35 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time, Ranked

They're so bad they're good.

35 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time, Ranked

Villains. We love to hate them for threatening our heroes and putting the world/galaxy/universe in mortal peril time and time again (seriously, how did Loki escape the Avengers so many times?). It’s been said that movie protagonists are only as good as their adversaries, and we have to agree that it’s hard to imagine James Bond without Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

While bad guys are fun to watch on screen, when it comes to dramatic storytelling, the hero has to overcome obstacles in order to grow, change and, ultimately, save the day. Stories about heroes facing their inner demons are legion, but it's just not the same as when he or she is facing off against a truly vile, evil malefactor.

Using various criteria — including the invaluable IMDb — we ranked the baddest of the bad guys here for your spiteful enjoyment. These are the greatest movie villains of all time, and they gave us (and our kids) many nightmares.

35. Jack Torrance

Played by: Jack Nicholson

Movie: The Shining

Year released: 1980

Good-guy opposition: Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) and Danny (Danny Lloyd)

Bottom Line: Jack Torrance

Jack Torrance doesn't start out as the villain. Initially, he's an ordinary dad who takes his wife, Wendy, and his psychic son, Danny, to a secluded hotel in the snowy woods where he has taken a job as the hotel's offseason caretaker.

There's something ominous about the hotel, however, and Jack gradually begins losing his mind. His delusions progress until his family is no longer scared of the hotel itself, but of him instead. Who knows what the voices in his head are capable of?

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Shining, rent for $3.99

34. Annie Wilkes

Played by: Kathy Bates

Movie: Misery

Year released: 1990

Good-guy opposition: Paul Sheldon (James Caan)

Bottom Line: Annie Wilkes

Novelist Paul Sheldon is traveling home from his writing retreat in Colorado when he wrecks his car in a snowstorm.

He's found by his former nurse Annie Wilkes, who turns out to be a crazed fan. When she doesn't like the ending of his next book, she snaps. And so does he. Literally.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Misery, watch with Cinemax

33. Amon Goeth

Played by: Ralph Fiennes

Movie: Schindler's List

Year released: 1993

Good-guy opposition: Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson)

Bottom Line: Amon Goeth

Oskar Schindler begins as a greedy German businessman, but when he realizes the true horrors of the Nazi regime, he transforms his factory into a hiding spot for Jews.

Amon Goeth, the Commander of the SS, is his greatest opponent, responsible for the death of thousands of Jews in the Krakow ghetto. It's only fitting that he was portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, who also played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. T

he most terrifying part is that Amon Goeth was very much a real person.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Schindler's List, rent for $3.99

32. Mr. Potter

Played by: Lionel Barrymore

Movie: It's a Wonderful Life

Year released: 1946

Good-guy opposition: George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) and Mary Hatch (Donna Reed)

Bottom Line: Mr. Potter

When George Bailey is dejected and considering suicide on Christmas Eve, an angel is assigned to help him see what the world would have been like without him in it. Part of his journey includes battling the vicious board member Mr. Potter, who hopes to destroy George's family's business.

Admittedly, Mr. Potter isn't quite as villainous as some of the other evildoers on this list, but he's out to ruin Christmas and George's life. That's pretty evil in our book.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: It's a Wonderful Life, watch free with Amazon Prime

31. Count Dracula

Played by: Christopher Lee

Movie: Count Dracula

Year released: 1970

Good-guy opposition: Professor Van Helsing (Herbert Lom)

Bottom Line: Count Dracula

Count Dracula is the original evil vampire. The suave, gray-haired villain sucks the blood of young maidens to restore his own youth.

After he preys upon the wrong girls, he's tracked down by Professor Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris, who are out to end his reign of terror for good.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Count Dracula, rent for $2.99

30. The Alien

Played by: Bolaji Badego

Movies: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Prometheus, Alien Covenant

Years released: 1979, 1986, 1992, 1997, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2017

Good-guy opposition: Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Dallas (Tom Skerritt), and the other space flight crew members

Bottom Line: The Alien

When the crew of a starship is awakened to answer a distress call partway through their journey back to Earth, they have no idea what's in store. The call comes from an alien vessel.

