature Feature. The spirit of adventure remains as alive in this film today as it did in 1933. But for today's more enlightened audiences, King Kong does make for uncomfortable viewing. After all, the creature rejects his black sacrifice in favour of a blonde white woman. Then after being brought to America - against his will - his savage nature brings chaos and destruction to a civilised Manhattan. There is certainly a hint of racism present that was seemingly more acceptable in the 30s. However, Kong is never demonised by the film. He may be a monster, but he is primarily an innocent in love. And who cannot emphasise with that?

42. Dean Vernon Wormer
From: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Played by: John Vernon
Speak no Evil: "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

As reprehensible as Dean Wormer is, his ruthless campaign against Delta House is at the very least understandable. It has to be said, the heroes' of this film are a pretty horrible bunch of people, made up of the sleaziest (Otter), the most psychotic (D-Day), and the most disgusting (have a guess) bunch of characters we have ever been expected to root for. However, this is placed in contrast to slimy, underhanded Omega house, and a college administration that celebrates their brown-nosed grovelling. It's no accident that this is set just months before the assassination of JFK, and shortly before Nixon's ascension to the White House. Delta House may be disgusting, but the cheap skulduggery of the alternative is something far worse.

41. Hans Gruber
From: Die Hard (1988)
Played by: Alan Rickman
Speak no Evil: "Who said we were terrorists?"

His slick, no-nonsense style and "classical education" are matched only by his ruthless force. Hans Gruber possesses the unflinching iniquity of a true terrorist, yet his cause' is nothing more admirable than greed and a desire for personal gain. In many ways, this makes Hans is the ultimate villain.

40. Nurse Mildred Ratched
From: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Played by: Louise Fletcher
Speak no Evil: "You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this."

Nurse Ratched is not an easy character to label simply as a villain. For all her faults, her motivations throughout are sincere and well-meaning. But she enforces her will with such sinister self-belief that she becomes the central source of oppression for McMurphy in his attempt to bring light into the stifled lives of his fellow asylum inmates. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a film about individuality being smothered by the order of society, and in this society Nurse Ratched is the chief persecutor.

39. Dr Caligari
From: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)
Played by: Werner Krauss
Speak no Evil: "I must know everything. I must penetrate the heart of his secret! I must become Caligari!"

The tale of a hypnotic director of an insane asylum who uses a proto-zombie to do his murderous bidding was highly resonant in a Germany emerging from the First World War, and understandably so. This film is all about paranoia. What makes it so scary is not its shocks so much as the threat of these shocks. It plays on our fears with creepy sets, lighting, camera movements, and acting. And central to this is Krauss' portrayal as the despotic doctor.

38. Max Cady
From: Cape Fear (1961)
Played by: Robert Mitchum
Speak no Evil: "I got somethin' planned for your wife and kid that they ain't nevah gonna forget."

A film about a serial-rapist was brave stuff for 1960's Hollywood. Though certainly tame by today's standard, Cape Fear greatly tested the limits of what Hollywood could get away with (indeed, when released in Britain it was severely cut by the censor). Fittingly, this is also the characterising feature of Max Cady. He stalks his prey from the edges of decent society, striking only when he knows he is safe from reprisal. The effect of this is to force the Bowden family, initially portrayed as the epitome of law and order, to resort to criminality in order to protect themselves. The criminal becomes the law, and the victim becomes the criminal. 1991 Martin Scorsese gave us a pretty decent re-imagining of Cape Fear. But he failed to fully utilise the duality and reversal that made the original film such a successful thriller.

37. Damien Thorn
From: The Omen (1978)
Played by: Harvey Stephens
Speak no Evil: "Good Morning. You are one day closer to the end of the world."

