From Feyd-Rautha in Dune: Part Two to Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max SagaThe 2024 movies have brought some really cool new villains to the big screen. There were some movie villains in 2024 who were simply evil with no redeeming qualities, like Nicolas Cage’s titular satanic serial killer in long legs. But there were also some villains who turned out to be sympathetic and misunderstood, such as Anxiety in Inside out 2.
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2024 brought some surprisingly great villain performances from actors who don’t normally play villains. The typically affable Hugh Grant played a terrifying monster in Hereticand the charming Josh Hartnett played a ruthless killer in M. Night Shyamalan. Trap. This year brought some really great movies, and with those great movies came some great villains.
10 cooper
Trap
M. Night Shyamalan Trap It doesn’t quite hold up as a thriller, but it works wonderfully as a black comedy. Josh Hartnett gives a hilariously over-the-top performance as a psychotic killer wearing the mask of a mild-mannered suburban father. Trap achieves the same cinematic paradox that Joker and Taxi driver; Cooper is clearly the bad guy, but because he is the character the audience follows, they are tricked into rooting for him.
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9 Mrs. Morrible
Wicked
Madame Morrible, dean of Wizardry at Shiz University, is a secondary villain in the original Broadway version of Wicked. But since the 2024 adaptation only covers the first half of the musical, she is the main villain of the film. Michelle Yeoh’s performance fits perfectly with the campy tone of the film while also allowing the character’s evil to shine and bringing some depth to the role.
8 Lou Langston, Sr.
love lies bleeding
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The emotional core of Rose Glass’s romantic thriller love lies bleeding is the love story of Kristen Stewart’s Lou and Katy O’Brian’s Jackie, but the biggest obstacle standing in the way of their happiness is Lou’s estranged father, Lou Langston, Sr. Ed Harris proves he’s still got it with a truly perverse performance. The way he abuses his daughter and manipulates Jackie makes Lou Sr. a truly despicable villain who is very easy to hate.
7 Dale Fernando Kobble
long legs
The cryptic marketing of Osgood Perkins’ psychological thriller long legs generated a lot of mystique around Nicolas Cage’s eponymous serial killer and, against all odds, his performance lived up to expectations. Cage is a magnetic presence on screen, as always, but he’s also deeply disturbing. It’s unbearably creepy, whether you’re screaming in your car or painting an interrogation room with your own blood, but it’s also impossible to look away.
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6 Dementum
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Chris Hemsworth stole every scene he appeared in as warlord Dementus in George Miller’s film. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. crazy max Villains are often stoic and stone-faced, but Dementus never shuts up. The gift of speech is his superpower; He keeps talking and talking until he convinces himself to get out of the problem. Although the entire story is based on Furiosa’s quest for revenge (and Dementus did something truly horrible to her), Hemsworth’s hilarious performance makes it strangely adorable.
5 Mr. Reed
Heretic
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In recent years, Hugh Grant left his heartthrob image behind and began playing stranger, darker and more eccentric roles. He took his career revival to a whole new level in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ religious horror hit. Heretic this year. Grant gives a truly sinister turn as the mysterious Mr. Reed, who holds two Mormon missionaries hostage to question their faith.
4 Macrinus
Gladiator II
For the most part, Gladiator II It is a remake in everything except the name that falls short of its predecessor. but the first Gladiator The movie didn’t have Denzel Washington chewing the scenery as power-hungry Macrinus. The sequel doesn’t get going and come into its own until Macrinus takes power from the emperors. Washington provides Gladiator II with plenty of comic relief, but also provides him with an unforgettable villain.
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3 sue
The substance
When failed star Elisabeth Sparkle first takes the beauty-enhancing drug in Coralie Fargeat The substanceshe wants to feel better about herself. He creates his younger counterpart, Sue, to boost his self-esteem. But Sue simply becomes the Hyde to his Jekyll and extracts what little youth he has left. Sue is a perfect body horror metaphor for the notion of daughters stealing their mothers’ beauty. While Sue increasingly enjoys being the center of attention, Elisabeth becomes a monster.
2 anxiety
Inside out 2
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From Anton Ego to Gabby Gabby, Pixar’s best villains aren’t all evil; They are simply wrong and misunderstood. They do not need to be defeated; they need help. Inside out 2‘s Anxiety is an excellent example of this. It would have been easy to portray Anxiety as a monster, but it’s much more complicated than that. Anxiety believes it’s useful to warn people about everything that could go wrong, and Maya Hawke’s nuanced and sympathetic performance of Anxiety captures that perfectly.
1 Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen
Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve saved Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen’s presentation until Dune: Part Twoand it was worth the wait. Austin Butler creates an unforgettable character with very little screen time; his Feyd is cunning, sadistic, and blatantly evil. Feyd is the dark inversion of Paul Atreides; He too was born into an important lineage and feels entitled to the throne, but he has even more sinister intentions. Butler’s unsettling smile alone makes Feyd the best movie villain of 2024.
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