When they go to explore it, they come across a nest of eggs. A creature emerges and suction cups itself to one of the crew members. He falls unconscious immediately, but later awakens after the creature is removed.

All seems well until he begins choking, and a small alien bursts out of his chest. The alien is then at large on the ship, and any crew member could be its next victim. Being trapped on a ship with some kind of hungry space demon sounds pretty horrific to us.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Alien, rent for $3.99

29. Regan MacNeil

Played by: Linda Blair

Movies: The Exorcist, The Exorcist II

Years released: 1973, 1977

Good-guy opposition: Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), Father Lankester Merrin (Max van Sydow)

Bottom Line: Regan MacNeil

Regan MacNeil is the reason no parent wants to see their child walking around in the middle of the night. After watching "The Exorcist," a smiling kid in the hall will never not be creepy. When 12-year-old Regan MacNeil is possessed by a demon, her mother first turns to doctors and then to a local priest.

While it's really the demon responsible, not Regan, her horrific tale ends in the death of two priests and nightmares all around.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Exorcist, rent for $2.99

28. Alex Forrest

Played by: Glenn Close

Movie: Fatal Attraction

Year released: 1987

Good-guy opposition: Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas)

Bottom Line: Alex Forrest

When New York lawyer Dan Gallagher has a fling with one of his coworkers, Alex, he assumes it was a one-time thing and tries to resume a normal life with his wife and child.

But Alex has other ideas. She becomes obsessed with him and will stop at nothing to have him for her own.

Fun fact: Glenn Close was allowed to keep the knife her character used in the movie, and has it hanging up as a work of art in her kitchen.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Fatal Attraction, rent for $2.99

27. Nurse Ratched

Played by: Louise Fletcher

Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Year released: 1975

Good-guy opposition: R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson)

Bottom Line: Nurse Ratched

When a criminal named McMurphy pleads insanity to avoid prison time, you might assume that he's the bad guy of this story. As it turns out, he's not.

When he arrives at the psych ward, he discovers the lead nurse is evil, abusing and degrading her mentally ill patients.

It's hard to say whether McMurphy is really insane or not, but it's clear who the real criminal is.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, rent for $3.99

26. The Wicked Witch of the West

Played by: Margaret Hamilton

Movie: The Wizard of Oz

Year released: 1939

Good-guy opposition: Dorothy (Judy Garland), Glinda (Billie Burke)

Bottom Line: The Wicked Witch of the West

Ah, the Wicked Witch of the West. A classic.

When young Dorothy Gale and her little dog Toto are swept away by a tornado, she wakes up in the Land of Oz. She does all she can to return home, but the Wicked Witch of the West (who bears an uncanny resemblance to her unpleasant neighbor, Miss Gulch) has other ideas.

While Dorothy ultimately makes it home safe, the creepy green witch doesn't make it easy.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Wizard of Oz, rent for $3.99

25. John Kreese

Played by: Martin Kove

Movies: "The Karate Kid" movies (and subsequent "Cobra Kai" television series)

Years released: 1984-90, 2018-present

Good-guy opposition: Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio)

Bottom Line: John Kreese

Sensei John Kreese ran his dojo like a military boot camp, which isn’t surprising considering that the guy whose students menaced Daniel LaRusso through three movies had a backstory that included a stint in Vietnam (which was interestingly fleshed out in some seriously dark flashbacks on Season 3 of "Cobra Kai"). But, apparently, nobody told Kreese that his karate students were just, uh, kids, not cadets.