One of Hollywood's most overused themes is the imperilling of children. When evil targets the innocence and vulnerability of a child, it makes for compelling viewing. So when the child itself is depicted as the force of evil, it gives the audiences a paradoxical conflict that denies them the ability to align with any party, and the simple Good-versus-Evil story becomes something far more complex. This being said, I think I can be forgiven for being reluctant to add Damien to the list. He did after all make a large part of my life quite painful indeed. But my schoolyard tormentors served to highlight the resonance of the film. There may be nothing particularly original about The Omen (it's all very similar to Polanski's Rosemary's Baby), but it presses our emotional triggers so skilfully it has forced its way into the canon of cinema horror. And kids with the unfortunate moniker would never be allowed a happy childhood again.

36. J. D. Sheldrake
From: The Apartment (1960)
Played by: Fred MacMurray
Speak no Evil: "You know, you see a girl a couple of times a week, just for laughs, and right away they think you're gonna divorce your wife. Now I ask you, is that fair?"

J. D. Sheldrake is a cad; a deceitful and utterly slimy asshole who cares nothing for the girls he leaves in his lustful wake. But this alone is not what makes him such a memorable villain. After all, this is a world where banging one's secretary is quaintly referred to as "the old ring-a-ding". Sheldrake's true crime is his ability to corrupt the honest intentions of those around him into something as disgusting as himself. With the promise of promotion and upward-mobility, he persuades our hero Baxter to facilitate his seduction of the (somewhat) innocent Fran. This is highlighted best by his Christmas gift to the girl: a hundred-dollar bill. We see here how he has made Fran into little more than a whore, and Baxter into her pimp.

35. Count Dracula
From: Dracula (1931)
Played by: Bela Lugosi
Speak no Evil: "There are far worse things awaiting man than death."

Time has not been kind to Dracula. In comparison to other notable offerings from Universal's horror canon (particularly James Whale's Frankenstein series), it is very hard for modern audiences to ignore the camp silliness and take it seriously. Its saving grace is Lugusi's turn as the master blood-letter. His performance may be camp, but it's the single most recognisable portrayal of Stoker's creation ever committed to film. Every subsequent vampire B-movie, as well as Sesame Street's numera-phile The Count, would look to the 1931 film as the definitive image of the character. When Lugosi tells us, "I am Dracula," by God he bloody means it.


34. The Child Catcher
From: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Played by: Robert Helpmann
Speak no Evil: "There are children here somewhere. I can smell them."

Let's be honest here. No amount of nostalgia can save us from looking back at this film as anything other than nauseatingly cute and crammed with shoddy effects and forgettable songs. However, the image of the Child Catcher charming kids into his brightly coloured cart, only to pull away the curtains and reveal them as cages, occupied many a youthful nightmare for years to come. The Child Catcher's greatest menace is that he taps into that sense of powerlessness kids feel in a world that seems giant to them, and all before The News of the World started banging on about paedophiles.

33. Tyler Durden
From: Fight Club (1999)
Played by: Brad Pitt
Speak no Evil: "It's only when you've lost everything that you're free to do anything."

Of all the villains on this list, there are perhaps none as appealing as Tyler Durden. Indeed, some will argue he is in fact the hero of Fight Club. True, one could go so far as to describe Tyler as a messiah, freeing us of the bondage modern society tricked us in to believing we wanted. But his revolutionary pranks become too dangerous to continue unchecked. Tyler Durden is the man we don't have the guts to let ourselves become, and that's what makes him a both fascinating and terrifying creation.

32. Freddy Krueger
From: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Played by: Robert Englund
Speak no Evil: "Come to Freddy."

We've all heard the old wives tale that if you die in a dream you'll die in real-life. We can tell ourselves this is nonsense, but even the most hardened sceptics will breathe a sigh of relief if they wake from a nightmare before its fatal climax. The genius of Freddy Krueger is that he attacks us in the one place we are most defenceless; our dreams. A Nightmare on Elm Street is a teen-slasher flick through-and-through. But with its genuinely frightening dream-sequences, and its magnificent head-fucker of an ending, it deserves a nod for delivering a more psychological scare than the typical slasher cheese-fest.

