10. NURSE RATCHED
WHY HER: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s sadistic head nurse is the embodiment of bureaucratic tyranny. Oscar winner Louise Fletcher’s placid demeanor makes her even scarier.
MOST EVIL MOVE: Shows no remorse after Billy Bibbit kills himself in fear of her telling his mom that he was discovered with a hooker.
9. DRACULA
WHY HIM: The most famous vampire this side of Edward Cullen, the 1897 invention of novelist Bram Stoker yielded a series of classic films starring (in America) Bela Lugosi and (in Britain) Christopher Lee that made bloodsucking scary, freaky, and sensual.
BEST ACCESSORY: The cape, perfect for menacing swishing noises.
BIGGEST WEAKNESS: Stakes? Not a fan.
8. VOLDEMORT
WHY HIM: Cruel with no hope of redemption, Harry Potter’s nemesis (Ralph Fiennes in the films) is an old-school unrepentant, power-hungry, control-freak. But his loathing for anyone who doesn’t meet his definition of ”normal” is utterly of the moment.
MOST EVIL MOVE: Killing Harry’s parents.
BIGGEST WEAKNESS: Motherly love.
7. CATHERINE TRAMELL
WHY HER: In Basic Instinct, she’s the ultimate femme fatale, as beautiful as she is deadly — although, come to think of it, we’re still not sure she actually killed anyone.
BEST ACCESSORY: Ice pick.
MOST EVIL QUOTE: ”What are you going to do — charge me with smoking?”
6. MR. BURNS
WHY HIM: The Simpsons‘ 104-year-old billionaire, owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, boasts an insatiable appetite for wealth, power, and other people’s unhappiness.
BEST ACCESSORY: Sycophantic sidekick Waylon Smithers.
MOST EVIL QUOTE: ”Release the hounds!”
BIGGEST WEAKNESS: Unhealthy obsession with Bobo, his childhood teddy bear.
5. ALEX DeLARGE
WHY HIM: With his penchant for ”ultraviolence,” Malcolm McDowell’s cold-blooded teenage sadist helped Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian sci-fi film A Clockwork Orange earn an X rating in the U.S. and heaps of controversy.
MOST EVIL MOVE: Beating and raping a woman while crooning ”Singin’ in the Rain.”
BIGGEST WEAKNESS: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
4. THE JOKER
WHY HIM: Batman’s greatest adversary is ruthlessly, functionally insane. As portrayed by Cesar Romero on TV, he’s a little-j joker; played by Jack Nicholson on film, he’s a violent hambone; in the hands of Heath Ledger, he’s hair-raisingly awesome.
MOST EVIL QUOTE: From The Dark Knight, ”See, I’m not a monster — I’m just ahead of the curve.”
3. HANNIBAL LECTER
WHY HIM: He packs a lot of screams into only 27 minutes on screen. But that was long enough for Anthony Hopkins to nab an Oscar for his chillingly erudite cannibal inThe Silence of the Lambs.
MOST EVIL QUOTE: ”A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
2. DARTH VADER
WHY HIM: Duh. Scourge of the galaxy. Han Solo freezer. Youngling exterminator.
MOST EVIL QUOTE: ”Give yourself to the Dark Side.”
LEAST BADASS MOVE: His initial act after first donning the classic black suit inRevenge of the Sith? Breaking down like a little girl upon learning about the death of his wife.
1. THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST
WHY HER: With her bone-rattling cackle, puke-green complexion, and relentless bullying of a young girl and her dog, Margaret Hamilton’s sadistic crone has been making small children flee the room for 70 years. And what other villain can boast her own hit spin-off Broadway musical?
MOST EVIL QUOTE: ”I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.”
LEAST BADASS MOVE: Cowering just because Glinda the Good Witch gave her the stink eye.