Thankfully, Kreese is just fiction, and from all indications, actor Martin Kove is a sincerely nice guy in real life. But he’s so identified with Kreese that you can actually "hire" him to record a "No Mercy!" message for you on Cameo.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Karate Kid, rent for $3.99

24. Biff Tannen

Played by: Thomas F. Wilson

Movies: "Back to the Future" movies

Years released: 1985-90

Good-guy opposition: Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and George McFly (Crispin Glover)

Bottom Line: Biff Tannen

Biff was such a putz that he couldn’t even get his insults right, like telling Marty to “make like a tree and get out of here.” But when we weren’t laughing at his clumsy insults, we were certainly scared as the imposing Biff bullied Marty’s dad George in both 1955 and 1985 — before Marty went back in time and taught his pop how to stand up for himself.

In the “alternate” timeline in “Part II,” Biff had taken over Hill Valley and put a giant casino at the center of town. It’s little mystery that series co-writer Bob Gale announced in 2015 that Biff was partly based on a certain recent former president.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Back to the Future, rent for $3.99

23. John Doe

Played by: Kevin Spacey

Movie: "Se7en"

Year released: 1995

Good-guy opposition: Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman)

Bottom Line: John Doe

Just for a moment, set Kevin Spacey’s real-life sins aside. While he has been justly excommunicated from Hollywood for various accusations of sexual assault, it cannot be denied that Spacey is one of the most gifted actors around. It’s impossible to say whether his inner demons drove him to antisocial roles like President Frank Underwood on "House of Cards," but it’s undeniable he was damn good at it.

Spacey’s most spine-chilling work was in "Se7en," in which he was the evil serial killer "John Doe," murdering people based on the Seven Deadly Sins.

Just wait for the final one, Wrath, to see how truly depraved John Doe’s plans were.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Se7en, rent for $3.99

22. Thanos

Played by: Josh Brolin

Movies: The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Years released: 2012-19

Good-guy (and -gal) opposition: The Avengers

Bottom Line: Thanos

The demigod villain Thanos had no less than the domination of all creation in mind, and it was up to the assembled Avengers to put his schemes on ice over nearly a decade of cinematic adventures.

As portrayed by Josh Brolin, the mad superbeing from another realm mean schemes included destroying half of all life in the universe to, uh, bring balance or something like that.

(Don’t fret: Even those Avengers who got vaporized were back for the big finale of "Avengers: Endgame.")

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame, rent for $3.99

21. HAL 9000

Played by: Douglas Rain (voice)

Movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Year released: 1968

Good-guy opposition: Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood)

Bottom Line: HAL 9000

It’s been said that the supercomputer HAL from "2001" was, ironically, the most "human" character in that lengthy trip through outer space courtesy of auteur Stanley Kubrick.

While that might be an exaggeration, HAL was actually a case study in cognitive dissonance long before that term had entered cultural parlance. Programmed by his makers back on Earth not to lie, HAL malfunctioned thanks to also being instructed to conceal the true nature of the Discovery mission from the human astronauts — with deadly results.

Actor Douglas Rain gave HAL a cold but unforgettable personality thanks to his vocal talents.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: 2001: A Space Odyssey, rent for $3.99

20. Alonzo Harris

Played by: Denzel Washington

Movie: Training Day

Year released: 2001

Good-guy opposition: Jake Hoyle (Ethan Hawke)

Bottom Line: Alonzo Harris

What if the inmates were running the asylum? Or, worse, what if the cops were worse than the criminals they were supposed to be policing?

That’s the moral puzzle at the center of "Training Day," in which rookie narc Jake Hoyle (Ethan Hawke) is shown the ropes of L.A.’s underground by the seasoned officer Alonzo Harris (Washington, who added yet another Oscar to his mantle for the role). The crooked Harris not only robs drug dealers and fleeces his cop buddies as part of Jake’s education, but he also tricks Jake into smoking PCP so that if he rats on Alonzo, he’ll be in hot water himself.

Washington is magnificent, and despite the film coming out in the wake of 9/11, when police were viewed as heroes, "Training Day" found its audience, and Washington took home his second little golden man.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Training Day, rent for $3.99

19. Sgt. Barnes

Played by: Tom Berenger

Movie: Platoon

Year released: 1986

Good-guy opposition: Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen)

Bottom Line: Sgt. Barnes

Writer/director Oliver Stone had been searching for a way to make sense of his time serving in Vietnam, and thus he created a fictional counterpart named Chris Taylor (Sheen), a greenhorn whose unit is commanded by the psychopathic Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger).

