The 20 best examples of psychopaths in the world of cinema.

Film characters that exemplify the most severe cases of psychopathy.

The psychopath is a very recurrent figure in cinema, especially because as a resource it 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 is bad.

Below we are going to see 20 examples of psychopaths in moviesThe characters of movies that have attracted a lot of attention, especially for how violent are some of its protagonists.

20 examples of psychopaths from movies

Although psychologists know that not all psychopaths necessarily have to be physically violent (your boss could be one of them) it is clear that the violent, bloody and unempathetic serial killer is a cinematic resource understood as the textbook psychopath. Actually, psychopathy is more 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 he wants.

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 a psychopath in their films, especially because, whether we want to admit it or not, we are morbidly attracted to men and women who pursue other people as if it were a prey-predator relationship.

Blood, extreme violence disguised with seduction tactics or simply because they feel like taking someone's life are very recurrent plots in the seventh art. Below we will discover 20 examples of psychopaths in the cinema, all of them very well known and who, although their behavior cannot be extrapolated to that of all psychopaths in real life, they correspond quite well to the most serious cases.. In fact, some of them include real cases.

1. Annie Wilkes (Misery, 1990)

Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) is obsessed by her favorite writer, Paul Sheldon (James Caan). Her passion becomes so extreme that, when Sheldon crosses her path as if he had fallen from the sky, she kidnaps him..

Annie keeps Paul as her prisoner, taking him as a real hunting trophy, and demands that he keep writing for her pleasure and enjoyment, being willing to hurt her favorite writer as long as her literary fantasies are satisfied.

Annie is a truly unhinged psychopathic mind, cold, tempered and sinister, willing to harm those she loves the 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 he appears his caricatured way of behaving together with an almost inhuman cruelty do not make him go unnoticed.

This expert in generating chaos has been the most famous antagonist of the Batman movies, being among the most notable performances of his generation.Among the most notable performances are those of Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989) and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, 2008).

Nicholson's Joker is a kind of maniacal clown, while Ledger's is a terrifying and unpredictable terrorist, dark but equally chaotic. The constant in all the movies where this made-up enemy appears is a violent and disturbing behavior, making him considered one of the most memorable psychopaths in the history of cinema.

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

Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," who enjoys savoring who enjoys tasting human flesh and brains.He is a psychiatrist, paradoxically. He acts as a serial killer to get what he considers an exquisite delicacy.

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

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, one of the most remarkable psychopaths in the history of recent cinema.. Anton has his own rules, his own personal code that motivates his actions, something the rest of society cannot understand. Chigurh lacks remorse, conscience and compassion, perfect traits for a contract killer.

5. Don Lope de Aguirre (Aguirre, la cólera de Dios, 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 in search of the legendary in the 16th century in search of the legendary land of El Dorado.

The drudgery of the journey and the obsession for wealth and success, accompanied by madness, turn Aguirre into an unhinged person, who starts a rebellion in order to achieve glory, even if it means sacrificing his own companions.

6. John Doe (Seven, 1995)

John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey, is the main antagonist in "Seven". His plan is based on what he himself believes to be a mission from God, whereby he will take each of the seven deadly sins to the extreme by taking as victims people who have previously committed them.He will take each of the seven deadly sins to the extreme by 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 film she is linked to the murder of a rock star who is also her boyfriend. To save herself from conviction, Tramell ends up seducing the same policeman who is investigating her, showing her great capacity for control despite being the main suspect.

Tramell is one of the all-time favorite villains, especially for her great handling of seduction tactics, exemplified in her more than well-known leg-crossing.

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 based on the greatest melodies of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Its protagonist is Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a violent little character who commits all kinds of "pranks" with his friends after drinking a few glasses of "sweetened" milk: beatings, rapes and murders are constant in the first part of the film, acts typical of a man with a clearly violent nature.

After committing an "unintentional" murder and being betrayed by his own friends, Alex is arrested and convicted. Instead of serving a normal sentence, our protagonist is subjected to a series of deranged experiments to "cure" him, experiments that more or less work.experiments that more or less work.

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 awakened her taste for ending other people's lives in the most brutal ways. In the film Wuornos is played by Charlize Theron, an actress who had to gain 14 kilos and wear dentures 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 more innocent ones. In the film Chad stands out above all, a cruel and manipulative character..

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

While this murderous couple did not exist in real life, their story is inspired by a true case, namely that of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, who committed 11 murders in the 1950s.

In the movie we have Mickey and Mallory, lovers who had rough childhoods and young adulthoods, so much so that it altered their minds and awakened in them a great adoration for violence.which is what has brought them together. They love each other as much as they love to kill, being so bloody that they attract the attention of the media.

The story of the real protagonists turns into a festival of graphic violence, so much so that even the specialized critics gave it a negative evaluation for going too far in exposing the life of these two psychopaths.

12. Patrick Bateman (American Psycho, 2000)

Patrick Bateman, protagonist of "American Psycho" and played by Christian Bale, is a New York executive who has a passion for human blood, which turns him into a terrifying serial killerThis makes him a terrifying serial killer that no one suspects when he dresses in an elegant and sophisticated way.

Bateman is the life image of what we would understand by a "lovable psychopath", attractive and who takes great care of how he dresses.

13. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction, 1987)

The charismatic Glenn Close plays Alex Forrest, a woman who has a brief affair with a man with whom she becomes obsessed.. Her obsession knows no bounds, and her madness is such that she goes so far as to kidnap her lover's son, starring in scenes full of terror even though there are cute bunnies involved.

14. Hayley Stark (Hard Candy, 2006)

Hayley Stark (Elliot Page) is a 14-year-old teenager who decides to take the law into her own hands.. In the film we are shown how young Hayley savagely tortures an alleged sexual predator she met through an Internet chat room. Most of the film takes place at the home of photographer Jeff Kohlver.

15. Jigsaw (Saw Saga)

John Kramer (Tobin Bell), known by his nickname "Jigsaw" is the protagonist and antagonist of the horror saga Saw. Protagonist because he appears in all of them, and antagonist because he makes life miserable for each of the protagonists who appear in each 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 real psychopath who does not hesitate to torture his prey for fun while he thinks he is applying a certain type of justice, who knows what.

16. Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street Saga)

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is one of the most terrifying characters in cinema. This psychopath attacks in a place where it is difficult to defend ourselves: our dreams.. Krueger murders teenagers.

Robert Englund was nominated twice in the "Best Supporting Actor" category for the Saturn Award for his portrayal of Krueger in "Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" (1987) and "Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Lord of Dreams" (1988).

Krueger is considered an iconic supernatural monster of the murkiest and darkest psychopathy, which makes him even more sinister as he is able to move between the dream world and the waking world.

17. Norman Bates (Psycho, 1960)

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

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

18. Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs, 1992)

Michael Madsen stars in "Reservoir Dogs" as Mr. Blonde in this film by the famous Quentin Tarantino, the film in which he debuted.in this film in which he made his directorial debut. Mr. Blonde is a psychopath who has no qualms about torturing a bound and gagged man with a sharp razor blade while performing an impromptu dance to Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle" in the background.

19. Paul (Funny Games, 2007)

In "Funny Games", two very disturbed young men are determined to wreck a family's vacation, turning their tranquility into a real nightmare. Paul (Arno Frisch and Michael Pitt in the remake) stands out in the film, turning the movie into a horror film, an idea somewhat deviant 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 rather sadistic, so much so that this film 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 fault lies squarely with Kakihara, who turns physical torture into a veritable art form, pulling out viscera and amputating limbs like someone removing the petals from a flower. He is a true psychopath.