The Most Hateable Characters in Film (Part 1)

Throughout film history, there have always been characters that we have loved to hate. After all, without a good villain, a film just isn’t as good. I can remember as a kid actually hating the villain in movies. When they were played just right, they truly could make you actually want to cause them physical harm. Today, I’m not as affected by film villains. Still, I felt like I should do a list to honor some of the most hateable characters in film history.

 

If you haven’t seen the film in question for the character I am covering, I would advise that you don’t read my opinion on why the character is so hateable. There will be some spoilers for the films I discuss.

 

I hope you all enjoy the list.

 

Part 1 of 3.

 

15. Chigurh from No Country for Old Men

 

Chigurh is a hard character to encounter. Mentally, he’s pretty unstable. He believes in his own little code that doesn’t necessarily make sense to anyone else. And he’s really good at killing people. In a sense, he is the perfect killing machine. And that’s what makes him so frustrating. Throughout the entirety of No Country for Old Men, Chigurh is unmatched in wits and brawn. He pretty much kills everyone. While the car crash he gets in towards the end of the film hints at the fact that he may not be completely unstoppable, the fact that he gets away with no real punishment is very frustrating to the viewer. There are times when Javier Bardeem’s amazing performance makes Chigurh charismatic and even cool. Still, I couldn’t help but hate him and wish he received punishment for all of his actions.

 

14. Frank Fitts from American Beauty

 

Chris Cooper’s rendition of Frank Fitts almost exemplifies what I think of when I think “strict military dad.” Fitts is ultra strict, doesn’t mind using physical punishment and is pretty homophobic. The scene where he beats the crap out of his son for moving his old Nazi plate is pretty much all you need to hate the guy. However, things get really complex at the end of the film when you find out that he’s actually struggling with his own feelings of homosexuality. And how does he deal with this? By awkwardly kissing Lester Burnham in the garage and then later blowing Lester's brains out for no reason. Yeah, I hated this guy.

 

13. Richard Strout from In the Bedroom

 

Todd Field’s 2001 film In the Bedroom pretty much banked on the fact that you had to hate Richard Strout. The movie told the story of a likeable young college boy Frank (Nick Stahl) who is having a summer romance with the recently divorced Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei). Everything’s going good until ex-husband Richard breaks into Natalie’s home one day and shoots Frank in the face with a handgun in cold blood. And then, guess what? He gets off with no jail time. Frank’s parents Matt and Ruth (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek) then have to grieve over the sudden violent loss of their son all the while running into his killer on the streets on a daily basis. So when Matt finally decides to seek revenge, you’re all for it. Richard Strout has to die. He has to.

 

12. Warden Norton from The Shawshank Redemption

 

Warden Norton is a unique character. At first, he seems like an all right guy. Then, he has Tommy shot to death because he knows information that could free Andy Dufresne from the prison walls of Shawshank. That’s when we learn that this prison warden will do anything to keep his prisoners down and under his control. That and he’s been laundering money for years. So when Andy finally bests him and the warden blows his own brains out, it’s beyond satisfying. Never has the audience been happier.

 

11. Colonel Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds

 

Christoph Waltz’s performance as Colonel Hans Landa (a.k.a. The Jew Hunter) in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds was the one thing everyone talked about after walking out of the movie. Somehow, Waltz made the villain funny, charismatic, beyond intelligent and ultimately hateable all at the same time. In a sense, Landa exemplifies evil. He’s very polite and well spoken but deep down there’s something horrible and sinister boiling. We don’t ever get to see this sinister side to Landa except for one moment (when he savagely strangles a character) but when we do it’s truly a horrible thing to witness. I think the thing that makes Landa so hateable is the fact that he is so intelligent. For the entire movie, he is one step ahead of everyone. He has everything figured out perfectly and no one stands in his way… not even Hitler himself. Unfortunately, his one fatal flaw is underestimating Aldo Raine and his Basterds. This results in a horrific but crowd-pleasing moment to end the epic film. 

Stay Tuned for Parts 2 and 3.