Barnes, his face battle-scarred and his voice gravelly, is bereft of any remorse or sympathy, and at one point, he even guns down a fellow American, Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe).

Many works of art over the centuries have posited that war gives certain men "permission" to act without check or restraint, and Stone presents Barnes as the ultimate warrior unleashed in a conflict where, it often seemed, there were no good guys.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Platoon, rent for $3.99

18. Gordon Gekko

Played by: Michael Douglas

Movies: Wall Street, Wall Street: Movie Never Sleeps

Years released: 1987, 2010

Good-guy opposition: Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen again)

Bottom Line: Gordon Gekko

The personification of 1980s corporate excess, Gordon Gekko told a roomful of shareholders that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good." It’s a great line, and credit must go to screenwriter Stanley Weiser (who cowrote the script with director Oliver Stone), although Weiser is on record as saying that too many aspiring brokers took his message to heart in the wrong way.

Gekko is a demon, singularly focused on gain and wrecking anything in his path — and nearly corrupting young Bud Fox (Sheen). Michael Douglas’ suave performance earned him a well-deserved Oscar, but we can’t help wonder what Gekko might make of the recent GameStop business?

(And the less said about the 2010 sequel, the better.)

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Wall Street, rent for $3.99

17. Pennywise

Played by: Bill Skarsgård

Movies: It, It Chapter Two

Years released: 2017, 2019

Good-guy (and -gal) opposition: The Losers’ Club

Bottom Line: Pennywise

"Can’t sleep, clown’ll eat me. Can’t sleep, clown’ll eat me." — Bart Simpson

Only Stephen King could conjure an evil clown from outer space who feasts on children in the sewers beneath an otherwise peaceful Maine small town. The book "It" became a miniseries in the early ’90s, with Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown, but the time came for the beastly bozo to get the big-screen (to be read: R-rated) treatment in a two-part saga that ran nearly five hours.

For our money, the first film is the scarier of the two, considering that Pennywise menaced our heroes when they were still preteens — which is the precisely right age for them to be terrified while finding their inner strength to fight back.

Sweden’s own Bill Skarsgård is demonstrably nightmarish as Pennywise. And in another connection to the King universe, Bill’s brother Alexander recently played Randall Flagg, aka the Dark Man, in the miniseries "The Stand."

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: It, rent for $3.99

16. Voldemort

Played by: Ralph Fiennes

Movies: "The Harry Potter" movies

Years released: 2001-11

Good-guy opposition: Harry Potter (Daniel Ratcliffe)

Bottom Line: Voldemort

It was fun to not only watch the wizardry students of Hogwarts grow up over the course of a decade of onscreen adventures but to also see the actors portraying them transition from children to young adults over the series. But every hero needs a villain, and the vilest of them all was Voldemort, the notorious and powerful Dark Wizard of Potterlandia.

Ralph Fiennes, no stranger to villainous roles (remember "Schindler’s List"?), brings the right note of serpentine menace and cruelty to the malignant magician you love to hate.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, rent for $3.99

15. Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting

Played by: Daniel Day-Lewis

Movie: Gangs of New York

Year released: 2002

Good-guy opposition: Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio)

Bottom Line: Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting

Daniel Day-Lewis famously went years in between film projects before he (supposedly) retired in 2017 after being one of a select few actors to win three Oscars. While he didn’t win one for Martin Scorsese’s historical epic "Gangs of New York," Day-Lewis made his first film following a five-year hiatus suitably memorable.