31. Scar
From: The Lion King (1994)
Played by: Jeremy Irons (voice)
Speak no Evil: "Life's not fair, is it? You see, I... well, I shall never be king. And you... shall never see the light of another day. Adieu."

In what is surely Disney's greatest contemporary film not made by Pixar, we are given a villain that surpasses all that came before, topping a considerable catalogue. Scar may be the simple, 2-dimensional baddie we've come to expect from Disney, but it's done with such splendid flare by all involved, from animators to actor, that he becomes a joy to despise. And this has always been what Disney is best at.

30. Auric Goldfinger
From: Goldfinger (1964)
Played by: Gert Frbe, Michael Collins (voice)
Speak no Evil: "No, Mr Bond! I expect you to die."

It may be the third film in the franchise, but Goldfinger is the film that made James Bond Bond'. And as the first real Bond adversary, Auric Goldfinger has yet to be bested. He is arguably the only baddie to pose a proper, believable threat to the super-spy. In his thrilling monologue, where he points out how man has "achieved miracles in every field of human endeavour, except crime," he lays open his seductive charm, cunning arrogance, and utter madness, and all the while matching Bond's suave allure.

29. Agent Smith
From: The Matrix (1999)
Played by: Hugo Weaving
Speak no Evil: "I hate this place."

This delicious slice of anime-inspired tomfoolery has given us one of the most memorable bad-guys of modern cinema. Smith is a computer program, and as such operates with all the dispassionate callousness of the machine he is. Yet he has been infused with a level of humanity that he both resents and immerses himself in. He completes his task with the single-minded objectiveness of a machine. But, like a human, his emotions have made him into something far more uncontrollable.

28. Matthew Hopkins
From: Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General (1968)
Played by: Vincent Price
Speak no Evil: "Men sometimes have strange motives for the things they do."

Though perhaps a little dated, Matthew Hopkins: Withcfinder General is a stunningly mature example of British horror; a million away from the pseudo-gothic daftness of the Hammer Horror tradition. As Britain descends into the turmoil of the Civil War and the chaos of religious panic, Hopkins remains controlled and calculating, exploiting the disorder to line his pockets and satisfy his bloodthirsty religious fervour. It's a career-topping performance for Price.

27. Neil McCauley
From: Heat (1995)
Played by: Robert De Niro
Speak no Evil: "A guy once told me, Do not have anything in your life you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner.'"

Boiled down to its bare core, Heat is just a basic cops-and-robbers story. But this ignores the complex and interwoven relationships between the numerous characters that populate the film. The mesmerising coffee-house scene with Pacino's cop and De Niro's robber serves to highlight the diametric relationship between the two. They are two faces of the one coin; they just happen to find themselves on opposing sides. And much like the other Michael Mann film mentioned here, the villain will only be defeated when the hero is able to sympathise with him.

26. Jack Napier/the Joker
From: Batman (1989)
Played by: Jack Nicholson
Speak no Evil: "Can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in, where a man dressed up as a bat gets all of my press?"

Usually, the insane movie-villain is just sane enough to allow them to mask their mania and operate within decent society unnoticed. It is somewhat refreshing therefore to encounter a villain like the Joker; an absolute, out-of-control whack-job. Nicholson skilfully give an egocentric, over-the-top performance that edges dangerously close to the portrayals of the Joker by Cesar Romero and Frank Gorshin in the horribly camp 60s TV show, without ever losing sight of the monstrous core that marks the character in this updated image of Batman. Indeed, Nicholson was even given top-billing over Michael Keaton's turn as the superhero. Fitting, as he truly steals the show.

25. H.A.L. 9000
From: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Played by: Douglas Rain (voice)
Speak no Evil: "I'm afraid!"

Hal's crime may have been terrible. But in the scene where his chips are removed, it hard not to pity the computer. Sure, his arrogant belief in himself, and his attempt to take control of the mission, leads to the murder of all but one of the ship's crew. But is he to be blamed for being granted life without the training to manage the emotions that comes with it. He may be a supercomputer, but in many ways he's just a nine-year-old child.


