The 20 most terrifying killers in non-horror movies

Kathleen Turner burst onto the national scene when she appeared in the neo-noir film Body Heat, where she played the femme fatale Matty Walker. Like so many other of the genre’s dangerous women, she ensnares a man in her web, convincing corrupt lawyer Ned Racine (William Hurt) to murder her husband. However, she’s more than willing to get her own hands dirty. It’s heavily implied she murdered a woman who was trying to blackmail her. Turner is absolutely compelling in the role, giving viewers a woman who is determined to bend the rules to her advantage, no matter who she has to kill along the way.

In Monster,  Charlize Theron gives one of her career's finest and most frightening performances, starring as Aileen Wuornos, the noted serial killer. It would have been very easy for Theron to paint the character simplistically. She instead allows the viewer to understand the broken psychology and tortured life of a woman who became one of the 20th century’s most notorious serial killers. She might be a monster, but she is also a human, and the latter aspect makes her so frightening, as it forces the viewer to reckon with how misogynist violence can create monsters of almost anyone.

Gloria Swanson earned a place in the pantheon of great actresses when she appeared as Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. Delusional yet grand in an old Hollywood sort of way, Desmond finds herself falling in love with a struggling screenwriter, slowly ensnaring him in her dangerous web. Ultimately, she shoots him when he tries to leave her, cementing her slide into madness. Norma’s last scene, in which she descends a staircase, her maddened gaze fixed on the camera, is one of the most recognizable moments in the history of the movies, and she manages to be both terrifying and tragic simultaneously.

As with horror, film noir is a genre filled with killers, men and women who exist in the cynical, amoral underbelly of the modern world. Barbara Stanwyck’s Phyllis Dietrichson, the femme fatale of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, is one of the genre’s most terrifying creations. After manipulating her lover into murdering her husband in cold blood (while she drives the car, her gaze fixed in the distance and a cold smile on her face), she proceeds to shoot Neff once he turns against her. Icy and cold yet fiercely sexual, she is one of the most dangerous women to have emerged from post-war film noir.

Daniel Day-Lewis delivers one of his usual extraordinary performances in There Will Be Blood, in which he plays Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector who unexpectedly hits it big. It becomes clear that Plainview is something of an egotistical monster, willing to do whatever he needs to do to accrue wealth. At the film's end, he goes so far as to bludgeon a man to death with a bowling pin. Day-Lewis pours his heart and soul into this villain, making him something akin to a father figure from ancient myth, towering over his son's life and all who come into his orbit.

The late Dennis Hopper is one of those actors whose off-screen persona was often as outlandish (and sometimes outright pathological) as his on-screen characters. In Blue Velvet, he portrayed one of his most frightening characters, Frank Booth, a monstrous man who rapes and assaults Dorothy Vallens. With his gas tank and penchant for brutal violence, he is the film’s monstrous id. In addition to his sexual crimes, he is more than willing to inflict pain and torture on anyone, and his severing of Dorothy’s husband’s ear ranks up there as one of the most frightening moments in a David Lynch film.

There are many reasons why Harry Potter is one of the most successful fantasy franchises, including its villains. In the pantheon of Harry Potter  baddies, Bellatrix Lestrange stands out, particularly as Helena Bonham Carter portrays her. Utterly devoted to Lord Voldemort’s mission, she is more than willing to torture anyone she thinks isn’t worthy of her respect. Look no further than her malice toward the Longbottoms, whom she tortured into insanity, to see how terrifying she is. Her murder of Sirius, her cousin, earned her a place in the pantheon of great killers.

Though Robin Williams was known throughout his life for his tremendous skill as a comedic actor, drama often allowed him to show his brilliance. In Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia, he plays Walter Finch, the man responsible for the murder of a young woman. Finch is one of Williams’ most compelling and terrifying characters. While he seems meek and mild on the surface, he is more than willing to commit murder. This contrast between his outward seeming and his true nature is precisely what makes Walter so compelling to watch, even as it also unsettles the audience and makes them question what makes a monster. 

There’s never been a film quite like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which managed to be many things at once: fantasy, comedy, animation, live-action, and noir. It is particularly notable for its inclusion of cartoon characters from Looney Tunes and Disney. Looming over the entire film, however, is the shadow of Judge Doom, a powerful judge who is ruthless, cunning, and cruel. Particularly unsettling is his willingness to kill tunes by means of “the Dip.” He is ultimately defeated, but not before showcasing some of his more petrifying aspects, and he remains one of the best characters ever created by Christopher Lloyd.

Daniel Day-Lewis is known for being an actor who truly immerses himself in the mind and body of his characters. In Gangs of New York, he gives one of his most electric and unsettling performances as Bill the Butcher, the leader of a New York gang. Like so many of the actor's other characters, Bill is impossible to look away from, but he is utterly ruthless and capable of killing a man in cold blood in the middle of the street. His pride and honor mean more to him than almost anything else, and his steely determination to maintain his power makes him fearsome. 

