Begin with Lucius Malfoy, the type of bad guy who makes villain look damned fine; from the pages of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels to the life that was brought to him on the silver screen with the acting of Jason Issacs. The man is elegantly slimy with enough loathing of anyone not of pure wizarding blood to make them want to keep checking over their shoulders when he walks by for a wayward curse… or are they checking out his ass.. hard to tell when you have evil as good looking as this.
To Arthur Weasley: “Dear me, what’s the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don’t even pay you well for it?”

Hannibal Lecter is a rare kind of evil. He’s generous and polite to a fault; one would almost think to call him nice. His dislike of rudeness is well known from the episodes of having fellow inmate Miggs eat his tongue to serving Paul Krendler his own brain. Hannibal brought new meaning to the idea of horror, by being one of the most realistic types in the world. Unlike many villains people can relate to Lecter because he could so very easily be our next door neighbor and we would never know. The good doctor you never expect until he’s seasoning your toes for a nice cookout.
“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” – Silence of the Lambs

Christine isn’t a bad guy as the saying goes. Not only is she not a guy, she’s not human. She is a 1958 Plymouth Fury. This movie still gives me nightmares. Christine is the ultimate in villans, the type of personality that falls in love with the charm of a youthful man and then does everything she can to make him happy, in this case that also includes killing anyone who antagonizes him. Jealousy drives her to attempt the death of her beloved’s human love interest as well. And heaven forbid you attempt to demolish her, nothing is stopping Christine.
Arnie Cunningham: Whoa, whoa. You better watch what you say about my car. She’s real sensitive.

To quote Bart Simpson “Can’t sleep, clown will eat me.” Which is just what Pennywise will do. Ugh I hate clowns, hate hate hate clowns and this one scares the living hell out of me, but I can’t get enough of him. Pennywise was the best villain Stephen King had written about since he wrote Christine. To see this evil, vile clown brought to life on screen by Tim Curry, the whole thing just gives me chills, especially when he laughs. Commentary on the DVD states that Curry so embodied Pennywise that he was too real and most of the cast would avoid him. Not a movie I would recommend to those afraid of clowns, though, I rather like the fearful shivers of horror it gives me.
“Let go. Be afraid. You all taste so much better when you’re afraid.”

And we’ll round out the vile villains of screen with another by the delectable Tim Curry, which, if you’ve read through any of this before you know I adore him. Going back to my original kick start of Time Well Wasted you know I’m a fan of Legend and you know my favorite villain of all time is Darkness. Again, the man makes Satan sexy. But Darkness is the epitome of evil, in a vile twisted and delicious sort of way. He makes no excuses for what he’s doing and takes great pleasure in the slaying of unicorns to plummet the world into eternal night to give himself the ability to walk above ground.
“There is only one lure for such disgusting goodness. One bait that never fails: innocence.”

I’ll let you decide if the ones I posted are horror or not and encourage you to share your favorites as well.