24. Professor Marcus
From: The Ladykillers (1955)
Played by: Alec Guinness
Speak no Evil: "It's disgraceful, Mrs. Wilberforce, shameful! Mr. Robinson will answer for it."

A fabulously snivelling performance by Guinness in what is surely Ealing Studio's most fondly remembered film. The charming but pitiless professor may have the capacity to pull off a daring heist, but his underestimating of the sweet old lady who's hosting him (and was to become the final victim of the dastardly plot) proves to be his undoing.

23. Jerry Lundegaard
From: Fargo (1996)
Played by: William H. Macy
Speak no Evil: "Now we had a deal. A deal's a deal."

Eschewing any notion that an organised-crime film must have cunning criminal masterminds at the helm, the Coens populated their most celebrated film with a cast of failures and fuck-ups. Fargo is a film about disorganised crime, about a scam doomed from the start largely due to Lundegaard's position as the brains' of the operation. His flaw isn't that he's evil. He genuinely believes he is acting in the best interest of his family. His problem is just that he is weak and stupid. Any kidnapping-plot organised by such a was always going to end in tragedy.

22. Harry Lime
From: The Third Man (1949)
Played by: Orson Welles
Speak no Evil: "Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't; why should we?"

The danger of The Third Man is that in spending so long building up the character of Harry Lime before we ever see him, it risks a massive anti-climax when we finally appears. It is telling therefore of what a wonderful film it is that Welles' first appearance, with the childish smile of a prankster caught in the act, has become one of the most famed images in cinema history. Lime's cuckoo clock' speech gives a cynical but rational defence of his horrible crimes (based on true events). However, his final acceptance of his faith, at the hands of someone he considered a friend, betrays a certain self-loathing and the belief he had it coming.

21. The Wicked Witch of the West
From: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Played by: Margaret Hamilton
Speak no Evil: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too."

There is perhaps no villain in children's cinema quite as memorable as the Wicked Witch of the West. Hamilton's performance is such a vile study in basic nastiness. So much so that it would come to be seen as the archetype of human wickedness. In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, one might defend the actions of the Child Catcher by saying he was just doing his job. The Wicked Witch, however, seems to be evil just for the sake of it.

20. Scorpio/Charles Davis
From: Dirty Harry (1971)
Played by: Andrew Robinson
Speak no Evil: "Listen up cop, I changed my mind. I'm going to kill the girl after all. I just wanted you to know that."

It is chilling that Dirty Harry was released the same year as the psychologist Heinz Kohut developed the concept of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, as Scorpio is a perfect candidate (he's arrogant, takes advantage of others, and absolutely lacks any sense of empathy whatsoever). What is more chilling, however, is that he's inspired by a real person; the uncaught "Zodiac Killer", who continued a killing-spree in San Francisco right up until Dirty Harry began production. In Scorpio, Robinson would give a performance of such visceral intensity, devoid of any restraint or consideration, that he actually received death-threats after the film's release. Slightly ironic, given that Robinson is a pacifist with a phobia of guns.

19. Mrs Robinson
From: The Graduate (1967)
Played by: Anne Bancroft
Speak no Evil: "Don't you find me attractive, Benjamin?"

The cool cynicism displayed by Mrs Robinson in The Graduate is her armour for a defeated soul. Like a lot of characters on this list, she's a victim before a villain, trapped in a dead, middle-class existence where the single word "plastics" is offered as advice. To survive in this world, she has to feed off the spirit and freedoms of the young, even if that means trapping them also.

18. Juror No. 3
From: Twelve Angry Men (1957)
Played by: Lee J. Cobb
Speak no Evil: "What's the matter with you guys? You all know he's guilty. He's got to burn! You're letting him slip through our fingers."

