Big Baddies: The 30 Best Villains On Screen and Paper

Stories aren’t exciting without any conflict. Readers need tension to stay invested, the kind that keeps them turning page after page.

There are different types of conflict that you could introduce to a story. Your characters can fight against themselves, a force of nature, technology, the supernatural, or even society.

But the most common, and often most effective, way you can create conflict is by pitting your protagonist against another character. It’s more relatable and easier to imagine. After all, people fight against each other all the time.

So I’ve gathered up the worst (in action, not quality), the most compelling, and the most memorable villains to have ever graced the big screens and the literary world. Check them out below!

Best On-Screen Villains

Lots of movies and TV shows have offered us villains in many varieties. There are those you can only hate, others you just can’t help but pity, and a few bumbling idiots who want to be supervillains.

The majority of them can lack impact and fade from your memory days after you’ve watched them. But there are those that evoke so much emotion from you that they take up residence in your mind for long after the final credits roll.

Here are the best of the worst:

1. Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds

There’s your average Nazi, then there’s the two-faced, smooth-talking “Jew Hunter” that is Hans Landa. He’s a psychopath hiding behind a cheery exterior; a predator who likes playing with his prey as he slowly tightens the noose around their necks.

2. Freddy Kreuger from A Nightmare on Elm Street

There’s one thing that makes Freddy stand out from all the other slasher film villains: he’ll never let you rest. You’ll need to stay awake 24/7 lest he visits you in your dreams with his razor gloves. His interest in you means a slow and exhausting fight that will always end up with you in the dreamworld.

3. Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men

Chigurh is a relentless juggernaut of a hired killer. He sees himself as an emissary of fate, giving many of his victims a chance to survive through coin-flipping. Plus he uses a bolt gun (normally used to slaughter livestock) to kill his victims. It makes you wonder if he sees other people as nothing more than cattle.

4. Hans Gruber from Die Hard

Cultured, sophisticated, and ruthless, Hans Gruber is a monomaniac who acts like robbing a bank’s the same as a Sunday stroll—until a pesky off-duty cop enters the scene, that is. He walks around the building as if he owns it and kills for the simplest of reasons.

5. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket

Bootcamp turns men into warriors, and Gunnery Sergeant Hartman makes damned sure that’s so. With harsh training methods and even harsher words, he dehumanizes his recruits and scars them before they even go to war.

6. Count Dracula from Dracula

Dead people shouldn’t be so charismatic and compelling, but Dracula manages both with lots to spare. With every flick of his cape and every pause in his speech, he commands the attention of his victims—hypnotizing even you, who thinks you’re safe outside the screen.

7. HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Artificial intelligence that’s aware enough to plot your death is already terrifying. Delivering it in such a flat and affectless voice is what clinches it. No rage. No sadness. Nothing but cold indifference as it kills its victims in the loneliness of space.

8. Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs

Cannibalism is already a dangerous and disturbing trait for a villain, but pair it with a brilliant mind and you’ve got the terrifying Hannibal Lecter. He likes rooting around people’s heads (figuratively and literally). There’s something really scary about a mild-looking man calmly describing how he ate someone’s liver with fava beans and a glass of Chianti.

9. The Terminator from The Terminator

Relentless and nigh-invulnerable, there’s just no running from a high-tech machine from the future. Pump it with lead, bomb it, crush it, or knock its head off—you really need to get creative in destroying it. Unless it gets you first, which is more likely.

10. The Xenomorph from Alien

The Xenomorph is one of the most iconic creatures in cine history. Why wouldn’t it be? The tall and lanky bastard is absolutely terrifying with its acidic saliva, a fang-filled mouth inside another fang-filled mouth, and an entirely foreign way of behaving and thinking. That chestburster scene still makes me sweat.

11. Darth Vader from Star Wars

Before turning to the dark side, Vader was but a poor boy with an uncanny skill with engines. With a talent for the Force, he’s educated on the ways of the Jedi, only to lose himself in the grief of losing his loved ones. Now, he’s the enigmatic monster in every nerd’s collection, including mine.

12. Agent Smith from The Matrix

In a simulated world controlled by machines, Agent Smith is the bleep-blooping badass who upholds the status quo: humans are nutrients for machines. He’s an AI who’s supposed to be beyond emotion but clearly, there’s something wrong with his program because he hates humans with a vengeance.

13. Sauron from Lord of the Rings

We don’t even see much of him in the films, except his eye. But he’s so much of a threat that his presence is felt in every part of the narrative. Though he’s without corporeal form, he can still command armies, wield great magic, and turn the leader of the good wizards to his cause! Imagine how much harder it would have been for the Fellowship if he still had his body.

14. John Doe from Se7en

Our bad guy stays unseen for most of the film, committing ghastly crimes centered on the seven deadly sins. He actively taunts the police, playing them like puppets. It’s only near the end that you see who this faceless monster is, only to find him so mild-mannered and ordinary-looking, you’ll start wondering if this is another one off his games.

15. Captain Vidal from Pan’s Labyrinth

Like a lot of fascists, Captain Vidal’s beholden to no one. He’s got his own sense of justice, pride, and duty that lets him commit horrible crimes without any second thoughts. What makes it even worse is that he’s surrounded by a lot of good people with good intentions and goals, but he still chooses to remain blind and stick to his horrid ways.

Best Villains from Books

There’s something about reading that makes your imagination run wild. Good writers can create extraordinary antagonists that feel too real. They get into your mind and show you the most deplorable, the most evil, and the most unique scoundrels you’ll ever imagine. Check them out below.

1. Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

He’s low enough to plot about stealing the orphans’ fortune right after their parents died. When his adoption scheme doesn’t work out, he does his best to make their lives miserable and forces them to be constantly on the run. They’re just children!

2. Fernand Mondego from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Fernand Mondego is the reason for all the hardships Edmond Dantes experiences throughout the book, all because of an unrequited love. He’s behind a lot of betrayals and sinister plots, even selling someone’s wife and daughter to slavery so he can live a lavish life.

3. Professor James Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes’ brilliant mind seemed impossible to defeat, but he finally meets his match when Doyle introduces him to the professor. Every bit as brilliant, Moriarty is the antithesis to Holmes’ unorthodox but high sense of justice. He’s behind almost every major crime, with an organization so concealed that Holmes has to fake his own death to hunt them down.

4. Annie Wilkes from Misery by Stephen King

Rabid fans have always been a problem for people in the limelight. Sometimes it’s just a hyped-up sense of infatuation; but sometimes, it turns to be something like Annie Wilkes, who has no qualms about imprisoning her favorite author, forcing him to write his latest novel how she wants it, and subjects him to physical and psychological abuse when he doesn’t comply.

5. Voldemort from the Harry Potter series

Old Voldy’s terrorized the wizard community so much that just considered his name is considered taboo. Almost any painful thing that’s happened to any wizard can be traced back to him. He’s also insanely strong in magic and shows a willingness to do anything to get stronger—even splitting his soul to achieve immortality.

6. Sadako from Ring by Koji Suzuki

Sadako is the spirit of a woman murdered by her father and left to rot at the bottom of a well. Her anger, combined with her psychic powers, manifests into a cursed tape that kills anyone who’s watched it within seven days—unless they pass it on to someone else.

7. Cruella De Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

It’s simple: she kidnaps dogs and skins them for their fur. Selfish, spoiled, and absolutely a Karen, she won’t stop until she’s had her way, however unreasonable her demands. Need more proof? She abuses her own pets and drowns cats.

8. Kevin from We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Being the mastermind of a school massacre should illustrate his villainy well. He’s also pushed a girl into gouging out her eczema-stricken skin, has implied his involvement in his sister’s death, and regularly plays mind games with his mother. His lack of reason and remorse for doing these things is chilling, as if they’re just everyday occurrences in the world.

9. Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

He recklessly dives into science and decides to play God, managing to animate a stitched-together corpse—only to immediately abandon the resulting creature. This leads the creature to a path of loneliness, hate, and eventually murder. It’s an extreme case of bad parenting, in my opinion.

10. The Grand High Witch from The Witches by Roald Dahl

The Grand Witch likes to murder children. It’s practically the only thing she talks about in the book. I mean, turn the children into pests that their own parent will exterminate? That’s diabolical genius right there.

11. Satan from Paradise Lost by John Milton

He’s probably the ultimate villain in literature for Christians. He’s the embodiment of evil that a majority of people in this world base their concept of villainy on. His version in Milton’s epic, though, is a lot less primal evil and more of an anti-hero. He’s still full of himself, and it’s partly the reason why he instigates a war, but he’s also a believer of free will and actively advocates for it.

12. Judge Holden from Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Apparently, this dude’s a real, historical person. But I sincerely wish he wasn’t, because he’s as close to a devil that you can make a person. He’s a genius, but chooses to use his intellect into inflicting as much pain as he can. This seven-foot monster is almost supernatural in savagery, leading a pack of rouges into murder, rape, robbery, and pedophilia.

13. Richard III from Richard III by William Shakespeare

He says it himself at the start of the play: he’s a villain. He’s a hunchback consumed by jealousy against his own brother and hatches a plan to have him murdered so he can ascend the throne himself. Throughout the play, he unapologetically explains all his evil thoughts and actions without remorse or hesitation.

14. Long John Silver from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

He’s a pirate, and they’re all rascals in one way or another. But he’s also a fun pirate, the type of guy you’d love to hang out with. Unfortunately, he might stab you in the back later. But more than his pirate lifestyle, we see him become a genuine father figure to Jim Hawkins, proving that there’s some decency behind his dastardly exterior.

15. Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

This guy’s the first novel character that had me fuming. He’s everything you don’t want your kid to be: a thief and murderer who’s not afraid of using excessive violence whenever he can, leading a life of destruction and immorality. He ends up murdering the one person who genuinely loved him, just because he suspected her of betrayal. Poor Nancy.

Antagonists You Love to Hate

Villains are the spice to what would be an otherwise bland story. They’re as important as the protagonists you’re rooting for to succeed. In fact, you may sometimes find them more valuable than the heroes!

Good villains frustrate you, but great villains leave you confused. You’d be surprised at how many villains you’ll find yourself identifying with, or at least sympathetic to. Would that mean you’re also a baddie?

Well-written villains force the protagonist to grow by opposing them at every turn. If your protagonist needs to cross oceans, the villain finds a way to shipwreck them. If they need a certain item, the antagonist takes it first.

This constant tension elevates the story into something more epic: a narrative that evokes emotion and stays in your memory.

If you have an excellent villain in mind, feel free to share it in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• 3 Types of Supporting Characters and How to Write Them Better
• How to Write a Compelling Antagonist: 5 Steps to Building a Better Baddie
• What is an Antagonist? Common Types and Examples from Literature
• 5 Villain Name Generator Tools and Tips for Naming Your Antagonist