Fannish 5: Five Scariest Villains
Nov. 12th, 2011 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak5 Scariest Villians (as opposed to Favorite Villians)
1.) Arthur (John Lithgow) aka Trinity from Dexter, season 4. Visceral performance, and arguably the scariest of Dexter's seasonal opponents. It's the combination of the father-knows-best-bonhommie not just with the killings but also with the emotional abuse he inflicts on his family which as opposed to the killing is only gradually revealed. Narratively, it's all the more effective because Dexter at first thinks Trinity is a role model for how to handle being both a serial killer and a family man, and it's fitting that Trinity ends up being the opponent who effectively defeats Dexter (which is Dexter's own fault - if he hadn't sabotaged investigations for his own selfish reasons Arthur would have been arrested long before) by killing Rita in a way that repeats Dexter's initial childhood trauma and destroys the family he has formed with Rita and her children. At to this a powerhouse performance by Lithgow who manages to make taking a bath utterly shudder-worthy, and you have my candidate for most memorable and scariest villain of the show, with only Rudy/Brian from season 1 as serious competition.
2.) The Borg in their first three Star Trek: TNG appearances. Unfortunately, this is something later watchers won't be able to appreciate, not only because of the later overexposure of the Borg on both Voyager and TNG but also because the overall tv viewing context today is too different. But in Q Who and Best of Both Worlds I + II, the Borg scared the hell out of me because a villain like this hadn't been done on Star Trek before. The idea of assimilation, losing free will and personality and (as demonstrated via Picard) the idea that somewhere in the back of your mind your old self is still there and powerless to prevent it was incredibly shudderworthy to me, as were the original Borg's uninterestedness in the usual villain trappings like posturing or declarations, or gloating. They just came, assimilated and went. (And as mentioned multiple times before, the fact this happened to the main character who afterwards had to deal with it instead of being cured by the reset button was completely new for Star Trek, if par the course now, heightening the effectiveness of the Borg as scary villains even more.)
3.) Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Never mind Lord Voldemort, standard evil overlord that he was. Umbridge the teacher in pink scared the hell out of me during Harry's first detention with her, when he realised what writing "I must not tell lies" over and over again really means. There are other reasons why Umbridge is such an effective villain - until this point in the saga, Hogwarts is still mostly fairytale refuge land for Harry (never mind the annual scares), and she strips it bit for bit of any joyful elements and turns it into a bureaucratic fascist nightmare - but this scene, which despite the magical element in it is as real a depiction of child abuse as you're likely to find, both in Umbridge's demeanour and Harry's reaction, is what makes me shudder to this day when I think of it.
4.) The Gentlemen from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Hush. I know I nominate them every time such a question is asked, but it's still true: they really are the most effective fairy tale monsters on tv. (And wisely Joss never tried to reprise them.) It's not the skeletal look, it's the fact they take people's voices, with the full impact of why only sinking in when they proceed to take a student's heart out without the poor guy able to scream for help that makes all the difference.
5.) The Alien in Alien. Again, a classic which probably won't work on today's viewers, especially if they've watched one of the later Alien movies first. I think it was Stephen King who once observed that if the original Star Wars was, despite the sci fi exterior, a fairy tale, the original Alien was, again, despite the sci fi exterior, a horror movie. Taking its time, artfully directed by Ridley Scott, and to me far more emotionally real than Cameron's more popular follow up because the grumpy crew of the Nostromo doesn't speak in stylized movie banter as the Marines in Aliens do, they're not soldiers, you know people like them and they're in no way prepared to handle what happens to them. And the Alien, in its first appearance and subsequently celebrated H.R. Giger design, in three stages, is a Freudian nightmare that combines just the right amount of actual exposure with letting the audience imagination do the work. (As opposed to the sequels where you see the beasties all the time.) It's a force of nature that can't be reasoned with and treats humans as breeding ground if it doesn't treat them as dinner, and it really looks, well, utterly alien, which was news in the 70s when aliens still very much looked like puppets and/or men in suits. It gave me nightmares for months.