With their varying backgrounds and prejudices, the 12 angry men of the film's title do a good job of representing a contemporary America, and their prejudices and experiences go a long to explaining their opinions on the murder-case they've been tasked in giving a verdict on. And juror no. 3, leader of the "guilty" camp, forces a loathsome but ultimately empathic tirade onto the heated juror-room. As a self-made businessman, he personifies the successful application of the American dream. However, this has not granted him the respect he has been lead to believe is due to him, and the young murder-suspect becomes his outlet for a sense of revenge' against those who've disregarded him; specifically, his own son.

17. Mr Blonde/Vic Vega
From: Reservoir Dogs (1991)
Played by: Michael Madsen
Speak no Evil: "Listen kid, I'm not gonna bullshit you, alright! I don't give a good fuck what you know or don't know, but I'm going to torture you anyway."

Mr Blonde exemplifies Quentin Tarantino's brilliance in a manipulative release of information. Before Blonde's entrance into the film (not including the breakfast "Like a Virgin" dissection), we learn he panicked during the heist and started a shooting spree. But when we finally meet him he appears calm and absolutely in control; not at all someone who would lose the run of himself. As Mr Pink reflects, "He went crazy in the store but he seems ok now." Something seems at odds. Then he pulls out a straight-razor, and it suddenly becomes perfectly clear what kind of man Blonde is. He didn't shoot anyone because he panicked; he shot them because he wanted to.

16. Lord Summerisle
From: The Wicker Man (1973)
Played by: Christopher Lee
Speak no Evil: "We confer upon you a rare gift these days, a martyr's death."

Best known for sinister and monstrous (Hammer's Dracula, etc), Lee's more reserved portrayal of the de facto ruler of a pagan island is perhaps the best of his career. As a hardened believer in the pagan traditions of the island, Summerisle is unable to understand a point of view other than his own, and the catholic rhetoric decried by the visiting Sgt. Howie are but ramblings to him. But in truth, he is just reflecting the uncompromising view of the sergeant, and by extension the general intolerances in society as a whole.

15. Candyman
From: Candyman (1992)
Played by: Tony Todd
Speak no Evil: "They will say I have shed innocent blood. What's blood for, if not for shedding?"

Candyman is what critics call a "recursive" horror film; a horror about horror, where are told from the off the things that go bump in the night are nightmares we create for ourselves. Candyman only exists in the rumours and ghost-stories that claim his existence, and when people begin to doubt his existence he is forced to appear and "shed innocent blood". There may seem to be a contradiction here, but that's exactly the point. The hidden subtext of Candyman is that the ghost never existed, and his actions were the self-delusions of a psychotic Helen all along.

14. Gollum/Smagol
From: Lords of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Played by: Andy Serkis (voice)
Speak no Evil: "My precious!"

Much as in Tolkien's original novels, Gollum is arguably the greatest creation of the Lord of the Rings films. With Gollum, we are given a terrifying account of how the promise of power seduces and consumes us until we forget everything but the longing for that power, even the reason we desire it in the first place.

13. Phyllis Dietrichson
From: Double Indemnity (1944)
Played by: Barbara Stanwyck
Speak no Evil: "We're both rotten."
There are few archetypal villains as affective as the Femme Fetale. Her position can range from innocent honey-pot " such as Rita Hayworth in Gilda " to murderous agent of their victims' downfall (see Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct). But her defining characteristic is always the same; her sexuality becomes the hurdle that the hero either triumphs over or is lost to. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis Deitrichson serves as a perfect, if tragic, Femme Fetale. She seduces not only Neff but herself into the murder-plot. Her sexual dominance leads both to view each other with mutual suspicion, until it proves to be their mutual breakdown.

12. Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
From: Apocalypse Now (1979)
Played by: Marlon Brando
Speak no Evil: "The horror. The horror."
Though Apocalypse Now is almost unrecognisable from its source material - Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness - it does share one similarity with Conrad's story. In Heart of Darkness, we have the tale of a gentleman attempting to bring civilisation to the Congo but become a savage instead. In Apocalypse Now, Kurtz is going against his superiors and waging an unsanctioned war in Cambodia. As in the book, Kurtz has recognised the folly and the selfishness of enterprise in Vietnam, and as a result become a danger to everyone else involved.

