Anton Chigurh & 9 Other NonHorror Characters Scarier Than Actual Horror Villains

Anton Chigurh & 9 Other Non-Horror Characters Scarier Than Actual Horror Villains

Most of the scariest villains are found in horror, but non-horror films like No Country for Old Men and Inglourious Basterds have terrifying baddies.

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From Norman Bates to Leatherface, Freddy Krueger to Michael Myers, the scariest villains in cinema tend to appear in horror movies. But not every cinematic baddie is as unsubtle about their villainy as waving chainsaws at tourists and slicing up teenagers in their dreams. In some cases, the ones who don’t wave chainsaws around and instead use more psychological attacks are even more frightening.

Anton Chigurh, the terrifyingly calm hitman played by an Oscar-winning Javier Bardem in the Coen brothers’ neo-western masterpiece No Country for Old Men, is a prime example, but he is far from the only one.

10 Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men)

Javier Bardem deservingly received an Academy Award for his chilling performance as contract killer Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. The Coens adapted Cormac McCarthy’s source material as an intense cat-and-mouse thriller in which a hunter goes on the run with a briefcase full of cash and a hitman relentlessly chases after him.

What’s most striking about Chigurh is his calmness. He’ll break into a motel room, shoot a bunch of people dead with a silenced shotgun, and then quietly sit at the foot of the bed and reflect. He seems more like a deadly force of nature than a human being.

9 The Joker (The Dark Knight)

It’s not easy to steal a Batman movie from Batman himself, but Heath Ledger’s Joker managed to overshadow the titular masked vigilante in The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan used the Clown Prince of Crime as a vehicle to explore post-9/11 fears of terrorism.

Throughout the movie, the Joker’s reign of terror has the residents of Gotham living in fear. Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance was so unsettling that some of his co-stars were genuinely scared during their scenes.

8 Amon Göth (Schindler’s List)

Ralph Fiennes’ most iconic portrayal of a villain is his performance as Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, but arguably his most terrifying portrayal of a villain is his performance as real-life S.S. functionary Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama Schindler’s List.

Fiennes’ turn as Göth was so convincing that when Holocaust survivor Mila Pfefferberg met him on the set, she began to shake uncontrollably. According to Spielberg, “Her knees began to give out from under her… She didn’t see an actor. She saw Amon Göth.”

7 Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)

David Lynch’s Blue Velvet has enough haunting imagery to qualify as a full-blown horror movie, but it’s more of a neo-noir crossed with a psychological thriller. Either way, Dennis Hopper is petrifying as the villainous Frank Booth whenever he’s on-screen.

Frank is a sociopathic pimp who has kidnapped Dorothy’s family and forced her into a life of prostitution. He constantly switches between his aggressive “Daddy” persona and his infantile “Baby” persona, which makes his violent attacks even more discomforting.

6 Noah Cross (Chinatown)

One of the seminal masterpieces that helped to define the neo-noir genre, Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson as a private eye whose run-of-the-mill adultery case unwittingly draws him into a harrowing widespread conspiracy involving wealthy businessman Noah Cross. Played brilliantly by John Huston, Cross is one of the most reprehensible villains ever put on-screen.

The movie’s shocking plot twist reveals that he did one of the worst things a human being could do – and feels no remorse for it. The scariest thing about Cross is his ability to seem pleasant and good-natured on the surface without a hint of the monstrous side he constantly has to hide.

5 Michael Corleone (The Godfather)

At the beginning of Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic The Godfather, Michael Corleone is a wayward war veteran with a bright future. His father Vito initially wants to keep Michael out of the family’s illegal dealings so he can go into a legitimate career. However, that all changes after an attempt on Vito’s life.

By the end of the movie, Michael is a heartless killer who has boldly taken over his family’s criminal enterprise. Al Pacino’s portrayal of Michael’s transformation from a good man to an inhuman monster is one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.

4 Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)

Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange makes no attempt to endear the audience to its protagonist Alex DeLarge. In fact, the opposite is true. The movie’s opening scenes paint Alex as a wholly unlikable sociopath who spends his evenings breaking into homes and sexually assaulting people.

At the movie’s midpoint, Alex is arrested and offered a reduced sentence in exchange for taking part in an experimental new rehabilitation method. The Ludovico technique strips Alex of all individuality, begging the question: is it worse to be an individual who takes joy in inflicting pain on others, or have no individuality at all?

3 Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest)

Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest encapsulates the anti-establishment tone of ‘70s cinema. Louise Fletcher won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her sinister turn as Nurse Ratched, the abusive tyrant who rules over her psychiatric ward with an iron fist.

Fletcher’s unsettling turn as Ratched represents the boot of authority, while Jack Nicholson’s everyman protagonist Randle McMurphy represents the little guy standing up to bureaucracy.

2 Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood)

Daniel Day-Lewis has rarely given a performance that didn’t turn heads, but his Oscar-winning work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is particularly impressive.

The movie charts the loss of Daniel Plainview’s humanity as his growing oil empire makes him greedier and greedier. The thick, gooey, sludgy oil offers a perfect visual metaphor for the corruption of Daniel’s soul.

1 Col. Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)

Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist World War II epic Inglourious Basterds is filled with great performances, from Brad Pitt’s turn as a renegade Southern lieutenant to Mélanie Laurent’s turn as a Jewish refugee hiding in plain sight, but there’s one actor who steals the show from all of them. Christoph Waltz received a much-deserved Oscar for his unnerving portrayal of S.S. Colonel Hans Landa. Whenever Landa enters a scene, it has the audience on the edge of their seats.

The opening dairy farm sequence gives him an unforgettable introduction. When he arrives at the LaPadite dairy farm, he keeps up the facade of friendliness for as long as possible before revealing that he’s fully aware of the Jewish refugees hiding under the floorboards. From there, he makes a lasting impression every time he’s on-screen.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/anton-chigurh-9-other-non-horror-characters-scarier-than-actual-horror-villains/

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