Top 20 examples of psychopaths in the movie world

The psychopath is a very recurring figure in the 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 is going to be talked about, even if it's bad.

Next we will see 20 examples of psychopaths in the moviesMovie characters that have attracted a lot of attention, especially because of how violent some of their protagonists are.

• Related article: "20 Movies on Psychology and Mental Disorders"

20 examples of psychopaths from the movies

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 unsympathetic serial killer is a cinematic device understood as the manual psychopath. Actually, psychopathy is rather 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 get what is proposes.

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 we want to recognize them or We do not have a certain morbid attraction to men and women who chase other people as if it were a prey-predator relationship.

Blood, extreme violence covered up with seduction tactics or simply because you want to take someone's life are very recurring plots in the seventh art. Next we will discover 20 examples of psychopaths in the cinema, all of them well known and that, Although his way of being cannot be extrapolated to that of all psychopaths in real life, it must be said that he corresponds quite well with the most serious cases. In fact, some of them include 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 her path as if out of the blue, she kidnaps him.

Annie keeps Paul as her prisoner, taking him as a true hunting trophy, and demands that he keep writing for like her and enjoy her, being willing to hurt her favorite writer as long as her fantasies are fulfilled literary.

Annie is a truly unhinged, cold, tempered and sinister psycho mind, willing to do harm to what she wants 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 movies where his cartoonish way of behaving together with an almost inhuman cruelty comes out, they don't make it happen unnoticed.

This expert in creating chaos has been the most famous antagonist of the Batman moviesAmong the most notable performances are those of Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989) and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, 2008).

Nicholson's Joker is something of a maniacal clown, while Ledger's is a terrifying and unpredictable terrorist, dark but equally chaotic. The constant in all the movies where this enemy makeup appears is violent behavior and disturbing, causing him to be considered one of the most memorable psychopaths in movie history.

3. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)

Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," who enjoy savoring meat and human brains, paradoxical being also a psychiatrist. He works as a serial killer to get what he considers to be an exquisite delicacy.

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4. Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men, 2007)

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, one of the most remarkable psychopaths in recent film history. 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 hit man.

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 looking for the legendary land of El Dorado.

The heaviness of the journey and the obsession with wealth and success, accompanied by madness, make Aguirre a person deranged, which begins to undertake a rebellion in order to achieve glory, even if it means sacrificing her own classmates.

6. John Doe (Seven, 1995)

John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey, is the main antagonist in "Seven." Her plan is based on what he himself believes is a mission of God, with which she 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 manipulative skills. In the movie she is linked to the murder of a rock star who is also her boyfriend. To save himself from her conviction, Tramell ends up seducing the same policeman 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 handling of seduction tactics, exemplified in the 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 the greatest melodies of Ludwig van Beethoven.

His protagonist is Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a violent little character who commits all kinds of "mischief" with his friends after having a few good 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 of a clear nature violent

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, decides to kill him, something that awoke her the bug for ending the lives of other people 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 prostheses 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 women, ruining the lives of the most innocent women. In the movie Chad stands out above all, a cruel and manipulative character.

11. Mickey Knox and Mallory Knox (Born Killers, 1994)

Although this pair of murderers did not exist in real life, their story is inspired by a case true, specifically that of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, who committed 11 murders in the 50s.

In the movie we have Mickey and Mallory, lovers who had tough childhoods and youth, so much that it altered his mind and aroused in them a great adoration towards violence, which is what has united them. They love each other as much as they love to kill, being so bloody that they get media attention.

The story of the real protagonists becomes a festival of graphic violence, so much so that even specialized critics valued her negatively for going overboard when 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 with a passion for human blood, which makes him a terrifying serial killer that no one suspects when he dresses elegantly and sophisticatedly.

Bateman is the image life 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)

Charismatic Glenn Close plays Alex Forrest, a woman who has a brief affair with a man she becomes obsessed with. His obsession has no limits, and his madness is such that he kidnaps the son of his lover, starring in scenes full of terror despite having cute bunnies involved.

14. Hayley Stark (Hard Candy, 2006)

Hayley Stark (Elliot Page) She is a 14-year-old teenager who decides to take justice into her own hand. In the film, she shows us how the young Hayley savagely tortures an alleged sexual predator that she met through an Internet chat. Most of the film takes place in the home of photographer Jeff Kohlver.

15. Jigsaw (Saga Saw)

John Kramer (Tobin Bell), known by his nickname "Jigsaw" (puzzle) is the protagonist and antagonist of the horror saga Saw. The protagonist because in all of them he appears, and the antagonist because he makes life impossible for each of the protagonists who appear in each one of them.

Jigsaw enjoys forcing his victims to "play" with riddles 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 applies a certain kind of justice, who knows what.

16. Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street Saga)

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is one of the most terrifying characters in cinema. This psycho he attacks in a place where we can hardly defend ourselves: our dreams. Krueger murders teenagers.

Robert Englund was nominated twice in the category of "Best Supporting Actor" for the Saturn Award for his portrayal of Krueger for "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 icon of the most murky and dark psychopathy, who He makes it even more sinister by being able to move between the world of dreams and that of the vigil.

17. Norman Bates (Psycho, 1960)

Norman Bates is a classic in film history and he is considered the prototype of what a psychopath is in a horror movie. Played by Anthony Perkins in "Psycho," the great Alfred Hitchcock film, Bates takes on an antagonistic role.

He is a psychopath who has lost his sanity to such an extent that he keeps the corpse of his mother, talks to her as if she is still alive and on top of her he wears her clothes. The film is a veritable spiral of insanity and perversion that has become especially famous for its scene with the knife in the bathroom.

18. Mr. Rubio (Reservoir Dogs, 1992)

Michael Madsen acts in "Reservoir Dogs" playing Mr. Rubio (Mr. Blonde) in this film by the famous Quentin Tarantino, film in which he made his directorial debut. Mr. Rubio is a psychopath who has no qualms about torturing a man bound and gagged with a razor-sharp blade while doing an impromptu dance to Stealers Wheel's “Stuck in the Middle” 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, a somewhat deviant idea from what its director originally intended. The director, Michael Haneke, wanted to make this film a moralistic example of what violence means for today's society.

20. Kakihara (Ichi the Killer, 2001)

"Ichi the Killer" is an adaptation of the manga "Koroshiya Ichi or 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 blond 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 is directly on Kakihara, who makes a true art of physical torture, removing entrails and amputating limbs like someone removing petals from a flower. He is a true psychopath.