11. Keyser Soze
From: The Usual Suspects (1995)
Played by: It could have been any of them really.
Speak no Evil: Let's not get into it!

It's very difficult for me to describe a character who not only never appears in the film (at least not overtly), but who might not actually exist. Keyser Soze's defining trait - indeed, his only trait - is his reputation, and what a reputation it is. Even those who doubt him will do as they're told rather face his wrath. As we are told in the film, "I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him." Amen.

10. Michael Myers
From: Halloween (1978)
Played by: Tony Moran
Speak no Evil: Not a word does he utter in the entire film.

The endless cliches of the teen-slasher genre may have robbed Halloween of a lot of its shock-value, but they also serve to highlight what an important film it is. Michael Myers occupies annals of movie fandom; the relentless psychopath with seemingly paranormal abilities. Without Michael, horror films today would have look very different indeed. Jason, Freddy; it all started here.

9. Terminator Model: T101
From: The Terminator (1984)
Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Speak no Evil: "I'll be back."

It has often observed that the role of the Terminator suited Arnie's impressive build and chronic inability to act; a gross injustice to his portrayal of the unstoppable killing-machine. For one thing, the film's opening sequence is the only point when we get to see his hulking mass. Secondly, Schwarzenegger's cold, dispassionate presence perfectly communicates the cyborg's calculating menace. His ruthless efficiency and apparent invulnerability sets up a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase with the hapless Sarah Connor. It may be a push to call that acting, but it's a damn-sight more than looking the part'.

8. Count Orlok
From: Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
Played by: Max Schreck
Speak no Evil: "Is this your wife? What a lovely throat."

Upon realising Nosferatu was remarkably similar to her late husband's most celebrated novel, Florence Stoker successfully sued the film for plagiarism and ordered that all prints be destroyed. One can hardly question her actions; Nosferatu is undoubtedly a shameless rip-off of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Yet, it is a benefit to her husband's work that a few prints did survive Florence's onslaught. Dracula may be the most widely used horror character in film (only Sherlock Holmes has appeared in more films), but this early rendition is arguably the most worthy adaptation of Stoker's creation. Schreck's skulking, ghostly presence accentuate Dracula's representation of the decayed, corrupted power. And while his verminesque features may eschew Dracula's seductive charm, they highlight his filthy, parasitic nature. So convincing was Schreck's performance that rumours circulated that he was in fact a vampire himself.

7. Hans Beckert
From:M (1931)
Played by: Peter Lorre
Speak no Evil: "I haven't any control over this evil thing inside me " the fire, the voices, the torment!"

What is remarkable about Hans Beckert is that, despite the fact his crimes are so abhorrent the criminal underworld are forced to act in unison with the police to bring him to justice, he remains a sympathetic character. He may be a child-killer, but director Fritz Lang isn't going to let us view him simply as a depraved monster. During his defence speech in the kangaroo court scene - when he points out that unlike most criminals, he has no choice but to commit his crimes " we see that we'll never be able to hate him as much as he hates himself.

6. Normal Bates
From: Psycho (1960)
Played by: Anthony Perkins
Speak no Evil: "My mother... What's the phrase? She isn't quite herself today."

What can be said about Normal Bates here that hasn't been said a hundred times already? Simply put; no film before or since has had the power to shock the way Psycho did upon its first screening. Such was Hitchcock's gift of misdirection that early audiences never paid attention when they first met Norman, and never fully appreciated how dangerous he was until it was far too late. Of course, a library of analysis and endless parodies have ruined this for modern viewers. But Psycho remains a terrifying film, and Normal remains a highly memorable villain. Much of this is due to Perkins' skilled balance of a simple nice-guy, pitiful sap, and unhinged psychopath.

5. The Monster
From: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein (1931, 1935)
Played by: Boris Karloff
Speak no Evil: "We belong dead."

