# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/141 "2011-03-09T06:21:29Z")
All of the Greek gods in Dan Simmon’s _Ilium_, by a landslide. Maybe Loveless in William Gibson’s _Virtual Light_. We don’t really see enough of him to know. Chet in M. T. Anderson’s _Thirsty_. A slew of characters from any of the classic dystopias (_Nineteen Eight-Four_ et al). Most everyone in _The Jew of Malta_. While he didn’t kill or rape anyone, I utterly hated Malvolio from _Twelfth Night_. Moongirl and Harrow from _The Darkest Evening of the Year_ by Dean Koontz. That fellow who raped the female lead in the _300_ movie. Wednesday in Neil Gaiman’s brilliant _American Gods_. The father in the movie _Precious_, and in my opinion the mother too. Goet in _Schindler’s List_. Not technically a movie, but a lot of the unsubs in _Criminal Minds_. If we can include comics, I think both Lucifer and Morgana (and perhaps more?) in _Dracula vs. King Arthur_. And if we can include webcomics: Karnak, Helixia, Lady Loxo and perhaps Jacob from _Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire_. Drip from _Jack_. Mordred in _The Wizard of Quippley_. Tristan and Poltergeist from _Ragdoll_. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/142 "2011-03-09T14:45:17Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > That’s the one I was looking for and saw rachelellogram did on page 2. > > In reading all, Sampiro’s post reminded me of Shelley Winters truly evil character in A Patch Of Blue. The mention of Shelley Winters reminded me of another villain in a Shelley Winters movie: the Reverend Harry Powell in **The Night of the Hunter**. And, huh, I didn’t realize he was based on a [real person](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_of_the_Hunter_%28film%29), Harry Powers, who murdered two widows and three children and was hanged for it. Harry Powell/Robert Mitchum is terrifying in the film, but I can never help laughing at the moment when he’s watching a burlesque act and glowering at the brazen hussy on stage, and he flicks open his switchblade through his pocket. And then of course: “There are too many of them. Can’t kill the world.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/143 "2011-03-09T15:19:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Tony’s mother is cold and selfish and manipulative and not someone you’d want to be around – Tony’s shrink, based purely on his descriptions, diagnoses her with [Borderline Personality Disorder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder) – but she’s not actively malicious or scheming. She has nothing of Empress Livia’s brains or determination. > > In Empress Livia’s case, she seems to be absolutely convinced everything she does is for the Greater Good. The Empire is better than the Republic – look how the Republic ended! – and Tiberius (about whom Livia has no illusions, and for whom little affection) is better suited to keep it going than Agrippa or Marcellus or any of Augustus’ other favorites. In the book, Claudius (who knows the worst about her) considers it entirely appropriate that she should be made a goddess. It makes a kind of sense – she lived and planned on such a godlike plane. I agree that she’s utterly without concience rather than actively sadistic, but I think much of her “greater good” talk (when she finally comes clean to Claudius near the end of her life) was self-serving justification - what she really wanted was not the greater good, but to ensure that _her_ line takes the throne. She has zero respect or liking for Tiberius, but he is her child, so she manuvers and murders to ensure he takes the throne. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/144 "2011-03-09T15:54:25Z")
> [@Lucky\_13](#): > > Sousuke Aizen in _Bleach_. He acts like a nice guy until his whole evil scheme is discovered. He fakes his own death and frames his lieutenant for it, knowing she is in love with him and breaking her heart. He also allows Rukia to be condemned to execution, aware that she carries the Hogyoku, takes it from her as her friends help her escape, and runs away to take over Hueco Mundo. Later he takes Orihime prisoner by having Ulquiorra emotionally blackmail her into coming to Las Noches, so that her friends will rescue her; he’s aware of her emotional vulnerability and knows her feelings of guilt at seeing her friends sacrifice for her will break her. > > BTW I haven’t read or seen the “Turn back the Pendulum” arc. If anyone here has, please answer: Did Aizen have a hand in the exile of Urahara and Yoruichi? Also, did he sell Shinji (then his captain in the 5th division) out? I don’t know, but I suspect he had something to do with the creation and exile of the Vizards (Visoreds? That sounds wrong). The answer to all of your questions is yes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/145 "2011-03-09T18:16:57Z")
Mr. Ripley from _The Talented Mr. Ripley_. Murdstone and his sister from _David Copperfield_. I found them much more chilling and repellant than Uriah Heep, who was merely a hypocrite and a thief. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/146 "2011-03-09T18:27:04Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Nurse Ratched This. While reading these I tried to think of someone worse than Archibald Cunningham, but now I’m trying to think of someone worse than Ratched. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/147 "2011-03-09T19:27:56Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, as long as you ignore her momentary acts of relative altruism in Kingdom Hearts II. (I stick with the movie). She wanted to kill a baby because she wasn’t invited to the party. Evil. I would also say Amon Goeth in _Schindler’s List,_ but the said reality is that he wasn’t made up. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/148 "2011-03-09T19:32:36Z")
How about the Kurgan from _Highlander_? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/149 "2011-03-09T20:28:44Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > This. > > While reading these I tried to think of someone worse than Archibald Cunningham, but now I’m trying to think of someone worse than Ratched. Kirk Douglas said in an interview that when he was playing McMurphy on Broadway he actually wanted his character to rape her when he attacks her toward the end, and for Ratched to enjoy it. I can only imagine the (completely justifiable) outcry this would have brought about, but- per Kirk- “it felt right”. He believed there was sexual chemistry between the two. Speaking of the already mentioned Max Cady from _Cape Fear_, I saw the remake first and the original years later and couldn’t believe how much scarier Mitchum was than DeNiro. This with _Night of the Hunter_ cements him as one of the great villain players of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/150 "2011-03-14T01:10:31Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Kirk Douglas said in an interview that when he was playing McMurphy on Broadway he actually wanted his character to rape her when he attacks her toward the end, and for Ratched to enjoy it. I can only imagine the (completely justifiable) outcry this would have brought about, but- per Kirk- “it felt right”. He believed there was sexual chemistry between the two. :dubious: Hate-fucking the most sinister character in all of fiction history might ‘feel right’ but it would have destroyed her mystique of terror. In that setting, in a mental ward, she has complete power and authority, she knows it and uses it ruthlessly. THAT is why she terrifying. Your life and mental cognition are perpetually at the sadistic whim of a control freak with unlimited power. That she exerts her power with impunity over those that can leave at any time makes it even more perverse. Kirk could hardly have been more wrong. ---
**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 15, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/151 "2011-03-15T03:49:37Z")
I remembered another one - not as genocidal as most of these, but Police Chief Dudley Smith from LA Confidential was PF evil. In a movie full of “bad guy” actors, James Cromwell stood out as a bad guy. I can’t believe the same actor who played Farmer Hoggett in Babe could also play Chief Dudley. Dudley’s eyes were _COLD_. Rolo Thomassi ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988/152 "2011-03-15T04:30:47Z")
I’m a bit surprised no one’s mentioned Dolores Umbridge from _Harry Potter_. Voldemort was a pretty fucked-up individual, but you could see the factors that led to his madness. Umbridge was just a snake, pure and simple. There’s no indication that she was just following orders–someone (I think it was on TVTropes, but I can’t remember) suggested that she could produce a decent patronus in the Ministry courtroom at the muggle-born trials because THAT was something she derived happiness from. She was exactly where she wanted to be. A truly chilling thought. Voldemort was someone I loved to hate. But Umbridge? I just hated her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truly-evil-characters-in-film-and-literature/572988.md?page=7)