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.
Liberty Valance
The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Erica Kane
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.
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.
Nurse Ratched
Long Hair from The Cowboys was a nasty piece of work.
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.
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.
Pfft! That’s just a story criminals tell their kids! “Don’t rat on your father, or Keyser Soze will get ya!”
Truly sociopathic in the book; more sympathetic in the 2004 film adaptation. Same with Barry Lyndon. It is often so.
Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, as long as you ignore her momentary acts of relative altruism in Kingdom Hearts II.
Baron Ryoval, from Labyrinth and Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold.
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’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.
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.
I dunno, I think a lot of sex abuse victims would decline the opportunity to be killed and eaten.
Frank from Once Upon a Time in the West. Truly evil personified, and played surprisingly well by, yes, good ole Henry Fonda.
Chad, the Aaron Eckhart character from In the Company of Men. And another LaBute sociopath, the Rachel Weisz character from The Shape of Things.
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.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but the Bette Davis character from The Little Foxes. Shudder.