# Truly evil characters in film and literature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988 "2011-02-28T22:56:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/81 "2011-03-03T05:33:46Z")
Speaking of _East of Eden_, were you all aware that they’re planning a remake for later this year? IMDB has nothing on the casting as yet, however, that I can find. Wiki lists Tom Hooper directing, based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/82 "2011-03-03T06:06:17Z")
Liberty Valance The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen Erica Kane ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2011, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/83 "2011-03-03T07:06:43Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Speaking of _East of Eden_, were you all aware that they’re planning a remake for later this year? IMDB has nothing on the casting as yet, however, that I can find. Wiki lists Tom Hooper directing, based on a screenplay by Christopher Hampton. I saw EoE last year on PBS. It was gorgeously filmed. Why anyone would want to remake it is beyond me. Now there was a lot that was left out, but not from the main characters’ story. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/84 "2011-03-04T00:56:17Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Like that? Yes, that was the one. My daughter asked me recently who I thought was the most evil character in movies. I recited that quote about Kaiser Soze from memory, and watched my daughter’s jaw drop. Very, very evil. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/85 "2011-03-04T04:20:27Z")
Nurse Ratched ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/86 "2011-03-04T04:38:43Z")
[Long Hair](http://factoidz.com/images/user/cowboysbrucedern.jpg) from The Cowboys was a nasty piece of work. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/87 "2011-03-04T04:51:21Z")
> [@Crawlspace](#): > > I don’t remember Marlo Stanfield or Snoop Pearson from The Wire having any redeeming qualities. Psychotics both. Indeed, part of the reason Marlo becomes the leading crime boss is that he’s just more evil than any of his competitors. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/88 "2011-03-04T05:32:36Z")
I was going to name Yyrkoon of Melnibone – but, both his ambition to mount the Ruby Throne and his ambition to reconquer the Young Kingdoms apparently are just too perfectly ordinary, for a Dragon Prince, and so is his willingness to murder the Emperor to achieve them. Evil, but, you know, a product of his environment. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/89 "2011-03-04T05:34:25Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Like that? Pfft! That’s just a story criminals tell their kids! “Don’t rat on your father, or Keyser Soze will get ya!” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/90 "2011-03-04T05:37:37Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Becky Sharpe of Vanity Fair fame. Can’t believe I was the first to come in with that one. Truly sociopathic in the book; more sympathetic in the 2004 film adaptation. Same with Barry Lyndon. It is often so. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/91 "2011-03-04T05:41:00Z")
Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, as long as you ignore her momentary acts of relative altruism in Kingdom Hearts II. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/92 "2011-03-04T06:43:05Z")
Baron Ryoval, from _Labyrinth_ and _Mirror Dance_ by Lois McMaster Bujold. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/93 "2011-03-04T13:14:58Z")
While the Hannibal Lector of RED DRAGON & SILENCE OF THE LAMBS qualifies, in HANNIBAL, Mason Verger is far more evil in what he does with children. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/94 "2011-03-04T13:47:18Z")
I’m currently working my way through the Sopranos seasons (up to season 4) and though I’m enjoying it, I’m get a little punch-drunk over the sheer amount of easy brutality and the universal unloveability of pretty much every character. I really am struggling to “like” any of them. (probably the point I suspect) though I am liking the way “uncle junior” has developed. Anyhow, to pick the worst of an evil bunch I’d suggest “Uncle Richie” to be particularly stand-out nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/95 "2011-03-04T13:48:15Z")
The Big Bad Wolf The witch in **Hansel And Gretal** The witch in **Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs** The wicked witch in \*\*The Wizard Of Oz \*\*(current retellings of the story to the contrary not withstanding) Cinderella’s mother Gee, just pick up almost any book of children’s stories. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/96 "2011-03-04T17:44:32Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > While the Hannibal Lector of RED DRAGON & SILENCE OF THE LAMBS qualifies, in HANNIBAL, Mason Verger is far more evil in what he does with children. I dunno, I think a lot of sex abuse victims would decline the opportunity to be killed and eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/97 "2011-03-04T18:01:41Z")
Frank from _Once Upon a Time in the West_. Truly evil personified, and played surprisingly well by, yes, good ole Henry Fonda. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/98 "2011-03-04T18:10:11Z")
Chad, the Aaron Eckhart character from _In the Company of Men_. And another LaBute sociopath, the Rachel Weisz character from _The Shape of Things_. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/99 "2011-03-04T18:20:44Z")
This isn’t a regular character, but there’s an episode of _Lie To Me_ where a villain kidnaps women, holds them for 24 hours and before disfiguring them he makes them watch videos of what he did to previous victims. Then he rapes them, pours acid into their eyes and dumps them alive back out on the street. What’s worse, there’s another character in that episode who marries one of the victims because he’s turned on by the serial rapist’s handiwork. So basically every time the victim opens up to her husband about the horror she endured, her husband derives intense pleasure and gratification from her suffering. He develops a mentor-mentee relationship with her attacker and then starts going after women himself. One of the more evil SOBs I’ve been exposed to in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/100 "2011-03-04T18:27:25Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but the Bette Davis character from _The Little Foxes_. Shudder. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988.md?page=6)