A look at the things that separate the run-of-the-mill bad guy from the horrifying beings that haunt our darkest nightmares.
Villains can shake us to our very souls, sometimes just with a gaze Artwork by Cody Anderson
What truly makes a villain scary? What is the one thing that makes us fear one villain more than another? The villains who truly stand out, the ones who haunt people’s darkest nightmares, have something about them that sets just about anyone on edge. It’s their disposition, their mannerisms, and the way they get to the victim. With every villain they have some special, evil skill; but there are the few who not only scar their victims physically, but emotionally as well.
There are three cliché types of villain. One type just goes straight for the blood and guts. Let’s call them the homicidal maniac or the HM for short. Then comes the hidden villain, the one who is not expected, the devil in disguise, the DID. Finally the victim could be faced with the most peculiar villain, the “cold-blooded killer,” the CBK. Those are the ones that come at the victim apathetically, who usually do so without showing anger, rage, or many other emotions.
The HM are the simplest type of villains. They are there for the blood, the guts, and the gore. There usually is no rhyme or reason to most of their killings other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There tends to be a generic back-story for these villains, usually showing a simple, and sometimes seemingly stupid cause for their murderous rampages. These villains give the audience a cheap thrill, but as for any real value behind their characters, it can be sorely disappointing.
The HM are all about the Blood Blood Blood Artwork by Cody Anderson
Next, in the look at all things sinister, is the devil in disguise. The DID are the villains who have quirks. The audience usually either knows them from the start as the villain, or is shocked when the DID is revealed in one big sweeping conclusion. More often than not, this type of villain will be a child. This may be based on the idea that children hold something in them that is pure, so they are unexpected as the villain. The story behind these types of villains usually involves either some supernatural force, or some horrible, mentally scarring event in their past. As the main villain of a film, it can be shocking for the viewer to accept the fact a child or someone of such innocence could commit such heinous acts. This type of villain is a disappointment as the main villain because of the fact that there is little excitement in the idea of the DID performing such acts.
Finally there is the cold-blooded killer. The CBKs are the ones who torture their victims. The CBKs stalk their prey, hunting down what means most to that person and crushes it. They take away all sense of security, any hope, and any thought of survival. They break into the minds of their victims and wreck their sanity, their will to live, and their dreams. These villains do not have a constant story background besides the fact that they tend to be genius sociopaths. The stories range from some traumatizing event as a child to mental disorders to figments of the imagination. But as the main villain of a film, these villains truly excel because the fear they have grips people almost universally, not just based on some experiences or specific fears the audience may share.
But why does all this matter? Why should anyone care why one villain is better than another? Simple, if you want to have a film that goes down in history, if you want a film that everyone knows of, then you need to know how to create the villain to drive the story. Whether it’s the kind who cackles as the screen fades to black or the one who jumps out at the audience when the screen flashes, the villain should be the reason that the story moves. Without the villain, the hero is just a person who lives his/her life, without a purpose.
The CBK shatters the normal world, breaking the minds of their victims. Artwork by Cody Anderson
The traits that separate the different types of villain are used because of the ways they move the story forward, and the reasons of why the villain needs to be stopped. The homicidal maniac needs to be stopped for the blood bath to end, because the world within the story couldn’t survive with someone killing people without anything stopping him or her. The devil in disguise corrupts the world, destroying it from the inside. There’s a recurring theme here; we can’t have a broken world, inside or out, so the villain must be stopped. But then there is the cold-blooded killer. The reason that the hero rises up to stop them is because of how they twist the world, how the world becomes so distorted that the way it once was becomes as real as a dream.
That is what makes the cold-blooded killer the most interesting type of villain, because of the fact the CBKs twist the world, instead of destroying it. They do not just try and kill everyone. No, instead, they stalk their prey; learn its weaknesses, the things their prey depends on most. Then with a masterful stroke, the CBK takes it all away, either destroying the things the victim depends on most or turning them against the prey until there is no hope of returning to normal.
Maybe that is what makes the CBKs so brilliant, because of the fact that they not only take away everything that the victim holds near and dear, but they also twist the world so that it seems like nothing is safe. To kill somebody is horrible to start with, but what if the victim was being punished? The CBK often methodically takes away people the victim trusts, people they love and depend on. That way when the victims wake up each day, they now are running on less and less of what made them the person they once were, so that in the end even if the CBK is caught, if the CBK is defeated, the victim will never be the same. So, in the end, the villain is there to push the story forward, but are they going to resonate so deeply in not only the victim, but also the people watching it?
