# Most evil female characters in film history **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667 "2004-06-29T03:56:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/1 "2004-06-29T03:56:45Z")
I’m doing a comparison/contrast on male v. female evil characters in film (film can mean movies, television or any other filmed genre) to determine what the most defining “evil” traits are per gender (i.e. what makes them evil and how does the evil manifest?). Who would be your votes? I’m omitting characters who are obviously too insane to really have much control or analysis of their actions (e.g. Glenn Close in _Fatal Attraction_, Lilli Taylor in _I Shot Andy Warhol_, etc.). My votes: Norma Desmond- _Sunset Blvd._- it could be argued that she’s more psychotic and pitiful than evil, but I favor the latter. Her self obsession, megalomania, manipulativeness and complete disinterest in the feelings of others (except as they concern her) have not only destroyed her own life but those of Max (also villainous in his own way) and of course Joe and Betty. Joe should have beaten the hell out of her then sued her for palimony. Livia Augusta- _I, CLAVDIVS_- Sian Philips gave one of the greatest performances in history playing this remorseless old monster from middle age to ancient. (Why doesn’t she work more often, I wonder- surely marriage to Peter O’Toole can’t scar you _that_ much.) The scene in which she “comes clean” with Claudius is a masterpiece: “Yes, interesting… he wouldn’t eat anything that had been touched by anybody’s hands so I was up all night poisoning the figs on the tree… no, I didn’t kill your father [her son], that was a natural gangrene, though I will admit I had intended to kill him if he lived”. Even the deathbed scene where she’s paralyzed and horrified because Caligula has reneged on his promise to make her a goddess isn’t sympathetic because she’s only concerned out of self interest. She admits that she had some remorse for poisoning Augustus after fifty years of marriage but that’s about as close as she comes to a soul. Angela Channing- _Falcon Crest_- when you think “amoral bitch” and “married to Ronald Reagan” it’s surprising that Jane Wyman doesn’t come to mind sooner. This show was at its best a pale imitation of _Dallas_ and at its worst downright silly and unintentionally funny, but Wyman’s Angela Gioberti Channing etc. etc. was so over the top and deliciously venomous that she made it worth watching. (It was pitiful seeing her IRL at her daughter’s funeral, so ancient and feeble, thinking that a major talent still resides within that frail frame.) Ms. Smith- _Nick of Time_- a mediocre movie far undeserving of Johnny Depp, but you totally believe Roma Maffia’s performance as a woman who would willingly kill an innocent child and never lose a minute of sleep. Very overlooked performance in an understandably ignored movie. Many more, but that will get the list started. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/2 "2004-06-29T04:11:00Z")
Mona Demarkov from Romeo Is Bleeding (played by Lena Olin) - a seductive Russian hitwoman who at one point cuts off an innocent woman’s arm and hides it under the sleeve of her coat, so when cops handcuff her, they’ve really handcuffed the wrist of the severed arm and she slips away. Phyllis Diedrichsen from Double Indemnity (played by Barbara Stanwyck) - one of the great screen femme fatales, who manipulates Fred McMurray’s dorky insurance salesman character into murdering her rich husband for her. But of course they don’t live happily ever after. Now that I think about it, many of the evil women in film are of the femme fatale mold, women who use sex to manipulate men to do all sorts of unspeakable acts–usually doing the women’s “dirty work” for them. Linda Fiorentino’s character in The Last Seduction is another good recent example, although she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/3 "2004-06-29T04:17:42Z")
The following come to mind, although I don’t think any of them hold a candle to Livia: [ul] [li]The Wicked Witch of the West in _The WIzard of Oz_.[/li][li]The evil queen in Disney’s _Snow White_.[/li][li]Cruella De Vil in _101 Dalmatians_.[/li][li]Eve Harrington in _All About Eve_.[/li][li]Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in _Double Indemnity_.[/li][/ul] And, I’ll second Linda Fiorentino in _The Last Seduction_. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/4 "2004-06-29T04:39:05Z")
Mrs. Tate - Antwone Fisher’s sadistic, abusive and manipulative foster mother. Played to damn near perfection by actress Novella Nelson, who gives a chilling performance as an emotionally and physically abusive, dominating, self-loathing and emasculating religious zealot who reigns terror on the three boys in her care, who exhibits such warm and loving charming beliefs in child-rearing such as pitting the boys against each other, playing favorites based on skin tone and tying the young Antwone to a pole in the basement of her home and beating him senseless before finally putting him out of her house when he finally finds the courage to stand up to him. (Where Mr. Tate is, God only knows, but she seemed awfully fond of doing bad bad things in that basement of hers.) Vicious and hateful – one of a kind in cinema among black women, who have rarely had anyone depicted as being this evil. A personal aside: anyone who would like to take issue with the intraracial namecalling of “nigga” vs. “nigger” among blacks as being a meaningless difference needs to listen closely to Mrs. Tate. She says _nigger._ She means it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/5 "2004-06-29T04:41:01Z")
