10 Most Common Types of Villains in Movies

6. Potential-good-guy-from-another-perspective villain

There are some movies that have a character who is portrayed as the villain because of a conflict of ideas with the character portrayed as they hero. The actions of the villain are justified if portrayed in the right light or from a different perspective. This is a technique that a lot of great films make use of. Some movies that follow a criminal of some sort as the protagonist like ‘Catch me if you can’ or ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ have to focus on him so police officers become to villains in the movies despite being the good guys in real life. This is better used in movies that make you question your own belief of what is right and what is wrong.

One of the best examples is Ozymandias from ‘Watchmen’. His plan does entail killing millions but it would unite two enemies with nuclear arsenals, saving billions. His plan seems logical even to the god-like hero, Dr. Manhattan. Another super-villain who doesn’t seem like such a bad guy is Magneto. He just wants his kind to be safe from the danger he thinks that humans pose to them. His belief that humans cannot coexist with mutants is proven right in the events of ‘X-men: Day of future past’. He was right all along.

7. Anti-hero/ Antagonist

The antagonist or the anti-hero is very different from traditional villains in the fact that antagonists are usually not evil. They are just on the opposite side of an issue or a battle. This could be seen in any of the ‘Rocky’ movies. Rocky Balboa’s opponents are just other boxers and they compete for a living which leads to the conflict with the hero. Most war movies also subtly use this kind of characters. The individual soldiers fighting on the front lines aren’t bad. They are just patriotic about different countries. When portrayed well, it can lead to masterpieces like ‘The pianist’. We do know that their leader is an evil man but every soldier is just serving his motherland and fulfilling his duty.

8. Psychopath

This is a term used in psychology to refer to a person who does not feel remorse. Psychopaths lack empathy making them cold hearted ruthless killers. They have an inner urge to do evil things and they have no pity for their victims. This type includes masterminds like John Doe in ‘Seven’ and Hannibal Lecter in ‘Silence of the lambs’ but also agents of chaos like The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’ and others like the titular Norman Bates from ‘Psycho’ and Patrick Bateman in ‘American Psycho’.

9. Megalomaniac

These are the formulaic villains with the deep desire to rule the world. Their sole motivation is money and power beyond match. They just want to be the best. This is the formula that most Bond villains fit into, from Blofeld to Goldfinger and Elliot Carver. They are egotistical maniacs who destroy everything in their path to their goal. Another example would be Megatron from the ‘Transformers’ movies who even derives the first half of his name from the type of villain he is.

10. Pure evil

This is the least justified or clarified type of villain in movies. They are just personifications of evil. They have no other intent but to cause harm to everyone and destroy everything. They are often associated with darkness and usually shown in black for the sake of symbolism and redundancy. This includes Snow White’s and Cinderella’s evil stepmothers whose only purpose is to be evil. Sometimes they can manifest as just wicked humans like Nurse Ratched in ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’. All-in-all some of the biggest and baddest movie villains of all time have been agents of evil. Three of the largest franchises in movies have a purely evil villain at their core; Lord Voldemort, Sauron and Darth Vader.