1.) Arthur (John Lithgow) aka Trinity from Dexter, season 4. Visceral performance, and arguably the scariest of Dexter's seasonal opponents. It's the combination of the father-knows-best-bonhommie not just with the killings but also with the emotional abuse he inflicts on his family which as opposed to the killing is only gradually revealed. Narratively, it's all the more effective because Dexter at first thinks Trinity is a role model for how to handle being both a serial killer and a family man, and it's fitting that Trinity ends up being the opponent who effectively defeats Dexter (which is Dexter's own fault - if he hadn't sabotaged investigations for his own selfish reasons Arthur would have been arrested long before) by killing Rita in a way that repeats Dexter's initial childhood trauma and destroys the family he has formed with Rita and her children. At to this a powerhouse performance by Lithgow who manages to make taking a bath utterly shudder-worthy, and you have my candidate for most memorable and scariest villain of the show, with only Rudy/Brian from season 1 as serious competition.
2.) The Borg in their first three Star Trek: TNG appearances. Unfortunately, this is something later watchers won't be able to appreciate, not only because of the later overexposure of the Borg on both Voyager and TNG but also because the overall tv viewing context today is too different. But in Q Who and Best of Both Worlds I + II, the Borg scared the hell out of me because a villain like this hadn't been done on Star Trek before. The idea of assimilation, losing free will and personality and (as demonstrated via Picard) the idea that somewhere in the back of your mind your old self is still there and powerless to prevent it was incredibly shudderworthy to me, as were the original Borg's uninterestedness in the usual villain trappings like posturing or declarations, or gloating. They just came, assimilated and went. (And as mentioned multiple times before, the fact this happened to the main character who afterwards had to deal with it instead of being cured by the reset button was completely new for Star Trek, if par the course now, heightening the effectiveness of the Borg as scary villains even more.)
3.) Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Never mind Lord Voldemort, standard evil overlord that he was. Umbridge the teacher in pink scared the hell out of me during Harry's first detention with her, when he realised what writing "I must not tell lies" over and over again really means. There are other reasons why Umbridge is such an effective villain - until this point in the saga, Hogwarts is still mostly fairytale refuge land for Harry (never mind the annual scares), and she strips it bit for bit of any joyful elements and turns it into a bureaucratic fascist nightmare - but this scene, which despite the magical element in it is as real a depiction of child abuse as you're likely to find, both in Umbridge's demeanour and Harry's reaction, is what makes me shudder to this day when I think of it.
4.) The Gentlemen from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Hush. I know I nominate them every time such a question is asked, but it's still true: they really are the most effective fairy tale monsters on tv. (And wisely Joss never tried to reprise them.) It's not the skeletal look, it's the fact they take people's voices, with the full impact of why only sinking in when they proceed to take a student's heart out without the poor guy able to scream for help that makes all the difference.
5.) The Alien in Alien. Again, a classic which probably won't work on today's viewers, especially if they've watched one of the later Alien movies first. I think it was Stephen King who once observed that if the original Star Wars was, despite the sci fi exterior, a fairy tale, the original Alien was, again, despite the sci fi exterior, a horror movie. Taking its time, artfully directed by Ridley Scott, and to me far more emotionally real than Cameron's more popular follow up because the grumpy crew of the Nostromo doesn't speak in stylized movie banter as the Marines in Aliens do, they're not soldiers, you know people like them and they're in no way prepared to handle what happens to them. And the Alien, in its first appearance and subsequently celebrated H.R. Giger design, in three stages, is a Freudian nightmare that combines just the right amount of actual exposure with letting the audience imagination do the work. (As opposed to the sequels where you see the beasties all the time.) It's a force of nature that can't be reasoned with and treats humans as breeding ground if it doesn't treat them as dinner, and it really looks, well, utterly alien, which was news in the 70s when aliens still very much looked like puppets and/or men in suits. It gave me nightmares for months.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-12 09:41 am (UTC)Also, I have only watched Alien once. Ever. That was enough.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-12 11:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-12 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-12 06:20 pm (UTC)