Vote up the fictional scoundrels who continue to haunt your nightmares.
“Who is the scariest villain in all of fiction?”
Over on Reddit, fans of the silver screen, the small screen, and literature discuss the most terrifying villains in the realm of fiction - and the answers are nightmares incarnate. From an artificial intelligence with a hatred for humanity to an alien entity that can take the form of any person, animal, or thing, these are the malevolent miscreants that continue to haunt our dreams. Vote up the most vile villains.
Honestly? Anything from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu-verse. I don’t know why, but the idea of there being ...things out there that are beyond human scope or comprehension, that can destroy us all instantly, but choose not to because we are simply too insignificant to be f**ked with is just horrifying. Cosmic horror be scary, yo.
From Redditor u/Toosmartforpolitics: Either O'Brien from 1984, or just the whole Party.
Literally gives you hope and everything you ever wanted just so he can take it away from you in the worst way possible.
From Redditor u/Frebdignabliaq: The revelation that Goldstein's book was written by O'Brien and the Party took me by surprise when I first read 1984. Goldstein's book reveals the inner workings of the Party and the totalitarian society they have created, yet the book only exists so that the Party can identify and torture “thought criminals.”
The Party couldn't care less if the people know that it's fake: they will all be purged anyway.
The creature from The Thing. It hides in plain sight, is a cunning predator, and sows chaos wherever it goes; you don't know who to trust. It could literally just take the form of a single person and sit idly by while the others kill each other off in their terrified fits of paranoia.
The scene in The Thing where they are testing everyone's blood is probably one of the most suspenseful scenes in a thriller. That dang monster just has you on the edge of your seat the entire time!
Mads Mikkelsen for [Hannibal Lecter]. He had no mercy. Just when you think he is melting, that he just might have a little bit of humanity or was developing even a little empathy for someone, he would make a move to kill them, or better yet, instigating someone to kill them.
On top of that, you could never tell what meat he was serving his guests. Initially I just assumed that it's always human meat, but then I realised that’s not practical. And when they tested it, it didn’t turn out to be human.