Some may have noticed a trend in this list. Regardless of how much we hate them, there are some villains that call on us to pity them; perhaps even understand them. No character exemplifies this more than Frankenstein's Monster. Like all products of men playing God, the Monster is a victim of his own existence; his interaction with the world can only bring disaster to those around him. The murder of Marie is the perfect example of this. This was not a display of evil or malice, but of a misunderstanding of beauty that resulted from a tragic display of kindness. It's impossible to overstate the importance of these films. As observed by Empire magazine, the horror genre would not exist today without the image of the flat-headed monster with the electricity terminals (they're not bolts) in his neck.

4. Mrs Eleanor Iselin
From: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Played by: Angela Lansbury
Speak no Evil: "Why don't you pass the time with a game of solitaire?"

Students with a penchant for day-time television may only know Lansbury from the globe-trotting crime writer and part-time murder detective Jessica Fletcher. Her turn as the Iron Lady in The Manchurian Candidate may therefore come as a shock. She exerts an overbearing, Lady MacBeth-like, ability to twist the will of others, making Margaret Thatcher look like Mrs Doubtfire. But her real grace is that we never truly learn what side she is on, and we never really understand the depths of her borderline incestuous relationship with Raymond.

3. Darth Vader/Anikin Skywalker
From: Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)
Played by: David Prose, James Earl Jones (voice)
Speak no Evil: "The force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet."

How different popular-culture would be without the ultimate representation of corrupted power. With his pitch-black costume, baritone voice, and that breathing, Darth Vader is surely the most recognisable movie villain ever created, and has become synonymous with all that is pure evil. Somewhat unfortunately so, as George Lucas has always intended him to be a tragic character (he claimed his name is a variation of "dark father"). He's not really evil, but just a man who became lost to his emotions (an idea brought to life in the recent Star Wars prequels). Nonetheless, there can be no doubt that he is a force for wickedness, and has exerted the will of evil throughout the galaxy. But this too is an expression of his lost decency. After being tricked into believing he killed his wife and unborn child, servitude to the Emperor is all that he has left. Star Wars is all about Good versus Evil, a battle Darth Vader plays out within himself.

2. Reverend Harry Powel
From: Night of the Hunter (1955)
Played by: Robert Mitchum
Speak no Evil: "There are things you do hate, Lord; perfume-smellin' things, lacy things, things with curly hair."

There are a few actors, such as Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, whose appearance in this list was a foregone conclusion. Bob Mitchum, however, is the only one who deserved citation twice. In Harry Powel, Mitchum give an unforgettable turn as the malevolent holy-man. The "LOVE/HATE" tattoos on his knuckles, used to symbolise the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, are among the most memorable of film iconography (many an emo-kid has sketched the words on their hands without any understanding of where the idea came from). A conman and a serial-killer; there seems no limit to what Powell is capable of. But his real sin is his unflinching belief that he fights on the side of God; professing a religion devised between the Lord and himself. As he reasons, he's doing God's work, and "God's book was full of killin's".

1. Hannibal Lector/Lecktor
From: Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs (1986, 1990)
Played by: Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins
Speak no Evil: "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Fip fip fip fip fip."

A character so imposing it took two portrayals to do him justice. No fictional character of recent times has captured an audience's fascination the way Hannibal Lector has. Of course Manhunter was largely ignored until the release of mesmerising The Silence of the Lambs but Cox's appearance in the role has earned much respect. Purists will say his reserved, cerebral depiction is far more effective than Hopkins' pantomime performance. But consider this: when we meet Lector for the first time in Silence we are entirely convinced of the charm and danger that this man embodies, and all he's doing is standing there. Whichever performance you prefer, both represent the character's analytical mastery that grants him supreme command of those who would attempt to subject and study him. Hannibal Lector is a paradox; he is a cerebral creature with a mind higher than most, but he perceives his environment with feral instincts that, when acted upon, leave a devastating trail in their wake.