As Bill "The Butcher" Cutting, Day-Lewis sneers his way through a delicious performance as a 19th-century nativist gangster with a particular dislike for Irish immigrants, including our hero Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio). Because Marty was at the helm, bloodletting is plentiful in this three-hour yarn, much of which is unleashed by Bill the Butcher himself.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Gangs of New York, rent for $3.99

14. Jaws

Played by: Bruce the shark

Movie: Jaws

Year released: 1975

Good-guy opposition: Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider)

Bottom Line: Jaws

The mechanical shark Steven Spielberg nicknamed "Bruce" — after his lawyer at the time — infamously refused to cooperate on the watery New England set of this seminal scarefest, but when it does appear on screen, the beast wreaks some serious havoc on its human opponents. (Spielberg got creative when the shark wasn’t working by using the yellow barrels as a fill-in.)

Nearly a half-century after "Jaws" torpedoed its way into the nightmares of swimmers everywhere, it remains one of the greatest thrillers ever made, thanks in so small part to Bruce’s, uh, "performance."

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Jaws, rent for $3.99

13. Buffalo Bill

Played by: Ted Levine

Movie: The Silence of the Lambs

Year released: 1991

Good-gal opposition: Clarence Starling (Jodie Foster)

Bottom Line: Buffalo Bill

Has there ever been a more twisted cinematic SOB than Jame Gumb, aka "Buffalo Bill," whose horrifying plan is to make himself a suit from the flesh of human women? (Also, did no one tell Bill that skin, once removed, decays rather quickly?)

Bill, at unlucky No. 13 on our list, kept his victims alive in a well beneath his truly creepy basement before the "harvest," and it’s up to FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster in an Oscar-winning performance) to stop him before he finds that next "special lady."

Actor Ted Levine is perfectly creepy as the perverse murderer, and the scene of his unsettling "dance" does as much to earn the film its R-rating as any of its rather explicit violence.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Silence of the Lambs, rent for $3.99

12. The Terminator

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Movie: The Terminator

Year released: 1984

Good-guy (and -gal) opposition: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn)

Bottom Line: The Terminator

The Terminator is a futuristic cyborg whose unscratchable metallic skeleton was covered with living human flesh — though somehow the machine still had an Austrian accent.

In the role that made him a superstar, Ahnold was the titular assassin from the future, sent back in time to murder the woman (Linda Hamilton) whose son will one day lead a resistance army against the machines.

Fun fact: Football star O.J. Simpson was considered for the role, which would have been crazy considering his, uh, legal issues a decade later.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Terminator, rent for $3.99

11. Freddy Krueger

Played by: Robert Englund

Movies: "The Nightmare on Elm Street" movies

Years released: 1984-2003

Good-guy opposition: The Elm Street children

Bottom Line: Freddy Krueger

Filmmaker Wes Craven couldn’t get the idea of an unsettling homeless man in a red-and-green sweater out of his mind. And when the horror maestro read a Los Angeles Times article about children who mysteriously died screaming in their sleep, the idea for Freddy Krueger was born.

Krueger was a notorious child murderer who was burned to death by a lynch mob of vengeful parents. But through the forces of evil, he was thereafter able to haunt the dreams of Elm Street’s teens, murdering them grotesquely amid their beauty rest.

As the series went on, Robert Englund gradually gave Krueger a cheeky persona as the demon himself became the star of the show. Ergo, we’ve chosen him over his killer contemporaries Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, who were silent stalkers. Craven passed away in 2015, hopefully not at the sharp fingers of his own creation.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Nightmare on Elm Street, rent for $3.99

10. Calvin Candie

Played by: Leonardo DiCaprio

Movie: Django Unchained

Year released: 2012

Good-guy opposition: Django (Jamie Foxx)

Bottom Line: Calvin Candie

After years of Leo giving performances that required little of him other than standing there and looking pretty, it was refreshing to watch him sink his considerable talents into the vile Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 "Southern Western."

Candie, a wealthy plantation owner in pre-Civil War Mississippi, owned Django’s wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), and it was up to Django and his German dentist friend Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to free her from his dastardly clutches.

