The 20 Best Examples Of Psychopaths In The World Of Cinema
The psychopath is a very recurring figure in cinema, especially because as a resource he is very attractive and, on many occasions, synonymous with great income. A movie with a psychopath is a movie that will get people talking, even if it is bad.
Next we will see 20 examples of psychopaths in cinemacharacters from movies that have attracted a lot of attention, especially because of how violent some of their protagonists are.
Although psychologists know that Not all psychopaths have to be physically violent (your boss could be one of them) it is clear that the violent, bloody and unempathetic serial killer is a cinematographic resource understood as the textbook psychopath. Actually, psychopathy is more of a variable combination of coldness and violence, both physical and psychological, a being with little empathy but who does not necessarily have to do harm to achieve what he intends.
Likewise, there are hundreds of films in which the protagonist or his main rival are described as psychopaths. The greatest film directors have not been able to resist including some psychopath in their films, especially because whether we want to recognize it or not, men and women who pursue other people as if from a prey-predator relationship provoke a certain morbid attraction. would try
Blood, extreme violence hidden with seduction tactics or, simply, because you want to take someone’s life are very recurring plots in the seventh art. Below we will discover 20 examples of psychopaths in cinema, all of them very well known and who, Although his way of being cannot be extrapolated to that of all psychopaths in real life, it can be said that it corresponds quite well to the most serious cases.. In fact, among some of them there are real cases.
1. Annie Wilkes (Misery, 1990)
Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) is obsessed with her favorite writer, Paul Sheldon (James Caan). Her passion becomes so extreme that, When Sheldon crosses his path as if he had fallen from the sky, he kidnaps him..
Annie keeps Paul as her prisoner, taking him as a real hunting trophy, and demands that he continue writing for her pleasure and enjoyment, being willing to harm her favorite writer as long as her literary fantasies are satisfied.
Annie is a truly deranged psychopathic mind, cold, tempered and sinister, willing to harm what she loves most.
2. Joker (Batman Saga)
The Joker is a character that is already part of pop culture, and it is not surprising, since in all the films where his cartoonish way of behaving combined with almost inhuman cruelty appears, he does not go unnoticed.
This expert in generating chaos has been the most famous antagonist of the Batman moviesamong the most notable performances being those of Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989) and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, 2008).
Nicholson’s Joker is a kind of maniacal clown, while Ledger’s is a terrifying and unpredictable terrorist, dark but equally chaotic. The constant in all the films where this made-up enemy appears is a violent and disturbing behavior, making him considered one of the most memorable psychopaths in the history of cinema.
3. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)
Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” who enjoy tasting human meat and brains, paradoxical as he is also a psychiatrist. He works as a serial killer to obtain what he considers an exquisite delicacy.
4. Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men, 2007)
Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, one of the most notable psychopaths in the history of recent cinema. Anton has his own rules, his own personal code that motivates his actions, something that the rest of society cannot understand. Chigurh lacks remorse, conscience, and compassion, perfect traits for a hitman.
5. Don Lope de Aguirre (Aguirre, the wrath of God, 1972)
German actor Klaus Kinski plays Don Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish explorer who takes command of an expedition to the New World in the 16th century searching for the legendary land of El Dorado.
The heaviness of the journey and the obsession with wealth and success, accompanied by madness, turn Aguirre into a deranged person, who begins to undertake a rebellion in order to achieve glory, even if that means sacrificing his own companions.
6. John Doe (Seven, 1995)
John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey, is the main antagonist in “Seven.” His plan is based on what he himself believes is a mission from Godwith which he will take each of the seven deadly sins to the extreme, taking as victims people who have previously committed them.
7. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct, 1992)
Sharon Stone plays Catherine Tramell, a writer who has great manipulation skills. In the film she is linked to the murder of a rock star who is also her boyfriend. To save herself from conviction, Tramell ends up seducing the same police officer who is investigating her, showing her great capacity for control despite being her main suspect.
Tramell is one of the favorite villains of all time, especially for her great use of seduction tactics, exemplified by her well-known crossing of her legs.
8. Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange, 1972)
“A Clockwork Orange” is part of popular culture for being so tremendously strange and, at the same time, violent, accompanied by an exquisite soundtrack made from Ludwig van Beethoven’s greatest melodies.
Its protagonist is Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a violent character who commits all kinds of “mischief” with his friends after drinking a few glasses of, let’s say, “sweetened” milk: beatings, rapes and murders are constant in the first part of the film. , acts typical of a man with a clearly violent nature.
After committing an “involuntary” murder and being betrayed by his own friends, Alex is arrested and convicted. Instead of serving a normal sentence, our protagonist undergoes a series of maddening experiments to “cure” him.experiments that work more or less.
