Antagonists of the Ages: My All Time Favourite Movie Baddies

For each episode of The Movie Breakdown podcast, myself and co-host Christopher Spicer throw a movie based question of the week out.  It's great when people respond and we are able to get a sense of what movies mean to different folk.  This week's question is right up my alley - who is your favourite boogeyman or monster from the movies?  For me, it is impossible to look at this question and not bring up many names.

I've always been a bigger fan of villains than good guys.  I don't want a Luke Skywalker poster.  I want a Darth Maul poster.  Kirk was alright, but make way for Kahn, as played by Ricardo Montalban.  I don't know what it is that attracts me so much to the evil characters.  When I used to watch professional wrestling, I had little care for the 'faces' (essentially the good guys), but delighted in a dynamic 'heel' (the villain!).  With so many monumental antagonists, I decided to take a tour through the big ones for me, and then I shall end with my all time favourite (at least as from the time of writing.  These things always change).

Norman Bates - Psycho (1960)

There was a time when the baddy was either wrapped in thousand year old cloth, residing in Transylvania, or crawled out of a swamp.  These are the monsters that are so easy to vilify.  They are distinguishable, and they don't share what we share.  That line was crossed in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with Anthony Perkins portraying Norman Bates.  He didn't have a marquee appearance, and he blended in with everyone around him.

This may not have been the first time the murdering antagonist was a seemingly 'normal' person, but that didn't stop it from being a game changer.  Evil not only was human, but it was the nice young man next door.  It was the person who would great you on the street with a genuine smile, and hold the door open for you.  Norman Bates showed that the monsters of old, as scary as they looked, could pale in comparison to the nightmares brought on by an 'average' human being.

A Shark - Jaws (1975)

This is definitely a monster.  It was unseen, and lurking beneath the water.  Many people who have been swimming and decided to open their eyes when submerged know the eerie worry of seeing something dangerous and being nothing but vulnerable.  Not only did Spielberg's film play wonderfully on our fear of what lurks beneath us, but he also seemed to show human nature when dealing something we don't fully understand.

We have the character of Quint, a pure shark killer.  Opposite him is Hooper, a marine biologist.  To me, they represent the two sides of the spectrum of how we as people can react.  Quint believes there is no such thing as a good shark, and wants them purged.  Hooper wants to learn and understand, knowing that we are the ones who are invading the habitat of the shark.  Ultimately, as the film screened, the Quint side of people seemed to dominate, with massive shark hunting and killing happening.  This wasn't simply a monster from a story that made the beach feel unsafe, but one that actually caused real world damage to an ecosystem.

Freddie Krueger - A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

At a time when slasher movies were everywhere, there was something very distinct about the arrival of Freddie Krueger.  Slashers were populated with lumbering killers who stalked their prey and who lacked having personality.  This worked tremendously with Michael Myers from Halloween, but it was something that was over done and became stale.  With A Nightmare on Elm Street we were given a psychotic villain who truly enjoyed what he did, taking great joy from toying with his victims.

Not only was the character of Freddie Krueger the polar opposite of what we had previously, but the concept itself is chilling.  Sleeping is something that all people do.  There is no way to get around it.  It is something that is supposed to be restful, but director Wes Craven chose to flip that on its head.  Dreams were where Kruger killed his victims, meaning that you could evade him for a while, but ultimately you would fall asleep and come face to face with him.  While you could escape the gaping maw of Jaws by staying away form the water, Freddie Krueger was impossible run away from.

Burke - Aliens (1986)

Played by Paul Reiser, Burke was a charming feller.  He stood by Ellen Ripley after her encounter in Alien, and was the nice guy who represented The Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the outfit that Ripley had worked for.  Her experiences with The Corporation weren't good, as a synthetic being on her ship sought to sacrifice people to bring the dreaded xenomorph back for the financial benefit of The Corporation.  Burke worked hard to show Ripley that he wasn't like that, that things had changed, and that returning to the planet of the alien was a mission to exterminate them.

What is interesting in the film is the transformation of Burke through the second and third acts, as his intentions creep to the surface.  Not only did he lie to Ripley, but he planned to murder the entire crew to return with an alien sample.  Reiser was game for this, becoming a snivelling suit that the audience wanted to see get offed in the worst of ways.