The rot of Candie’s soul was matched only by some truly unsightly dental appliances DiCaprio wore for the role, which remains one of his best-ever performances.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Django Unchained, rent for $3.99

9. Hans Landa

Played by: Christoph Waltz

Movie: Inglourious Basterds

Year released: 2009

Good-guy (and -gal) opposition: Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt) and Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent)

Bottom Line: Hans Landa

Few outside the international cinema circuit had ever heard of Austrian actor Christoph Waltz before Quentin Tarantino cast him as the lupine SS Col. Hans Landa in his 2009 alternate history take on the Second World War.

The opening scene of "Inglourious Basterds" is a masterpiece all its own, as Landa visits a French milk farmer (Denis Ménochet) for a conversation that starts as mundane but ends in absolute horror.

For his performance, Waltz earned his first of two consecutive Tarantino-directed Oscars (the other was for "Django Unchained") and established himself as a star on both sides of the Atlantic.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Inglourious Basterds, rent for $3.99

8. Saruman

Played by: Christopher Lee

Movies: "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy

Years released: 2001-03

Good-guy opposition: The Fellowship of the Ring

Bottom Line: Saruman

Man, you just know as soon as Christopher Lee steps down those obsidian steps in the first LOTR flick that he’s up to no good, and sure enough, it’s soon revealed that the white wizard is in cahoots with the dark lord Sauron.

The late English character actor enjoyed a healthy career playing bad guys — from Dracula to Darth Tyrannus in the "Star Wars" prequels — but nowhere was he as maleficent as in Peter Jackson’s epic rendering of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth saga of good versus evil.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, rent for $3.99

7. Emperor Palpatine

Played by: Ian McDiarmid

Movies: "The Star Wars" saga

Years released: 1983-2019

Good-guy opposition: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)

Bottom Line: Emperor Palpatine

It was the Old Republic’s ultimate nightmare: A Sith Lord had become chancellor of the Senate and promptly reorganized it into a brutal dictatorship with himself at its head. Ergo, Palpatine was a kind of an outer space combo of Hitler and Julius Caesar, and with magical powers to boot.

The Scottish actor McDiarmid made even those loathsome prequel films (1999-2005) watchable as he chewed up the scenery and cackled his way through a poorly underwritten role.

Yes, we all remember when his onetime apprentice Darth Vader tossed him to his death on the second Death Star in "Return of the Jedi," but that didn’t stop Palpatine — and the Dark Side of the Force — from somehow returning for a curtain call in 2019’s saga-capper, "The Rise of Skywalker."

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, rent for $3.99

6. Norman Bates

Played by: Anthony Perkins

Movie: Psycho

Year released: 1960

Good-gal opposition: Marion Crane (Janet Leigh)

Bottom Line: Norman Bates

Norman Bates/Mother’s barging in on Marion Crane’s peaceful evening shower made us all scared to ever again leave the bathroom door unlocked. Alfred Hitchcock’s most notorious film remains unsettling six decades after it shocked moviegoers the world over and not just because Hitch killed off the hero halfway through the film.

Then came the cross-dressing, necrophilia and reveal that the severely sexually repressed Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) actually harbors a murderous second personality within his mind.

If you ever see a roadside sign for the Bates Motel, even after a long day of driving, just keep driving.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Psycho, rent for $3.99

5. Anton Chigurh

Played by: Javier Bardem

Movie: No Country for Old Men

Year released: 2007

Good-guy opposition: Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones)

Bottom Line: Anton Chigurh

Clearly, the Academy loves bad guys, as Spaniard Javier Bardem picked up a golden statuette for bringing to life the morally bankrupt Anton Chigurh, whose lethal weapon of choice was a bolt stunner typically used to slaughter cattle.

Among Chigurh’s many evil designs was putting some of his victims’ fate in the hands of a coin toss, telling them to call heads or tails to determine if their lives will end.