9. Aileen Wuornos (Monster, 2003)
Based on a real case. Aileen Wuornos was a former prostitute who, after being raped by a client, decided to kill him, something that sparked her desire to end other people’s lives in the most brutal ways. In the film Wuornos is played by Charlize Theron, an actress who had to gain 14 kilos and wear dental prosthetics to get into the role of the monster that was Aileen.
10. Chad (In the Company of Men, 1997)
Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and his partner Howard are two emotionally unstable managers, so much so that at one point they decide to take revenge on the women, ruining the lives of the most innocent ones. In the film Chad stands out above all, a cruel and manipulative character.
11. Mickey Knox and Mallory Knox (Natural Born Killers, 1994)
Although this pair of murderers did not exist in real life, their story is inspired by a true case, specifically that of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, who committed 11 murders in the 1950s.
In the film we have Mickey and Mallory, lovers who had hard childhoods and youths, so much so that it altered their minds and aroused in them a great adoration for violence, which is what has united them. They love each other as much as they love to kill, being so bloody that they attract media attention.
The story of the real protagonists becomes a festival of graphic violence, so much so that even specialized critics rated it negatively for going overboard in exposing the lives of these two psychopaths.
12. Patrick Bateman (American Psycho, 2000)
Patrick Bateman, star of “American Psycho” and played by Christian Bale, is a New York executive who has a great passion for human bloodwhich makes him a terrifying serial killer that no one suspects as he dresses elegantly and sophisticatedly.
Bateman is the life image of what we would understand by an “adorable psychopath”, attractive and who takes great care of how he dresses.
13. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction, 1987)
The charismatic Glenn Close plays Alex Forrest, a woman who has a brief affair with a man she becomes obsessed with. Her obsession has no limits, and her madness is such that she even kidnaps the son of her lover, starring in scenes full of terror despite there being cute bunnies involved.
14. Hayley Stark (Hard Candy, 2006)
Hayley Stark (Elliot Page) She is a 14-year-old teenager who decides to take the law into her own hands.. In the film it shows us how young Hayley savagely tortures an alleged sexual predator that she met through an Internet chat. Most of the film takes place in photographer Jeff Kohlver’s home.
John Kramer (Tobin Bell), known by his nickname “Jigsaw” is the protagonist and antagonist of the Saw horror saga. The protagonist because he appears in all of them, and the antagonist because he makes life impossible for each of the protagonists who appear in each of them.
Jigsaw enjoys forcing his victims to “play” with puzzles and traps, games that he uses to justify his actions. He is passionate about machines and mechanical devices, a true psychopath who does not hesitate to torture his prey for fun while he believes he will apply a certain type of justice, who knows what.
16. Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street Saga)
Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is one of the most terrifying characters in cinema. This psychopath It attacks in a place where we can hardly defend ourselves: our dreams. Krueger murders teenagers.
Robert Englund was nominated twice in the “best supporting actor” category for the Saturn Award thanks to his portrayal of Krueger in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors” (1987) and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The lord of dreams” (1988).
Krueger is considered a supernatural monster, an icon of the darkest and darkest psychopathy, which makes him even more sinister by being able to move between the world of dreams and that of waking.
17. Norman Bates (Psycho, 1960)
Norman Bates is a classic in the history of cinema and He is considered the prototype of what a psychopath is in a horror movie.. Played by Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock’s great film “Psycho,” Bates takes on an antagonistic role.
This is a psychopath who has lost his sanity to such an extent that he keeps his mother’s corpse, talks to her as if she were still alive, and wears her clothes. The film is a true spiral of madness and perversion that has become especially famous for its scene with the knife in the bathroom.
18. Mr. Rubio (Reservoir Dogs, 1992)
Michael Madsen stars in “Reservoir Dogs” playing Mr. Blonde in this film by the famous Quentin Tarantino, a film in which he debuted as a director. Mr. Rubio is a psychopath who has no qualms about torturing a bound and gagged man with a sharp razor blade while performing an impromptu dance to “Stuck in the Middle” by Stealers Wheel in the background.
19. Paul (Funny Games, 2007)
In “Funny Games”, two very disturbed young people are determined to destroy an entire family’s vacation, turning their tranquility into a true nightmare. Paul (Arno Frisch and Michael Pitt in the remake) stands out in the film, turning the film into a horror film, an idea somewhat deviating from what the director originally intended. The director, Michael Haneke, wanted to make this feature film a moralistic example of what violence means to today’s society..
20. Kakihara (Ichi the Killer, 2001)
“Ichi the Killer” is an adaptation of the manga “Koroshiya Ichi o Koroshiya 1” by Hideo Yamamoto. In it we have Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a member of the yakuza who, in addition to standing out for his blonde hair, draws attention for being quite sadistic, so much so that This movie is not for those with a sensitive stomach..
In fact, the film is demonically graphic, so explicitly gory that it was banned in several countries. The blame lies squarely with Kakihara, who makes physical torture a true art, removing viscera and amputating limbs like someone removing the petals from a flower. He is a real psychopath.