While there are more blatant villains in the cinematic landscape, Burke was the face of the evil Corporation.  Financial interests far outweighed any human interests, and the bottom line shouldn't be affected by a few lives.  It is a brilliant character, because, let's face it, there are plenty of organizations out there that will play the system and take some devious actions.  This is something that most people already feel, that the little person doesn't matter when compared to profits.  James Cameron just put a likeable face on that distrust that we already had, and made us hate him even more.

Whatever the heck is was in the woods - The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Some may say this movie is over rated, but probably not those who saw it early in theatres before the movie could be spoiled for them.  Camping took on a whole new meaning, and the thought of being in the woods was terrifying.  Not only was the style of filming (found footage) new to audiences, but the characters acted real.  They slowly lose their patience and ability to reason as the movie progresses, and we are along for the ride.  It is easily still one of the most intense theatre experiences I have ever had.

The complete beautiful thing here is that we never see what is out there.  I always say that the imagination is the scariest thing, and directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez seemed to think along the same lines.  There are plenty of scares to be had here, but it is all out of our view.  All the audience can do is picture what is happening in their heads.  It's like being in a house at night, not able to sleep, and all of a sudden hearing something out of the norm.  Your mind can create a hundred awful scenarios very quickly.  Sadly, many people will not enjoy this film as much as those of us who were there in 1999.  The style of filming has been used to the point of nausea, and, as such, The Blair Witch could be a let down.  I can tell you this, though, for myself and many others who were there when it came out in theatres, the idea of getting into a tent at night wasn't going to happen, and it was all because of what we didn't see.

The Joker - The Dark Knight (2008)

When I was a child and saw Jack Nicholson play The Joker in Tim Burton's Batman, I was enthralled.  We saw the devilish Jack Napier transform into the ever-smiling Joker, a man who then set his sights on power.  Nineteen years later, Heath Ledger gave us an interpretation of The Joker that pushed aside any notion we had ever had of this comic book villain.

Christopher Nolan had created a monster with no ambition other than just chaos and madness.  Gone was the smile of the past, replaced by gruesome scars that insisted on a horrific past for the character. While Batman was a person who was trying to show hope and a spirit of standing for justice, he was pushed to the edge by an opponent with no moral compass that would take things to unheard of levels.  It was Heath Ledger that took the premise and gave a performance like none before, stealing every single scene he was in, and casting a disturbing light over an already dark movie.

Some Runner Ups

Michael Myers - Halloween.  Why did we do it?  Who exactly was he?  We didn't know, and that added to the terror.

Chucky - Child's Play.  This was the genre thrown upside down.  The killer wasn't a massive lurker, but a little toy resembling My Buddy.

Hans Gruber - Die Hard.  He was slickly dressed, he had an appreciation for scale models, and was a no terrorist.  Alan Rickman's performance gave a perfect baddie for John McClane to fight.

Darth Maul - Star Wars: Episode One.  It was a sad movie, but the visual design of Darth Maul was a work of genius.  Throw in the martial arts fluidity of Ray Park, and this was a very interesting Sith to watch.

The Babadook - The Babadook.  A supernatural creature that comes from a twisted children's book and is unbelievably scary.  It was the first movie in over a decade that legitimately made me scared.


So, it is time for what I consider the best movie villain...

John Bunting - The Snowtown Murders (2011)

I'm not picking this to be one of those people who want to flaunt that they have seen unheard of movies.  This is a legitimate antagonist for the ages.  Daniel Henshall plays Bunting, a real life killer from Australia.  Henshall's performance shows how someone can not only end up doing horrible things, but how they can entrance others to get in on the corrupt act.

The movie is directed with insane brilliance, but it is really Henshall that steals the show.  Bunting is a confident person, charming like none other.  There is a darkness to him, though.  We see it at times, and the revelation that comes of what Bunting really is happens slowly and with complete precision.  What begins as a likeable fellow concludes the movie with a genuine insight into the darkest nature of human beings.

There are many horrors with good villains that are fun, and some that scare, but Bunting was beyond that.  When the movie finished, I was compelled to write about it.  Something happened.  Through Henshall, I had seen something of human nature that was without reason, and without conscience.  It was ruthlessly disturbing, not because we saw a monster destroy lives, but because it was what regular human beings were pulled into through the perverse gravity of John Bunting.