The Coen Bros.' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel also won best picture and best screenplay, even though many audiences were left unmoored by the movie’s anticlimactically abrupt ending. Either way, Bardem’s Chigurh is unforgettable.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: No Country for Old Men, rent for $2.99

4. The Joker

Played by: Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger

Movies: Batman and The Dark Knight

Years released: 1989, 2008

Good guy-opposition: Batman (Michael Keaton and Christian Bale)

Bottom Line: The Joker

The Clown Prince of Crime remains one of pop culture’s most endurable villains since first appearing in the pages of Detective Comics way back in 1940. Many actors have channeled the chuckling criminal mastermind over the years (including Mark Hamill in the Joker’s various animated incarnations), but none have left as major an impression as Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s 1989 "Batman" and the late Heath Ledger in 2008’s "The Dark Knight."

Nicholson was suitably over the top in his baroque interpretation, which made us all laugh, but Ledger went full-tilt in exploring the pure unholiness at the heart of the supervillain in his Oscar-winning performance for director Christopher Nolan. (And while, yes, Joaquin Phoenix also won an Oscar for 2019’s "Joker," in that film, he was the star, i.e., an antihero versus an actual villain.)

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Batman, rent for $3.99

3. Hans Gruber

Played by: Alan Rickman

Movie: Die Hard

Year released: 1988

Good-guy opposition: John McClane (Bruce Willis)

Bottom Line: Hans Gruber

Part of what makes certain bad guys so compelling is their sense of humor. The uber-mensch of sadistic humor was personified by the late Alan Rickman in German terrorist Hans Gruber, who held a Los Angeles high rise hostage on Christmas Eve as cover to steal millions of dollars in negotiable bearer bonds from its vault.

Too bad unlucky John McClane (Bruce Willis), an off-duty New York cop, got in his way.

"Die Hard" is as great now as it was in the late ’80s and in no small debt to Rickman’s delightfully devious Gruber.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Die Hard, rent for $3.99

2. Darth Vader

Played by: David Prowse (in the costume) and James Earl Jones (voice)

Movies: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

Years released: 1977, 1980, 1983

Good-guy opposition: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)

Bottom Line: Darth Vader

Even though Darth Vader ultimately redeemed himself by returning to the Light Side of the Force, tossing the Emperor down a pit at the end of "Return of the Jedi" for good measure, we watched in horror as he murdered countless Rebels, sliced through his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi with a lightsaber and even stood by as his own daughter (sorry, should have said spoiler alert!) Leia’s home planet of Alderaan was blown to smithereens by the first Death Star.

Part of what made Vader so frightening was that we never saw his face as he was doing such bad stuff. That and the constant heavy breathing. The late David Prowse was 6-foot-6, giving Vader the requisite stature, and James Earl Jones completed the character with his basso profundo vocalizing of Vader’s electronic speech.

Whether he’s dueling with a red lightsaber, murdering Jedi trainees or choking out his own inept Imperial officers, Darth Vader remains one of cinema’s biggest baddies.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, rent for $3.99

1. Hannibal Lecter

Played by: Anthony Hopkins and Brian Cox

Movies: Manhunter (Cox); The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon (Hopkins)

Years released: 1986, 1991, 2001, 2002

Good-guy (and -gal) opposition: Will Graham (played by William Petersen in "Manunter" and Harvey Keitel in "Red Dragon"), Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster in "Silence of the Lambs" and Julianne Moore in "Hannibal")

Bottom Line: Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter was a psychopathic psychiatrist with a literally bloodthirsty appetite for human flesh. Thankfully, he was caught by Will Graham, forcing him to spend his days in a rather compact prison cell. And as it takes a killer to catch a killer, both Graham and FBI trainee Clarice Starling called upon his expertise to track down serial murderers known as the Tooth Fairy and Buffalo Bill.

But Lecter was smarter than everyone, and even while "helping" the authorities, he was actually planning his dastardly escape. That’s what makes psychopaths so dangerous: They are experts at faking emotions like kindness in the service of their own vile ends.

Fun fact: Anthony Hopkins was considering retiring from acting when he was cast as Lecter. He won an Oscar, and thankfully, he’s still working.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video: Hannibal, rent for $3.99