Even now, two decades after its release, The Silence of the Lambs  remains one of the most chilling and suspenseful movies ever made. Far more suspense than true horror, it features stellar performances from Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Just as disturbing is the serial killer known as Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine. This controversial character remains as terrifying now as he was when the film came out, thanks to Levine’s powerful portrayal of a person with a twisted soul and a tortured psyche, someone who murders women so he can make their skins into his personal woman suit. He is the stuff of nightmares. 

Whatever the criticisms it has endured, there’s no question James Cameron’s Avatar is a marvel of cinematic storytelling, and it includes a compelling villain in the person of Quaritch. He is, in many ways, the epitome of extractive capitalism. He has so thoroughly imbibed the ethos of militaristic colonialism that it never even occurs to him to care about the lives of the Na’vi, not even when his actions lead to numerous deaths. He is such a true believer in his rightness that he emerges as such a compelling villain, someone the viewer is invited to love and hate.

In the various iterations of Frank Herbert’s Dune, Baron Harkonnen has always loomed large as a terrifying killer. This man will kill those under his control simply because he can, and he takes great pleasure in inflicting as much pain as possible. What makes him so frightening is that he is not merely a slave to his sadistic appetites. When he sets out to destroy Duke Leto Atreides and his family, he does so with surgical precision. He is a villain with a subtle and crafty mind, making him very perilous for anyone who challenges him.

The MCU has always had a knack for creating compelling villains, but Thanos looms large in the cinematic imagination. Josh Brolin imbues the character with a certain grave respectability even though, as the films go on, it becomes increasingly clear that he plans nothing less than eradicating half of all life in the universe. Like many mass murderers, Thanos seems to be a true believer in his toxic ideology, and it is this pervasive and perpetual sense that he is doing what he believes to be best makes him such a fearsome being. There’s nothing more dangerous than a true believer.

Robert De Niro gives one of his most inspired and acclaimed performances in Taxi Driver, where he plays the disaffected and severely troubled Travis Bickle. Antihero and protagonist, Bickle embodies many of the contradictions and failures of American masculinity as he becomes convinced he is the one to cleanse New York City of its crime and filth. He is a figure of tragedy and hubris. Though his actions are deeply reprehensible, De Niro’s extraordinary performance also renders him an avenging angel that the viewer cannot look away from, even as they cower at his acts of tremendous violence. 

Christopher Nolan left his indelible mark on the Batman franchise with his  Dark Knight  trilogy, which introduced a new, grittier aesthetic. One of the standouts of this film was Heath Ledger’s turn as The Joker. Unlike many of the other iterations of the character — many of which are at least a little lighthearted — Ledger is a true agent of chaos and darkness. He seems to exist beyond the pale of the human, leaving an extensive trail of bodies in his wake. It’s no wonder this has come to be seen as one of the late Ledger’s most defining and critically acclaimed roles. 

The Night of the Hunter has the distinction of being the only film directed by the actor Charles Laughton. Robert Mitchum portrays Harry Powell, a cold-blooded killer who claims to be a preacher but engages in a great deal of ungodly behavior, including murdering a widow and sinking her body in a river and pursuing her two children, intent on getting a stash of money hidden in a doll. This is a man driven by his sense of righteousness, and the fact that he is more than willing to murder children in cold blood to get his hands on some money is a testimony to how fearsome he truly is.

Javier Bardem gives one of the most remarkable and terrifying performances of his career in No Country for Old Men, in which he plays Anton Chigurh, a sort of angel of death figure who haunts the film. He is archetypically evil, unable or unwilling to show mercy to anyone who happens to cross his path, and, as such, is essentially the embodiment of relentless evil in the film’s imagination. With his dead eyes and fearsome weapon — a captive bolt stunner —he kills several people during the film’s runtime. At the same time, Bardem also imbues him with a sinister sort of charisma, and he is a figure of mingled fascination and fear.

With Schindler’s List,  Steven Spielberg demonstrated that he truly deserves to be seen as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation. The film is wrenchingly difficult to watch, partly because its villains, including Ralph Fiennes’ Amon Göth, are so deeply human and unreservedly evil. Fiennes gives one of the most remarkable performances of his career, and he seems to inhabit this dreadful figure who is willing to execute any Jewish person. He is an undeniably monstrous figure, and his actions are based on actual history, making him even more horrifying. He is a potent reminder that those who perpetrated the Holocaust were real people.

Though many musicals are optimistic and sunny in outlook, this isn’t the case with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  Tim Burton brings his usual stylistic flourish to the 2007 film adaptation, but it’s really Johnny Depp’s movie, and he imbues this tragic figure with larger-than-life menace and tragedy. Todd has been forged into a purveyor of death by the injustices dealt against him, and he is utterly ruthless as he pursues vengeance against those who wronged him. The fact that his murders are at least understandable makes him such a viscerally unsettling figure.