A Fortnight of Fright: Favorite Villains

Welcome to A Fortnight of Fright! Two weeks of Halloween any way you can possibly see it, hosted by me (The Book Addict’s Guide) and my wonderful co-host, Alyssa @ Books Take You Places!

In this edition of A Fortnight of Fright, I’m talking about my favorite villains. If you caught my Top Ten Tuesday from October 9th, we had a freebie week, and I chose to talk about my favorite literary villains. Today I’m talking about villains and baddies of all kinds: movies, books, and TV shows, and I even got to hear what some of our fellow bloggers had to say about it too!

Professor Severus Snape
I think Snape will always be my favorite villain because he’s kind of a villain, kind of not. He’s got a lot of depth to him which we learn in the later Harry Potter books/movies so it just creates this whole complex character instead of just being a purely evil villain out to get everyone. I also must say that that the Harry potter movies have a big thing to do with this too because I could never pick a more perfect Snape than Alan Rickman. He’s simply brilliant in the role of Snape so it’s really I love him but hate him all at the same time. I guess that’s kind of the point!

Darth Vader
How can you not have Darth Vader on a list of the best villains? Star Wars is a classic (I’m talking about episodes IV-VI, none of this Jar-Jar Binks crap) and Darth Vader is the ultimate baddie. From kids to adults, I think we’d all agree! He’s got some unique powers, a super evil lair the size of a planet (thank you, Death Star), a creepy following, and of course our heroes to fight against. Plus, the voice of James Earl Jones creates for a super-mean effect. And oh yeah, we have no idea what he looks like (okay, so we find that out later on and I’m sure people’s images were just completely shattered) and he’s got the creepy constant audible breath thing going on at all times, and not in a weird phone-breather type way.
What do the bloggers think? Tee at YA Crush told us that Darth Vader is her favorite villain ever (and we can see why!)

The Joker
I get sad every time I think of Heath Ledger as the Joker, mostly because we all know this role more or less lead to his untimely death. His dedication to the role – although proven quite unhealthy – really made the Joker such a perfect villain. He was creepy. He was psychotic. He was ruthless. And it was perfect. I know we all know Heath played a great Joker, but sometimes I really have to snap back into reality and force my brain to remember that this is the same guy from 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight’s Tale (yeah, that’s still one of my favorite Heath Ledger movies), The Patriot, etc. Because seriously. I really, truly forget that that’s him behind all the makeup. It doesn’t look like him, sound like him or seem like him. RIP Heath Ledger, but I will say he made the Joker one of my favorite villains of all time.

The Wicked Witch of the West
I sure hope everyone has seen the Wizard of Oz. If not, just stop what you’re doing and go watch the movie, then come back.
Okay, so now. The Wicked Witch of the West was definitely one of the best villains of all time. My poor mom was terrified of the witch when she was a kid (I don’t think I ever was though). Margaret Hamilton just absolutely owned the role and I couldn’t imagine someone else (not like I know any actors from the 1930s, but okay). I think we can all agree the Wicked Witch of the West is simply a classic and one of the most notorious movie (and literary – it did originate from a book, after all) villains, dating all the way back to the early 1900s in book form and 1939 as a movie.
I also had a LOT of fun reading various facts about the movie such as: the original director had Judy Garland as a blonde with baby doll-like makeup; Margaret Hamilton (the witch) suffered severe burns form a botched explosion during filming; and Toto the dog actually made more than some of the Munchkins as a daily salary.

Other honorable mentions: Jared the Goblin King from The Labyrinth (oh yeah, you know I’m including this one), Barnaby from Babes in Toyland (the 1961 version with Annette Funicello)

And now let’s hear from Ashley at Wholly Books! Who’s her choice for best villain?

Michael Meyers.

I’ve never been a fan of scary movies because in my experience they either 1) are stupid or 2) scare me. Neither option is ideal for me. So I pretty much stayed away from scary movies. However, when I was about 10 years old I was introduced to the villain that was to literally become my worst nightmare, Michael Meyers. My older cousin apparently thought that it was appropriate to let a 10 year old watch a horror movie with him. Then like all great older cousins, when the movie was over and I was officially scared crapless he decided to further scare me by getting an old Halloween mask and chasing me. Yeah, he was a super cousin.

(sorry for the visual, Ashley… Look away!)

For years after this I slept with my closet light on and whenever Halloween came around I was completely terrified that Michael would for whatever reason make an appearance at my house. Fortunately for me, this never happened.

Now, some of you that have watched Halloween may be wondering why I was so terrified of this guy. I think part of it was because I was young and scared of anything anyway but there were a few other reasons as well. For one, have you heard the music? It is creepy! I mean seriously, I still get scared whenever I hear the theme song. Second, the mask freaks me out. I hate how in the newer movies you can’t see his eyes. Third and most importantly, the guy won’t die! Shoot him, stab him, throw him off a cliff, run over him repeatedly and he will still be walking slowly after you…and he ALWAYS catches up.

So yeah, my name is Ashley and I am 24 years old and I’m still afraid of Michael Meyers.