Evil Personified : The Underrated Villain
So I looooove me a well-written villain.
While I find heroes to be intriguing, I sometimes find myself even more fascinated by masterfully written antagonists—especially if they are one that you can empathise with. These types of characters are just so gooooood because they’re so convincingly bad.
And everyone knows the iconic (and rightly so) villians:
Darth Vader.
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
The Joker.
Why so serious?
Hans Gruber.
I’m going to count to three. There will not be a four.
Agent Smith.
Human beings are a disease, the cancer of this planet.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.
Nurse Ratched.
Medication time. Medication time.
Norman Bates.
We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?
Hans Landa.
And that, monsieur, is what a Jew shares with a rat.
Gollum.
Curse us and splash us! My precious is gone!
HAL9000.
It can all be attributable to human error.
All of the above are truly magnificent characters, and despite being pure fiction, they are written in ways that accurately reflect the deeper, darker aspects of human nature. The face of evil is multi-faceted, like a prism, and all of these characters represent a different aspect of that prism. Each reflect a different face (and thus are each a distinct personification) of
True Evil.
However, I believe there are so many dubious characters who go so underrated for their wicked talent and wit. These are some of those villains, in my opinion.
Gary Oldman as Drexel in True Romance.
Drexel.
He must have thought it was white boy day. It ain't white boy day, is it?
What. The. Fuck. How incredible is Gary Oldman?! The man who brought us Zorg, Sirius Black, Detective Gordon, Winston Churchill, Norman Stansfield, Dracula... continues on brilliantly performing as a despicable low-class pimp from the whetto, who views other human beings as disposable commodities.
Judge Jean Claude Frollo.
Jean-Claude Frollo.
The time has come, Gypsy. You stand on the brink of the abyss.
This character is so disturbing to me in so many ways, but that also is what makes him so fascinating as a character. Frollo is hungry for power, and not against using a pious guise to achieve such ends. This character represents so much of what I am disgusted by: hypocrisy, control through religion, and hunger for power that disregards who and how they hurt others.
Mrs. Carmody.
Mrs. Carmody.
There's no defense against the will of God! There's no court of appeals in hell. The end times have come; not in flames, but in mist...
Again, this is a villian with religious undertones. Stephen King is an amazing writer, and I believe Mrs. Carmody is one of his majorly underrated antagonists. She is the personification of where religion has gone wrong in history, and how one’s belief in higher powers can disconnect them with humanity.
Darkness.
Darkness.
Dreams are my specialty. Through dreams, I influence mankind.
Leave it to Tim Curry to make the character you are meant to hate more appealing than the hero (a cheesy mother fucker played by Tom Cruise, so no wonder). Curry is such an amazing actor. Okay, so the film itself is a bit... different, but his performance is amaze balls. And I’m not going to lie: there is one thing I like about Darkness.
Unlike Frollo, he does not even try hide his malicious intentions. He IS evil, and owns it. There are no masks. He shows you who he truly is and without reservation. There is a degree of honesty in that itself, ironically, even though the truth is a horrible one.
Alonzo Harris.
Alonzo Harris.
To protect the sheep, you gotta catch the wolf. It takes a wolf to catch a wolf.
Denzel’s performance is unreal. He portrays a master manipulator who explains away his devious behaviour by using the ends-justify-the-means theorem. He plays games with the lives of others, jumping back and forth between both sides of the law, as if it were hopscotch. As shown in the above scene, his life is a dangerous balancing act on a tight rope that he was bound to fall from, eventually.
Not sure if anyone will even read this, buuuut... I seriously think there are so many great villains that are so underrated. I’d love to know any more than you think are underrated, as I enjoy analysing the psychology of antagonists.
Originally Posted by Leanna
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