Rami Ungar The Writer

Time for the second of this series, where I list my favorite villains for the year. And once again, I’d like to remind everyone that because Judaism has a differing view of Satan than the rest of the world, he will not show up in this list. Also, no villain of mine will show up in this list.

Now for a quick recap of numbers 10-6:

10. Voldemort (Harry Potter)
9. Randall Flagg (Stephen King’s The Stand)
8. The First Evil (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
7. Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion)
6. Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th)

And now that that’s out of the way, onto the Top 5:

5. The Mayor (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Properly known as Mayor Richard Wilkins III, he is the main villain of the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and arguably one of the best Buffy villains ever. Played by Harry Groener, he seems like a genial man with conservative values and a phobia of germs. But underneath that surface is a quasi-immortal sorcerer who has ruled Sunnydale for several decades with the end goal of becoming the reincarnation of one of the oldest demons in history (and when they’re old, that also means they’re big). To that end he manipulates much of the evil that occurs in Sunnydale and eventually turns Slayer Faith away from the side of good to his. Many writers have called him a classic villain, and he is certainly a fan favorite. If you’ve ever watched Buffy, you know why he ranks at number 5.

4. Maleficent (from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty)

Although this Disney classic was a commercial and critical failure in 1959 due to slow pace and lack of character development, it gained a following and I like to think Maleficent played a huge role in that. Her name a portmanteau of “magnificent” and “malignant”, she is considered one of Disney’s most famous and most dastardly villains. It’s her reputation that won her the honor of being the main villain in the Kingdom Hearts series, where she is often Sora and Mickey’s final antagonist. The strange thing is, she’s loved most her enigmatic personality and her mysterious past. We do not know why she cursed baby Aurora with the sleeping curse, though it’s probably not anything as petty as not being invited to her christening. Perhaps this’ll be explored in the new movie with Angelina Jolie that Disney’s cooking up. I hope so, because I’d like to know more about her.

3. Hannibal Lecter (from the Thomas Harris books)

Also known as “Hannibal the Cannibal”, Lecter has been featured or starred in four of Harris’s books. A sociopathic psychiatrist who makes meals out of the people who cross him, Lecter is considered one of the most influential villains in thriller history, and has been portrayed in various adaptations. Currently he is played by Mads Mikkelsen in the NBC prequel series Hannibal, where he is portrayed as a calm but calculating killer, someone you wouldn’t think of as a serial killer if you saw him on the streets. Knowledgeable and resourceful, Dr. Lecter has a way of getting in people’s heads and a way of making things difficult for investigators such as Will Graham and Clarice Starling. I highly recommend the NBC series, because if you ask me, Mikkelsen is better than Hopkins at portraying a madness of a whole different sort.

2. Freddy Kreuger (from The Nightmare on Elm Street)

Jason may be my favorite slasher, but Freddy is something that cannot be stopped. We can put distance between ourselves and Jason or Leatherface, but nobody can run away from sleep, and that is what Freddy uses. A serial killer/molester (depending on what version you’re watching), he was killed by vengeful parents who immolated him. Coming back as a ghost with a bladed glove, Freddy attacks the children of those same parents who killed him by entering their dreams and killing them in their dreams, causing their deaths in real life. Freddy has been played every time by Robert Englund except for the remake, when he was played by Jackie Earl Haley. Trust me, this is one guy you don’t want to dream about.

1. Dracula

I don’t need to tell you where our top villain comes from, his name says it all. Based on Vlad the Impaler and in some versions the exact same person, Dracula is a centuries-old vampire who travels from Trannsylvania to England to begin a campaign of world domination by taking over the most powerful empire at the time, but is stopped by Johnathan Harker and Dr. Van Helsing as they race to stop Dracula from turning Harker’s fiancée Mina into a vampire. The character has been influential as the first instance of a vampire being aristocratic and gentlemanly, which means Lestat, Edward, and all other vampires must consider Dracula their spiritual father. He has appeared in a variety of works thanks to the novel itself belonging to the public domain, and will be getting new life (so to speak) in an NBC miniseries this fall. I personally recommend Gary Oldman in the 1992 film adaptation and Richard Roxburgh as the count in Van Helsing.

Well that’s it for this year. Check back next year when I do a new list, possibly with some new or some old faces. So Hollywood/New York/whoever, you’ve got a year to impress me. I look forward to seeing new villains on the list.