Nurse Ratched from _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/6 "2004-06-29T04:45:35Z")
Maddy from _Body Heat_. General Kala from _Flash Gordon_. Crystal Allen from _The Women_. Mother Gin Sling from _The Shanghai Gesture_. The Extremely Hot Chicks and the Chinese Foooooood Lady from _Dude, Where’s My Car?_ Leslie Crosbie from _The Letter_. Regina Giddens from _The Little Foxes_. Mildred Rogers from _Of Human Bondage_. Mary Tilford from _The Children’s Hour_. Rhoda Penmark from _The Bad Seed_. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/7 "2004-06-29T04:47:11Z")
Oh, and Joan Crawford from _Mommie Dearest_. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/8 "2004-06-29T04:50:35Z")
Mrs. Iselin, hands down. (Raymond’s mother in _The Manchurian Candidate_.) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/9 "2004-06-29T05:40:12Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Mrs. Iselin, hands down. (Raymond’s mother in _The Manchurian Candidate_.) That was definitely the first I thought of when I saw the title. And then every character I’ve read mentioned so far, I’ve thought, “yeah, maybe, but she’s not as bad as the mother from _The Manchurian Candidate_.” The brainwashing scenes are supposed to be the creepiest in the movie, but they just seem dated and kind of silly now. It’s all the scenes with Angela Lansbury being just balls-out evil (so to speak) that still just send a chill right down your spine. Close runner-up is Lady Kaede from _Ran_. > [@Sampiro](#): > > I’m doing a comparison/contrast on male v. female evil characters in film (film can mean movies, television or any other filmed genre) to determine what the most defining “evil” traits are per gender (i.e. what makes them evil and how does the evil manifest?). Based on my choices, it’s deceit and manipulation out of self-interest. Taking advantage of their roles as wives/mothers and perverting that to get what they want. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/10 "2004-06-29T06:09:37Z")
Kitty March(Joan Bennett) in _Scarlet Street_. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/11 "2004-06-29T06:17:14Z")
The witch-like sister of the main villain in _The Crow_. Also, the witch in _Excaliber_. She was Arthur’s half-sister or something. (Morgana?) The villainess (also something of a witch) in _Sleepy Hollow_, played by Miranda Richardson. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/12 "2004-06-29T07:17:02Z")
I saw it only once many years ago, but Ingrid Bergman in \*The Visit \* filled me with horror. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/13 "2004-06-29T08:03:48Z")
I’ll second those choices of **Maddy Walker - “Body Heat” and Mrs Iselin - "Manchurian Candidate"** Here’s an evil character you may have forgotten: **Rebecca DeMornay (Peyton Flowers) from “Hand That Rocks The Cradle”.** ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/14 "2004-06-29T08:16:54Z")
Betty Davis - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/15 "2004-06-29T10:07:52Z")
Heather Chandler from _Heathers_ The Borg Queen Elaine Wournos from _Monster_ Piper Laurie and Amy Irving in _Carrie_ Cathy Bates in _Misery_ Gee, evil men sure seem to live larger and cause more misery to more people than evil women in movies (who typically devote their lives to harrassing the shit out of one or two people). Where are the cinematic counterparts to Imelda Marcos and Ilsa Koch? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/16 "2004-06-29T11:05:07Z")
Norman Bates’ mother. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/17 "2004-06-29T11:38:31Z")
The _other_ Livia, Livia Soprano, does her best to live up to the name, and her daughter Janice ain’t far behind. Yzma, played by the wonderful Eartha Kitt in _The Emperor’s New Groove_, easily takes her place beside Cruella DeVille. Speaking of Cruella, Glenn Close has done pretty good with villans, from Cruella to Alex Forrest (Basic Instinct) to Marquise de Merteuil (Dangerous Liaisons), she delivers the evil quite deliciously. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/18 "2004-06-29T11:51:43Z")
second for Nurse Ratched. You just can’t hate someone more. ---
**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/19 "2004-06-29T11:58:34Z")
Bridget Gregory/Wendy Kroy in **The Last Seduction**. Linda Fiorentino was amazing in that role - ruthless and brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2004, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667/20 "2004-06-29T12:24:41Z")
Pooh Brainbridge in **Garp**. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-female-characters-in-film-history/252667.md?page=2)