Five movies where you root for the villain
Sometimes, our favourite movie characters are the messiest, scariest, complex ones, who we’d hate to be friends with but enjoy watching on our screens. The sign of a good actor lies in their ability to portray villains and evil characters with charisma and likeableness, purposely making us root for them despite their actions.
A good film will often blur the boundaries between good and evil, highlighting how the two binaries do not exist independently from each other. At what point is a villain’s evil behaviour justified? Can we ever root for someone who we believe has changed, even if we’ve witnessed them commit unspeakable acts? Are certain archetypes of movie antagonists easier to feel empathy for than others?
There are many films where we root for the ‘bad’ character, leaving us questioning whether we can even consider them to be villains in the first place. For example, David Fincher’s Gone Girl gives Amy Dunne, the ‘villain’, a complex backstory that makes her actions feel more justified compared to if she was just a cold-blooded killer. The film also depicts her husband, her main target, as a despicable human being. Is the audience meant to root for her or not?
From Gone Girl to A Clockwork Orange, cinema has long presented us with characters who have committed various wrongdoings, asking us to see how far we’ll go to defend their actions or if we’ll exhibit any signs of emotion towards them.
Five movies where you root for the villain:
Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994)
John Waters entered slasher territory with Serial Mom, where Kathleen Turner’s character, Beverley, goes on a murderous rampage against everyone that wrongs her family. She lives in a perfect, picturesque house lined with white picket fences and loves to watch the birds from her window, but her other pleasure is soon revealed to be killing. She secretly corresponds with Ted Bundy and won’t hesitate to stab, beat, immolate or run over people for the most minor reasons.
Despite her lack of remorse and clever knack for lying and manipulating, Beverley is a joy to watch due to her sheer ridiculousness. Every face she makes after killing someone is sheer perfection, and her practical jokes, such as prank-calling a neighbour and shouting obscenities down the line are hilarious. How she chooses to kill her victims is always so far-fetched – to the point that it has us secretly hoping for her to keep going so that we can see what other ridiculous ideas she has up her sleeve.
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
It doesn’t take long for Stanley Kubrick to present Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange as a pure psychopath, devoid of feeling for others and always acting on impulse. His only loves are violence and Beethoven, and we quickly see him engage in some abhorrent behaviour, such as beating, killing and raping. These acts are unforgivable, leading Alex to be ‘corrected’ at a treatment centre, which leaves him a totally different person to who he was before, at least for a start.
The charismatic portrayal of Alex, courtesy of Malcolm McDowell, often makes it easy to forget all of the horrific crimes he has committed. Moreover, when Alex is released from treatment and gets beaten up by his old gang, before later being locked in a bedroom and tormented with music, Kubrick purposely tries to make the audience root for the protagonist. The film deliberately complicates our feelings towards Alex, and while we can’t excuse his disgusting behaviour, it is easy to root for him to become a genuinely good person.
Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1975)
In Brian De Palma’s Carrie, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, Sissy Spacek’s titular character blurs the lines between good and evil. She’s a shy and awkward teenager who gets bullied at school and tormented by her fanatically religious mother at home. After getting covered in pig’s blood at the school prom, she ends up using her telekinetic powers for good, discovering that she can enact revenge through the power of her mind.
Carrie causes the gym to burn with lots of her classmates and teachers inside before murdering her mother in an act of self-defence. Yet, you can’t help but feel as though her murderous behaviour is totally justified after the continuous torment her peers have put her through. Carrie might be the main murderer within the film, but can we even call her a villain if we’re rooting for her so much?
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
Amy Dunne from Gone Girl is one of modern cinema’s most compelling characters, a woman who is introduced to us as a missing person but is soon revealed to be alive. Due to unhappiness in her life, particularly her marriage, Amy decides to frame her unfaithful husband for her murder. She sets off with an elaborate plan, having already begun sowing the seeds by hiding clues for detectives and leaving her blood in the house. Then, her behaviour becomes even more unhinged.
As we watch her murder and manipulate, it’s often easy to consider her actions against the repugnant men in her life justified. Gone Girl has even been labelled by many fans as a ‘good for her’ movie, with her speech about male abuse and patriarchal expectations resonating with many women. Amy Dunne is an extreme case of a woman finally snapping under the pressure of the patriarchy, and Rosamund Pike’s enthralling performance makes it hard to dislike her.
May (Lucky McKee, 2002)
In Lucky McKee’s unconventional horror movie, May, the titular protagonist, played by Angela Bettis, is a lonely outcast whose main companion is a doll. She becomes bizarrely obsessed with a man because of his hands, stalking him and attempting to get closer to him. She is unnerving and odd, but you simply cannot dislike her due to Bettis’ captivating and humorous performance. As the film progresses, however, McKee tests how far we’ll go alongside May, who starts to kill everyone around her.
Her reasons for killing are often motivated by jealousy, anger, spite or loneliness, but even though her actions are brutal, when you reach the end of the film, you might feel a sense of empathy for her. It’s a peculiar movie that asks us to consider what a villain is, with May’s quirkiness and obvious struggles with anxiety and alienation making her descent into madness saddening. We can’t help but root for her, even as her killing spree becomes considerably more senseless.
