It's sometimes said that a movie's story is only as strong as its villain. Sometimes, villains stand as the most memorable parts of the movies they appear in, especially when it comes to crime movies. After all, a particularly menacing or violent criminal character can be the perfect foe for a more morally upstanding hero to battle or even for a less evil criminal protagonist to stand up against.
The following characters are some of the most terrifying and deadly in the history of the crime genre, with all being amazingly effective villains or shady supporting characters. All of these characters are instigators of mass death and mayhem, but out of all of them, who stands as the deadliest and most terrifying?
10 Tommy DeVito from 'Goodfellas' (1990)
Joe Pesci redefined the term "scene-stealing" with his Oscar-winning role as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas. Though Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and maybe even Lorraine Bracco had more screen time (and were all fantastic), Pesci's performance ends up being the most memorable, as his character is so volatile, unpredictable, and violent that he's impossible to forget.
Pesci always shines when he appears in a Martin Scorsese movie, and in Goodfellas, he shines the brightest. Even with everything violent and menacing he does (like the famous "Funny how?" scene), he seems like he's only threatening when pushed; he has some degree of loyalty to his friends and a good relationship with his mother. Those redeeming factors are small but ultimately make him a little less terrifying than some other crime movie characters.
9 Mr. Blonde from 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)
With Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino established his willingness to show on-screen violence right from the get-go, given this was his first feature film. It centers on the aftermath of a failed jewelry store robbery, with the surviving robbers quickly concluding that someone in their gang might be a police informant.
All the lead characters are capable of violence, but few seem to get pleasure from it like Mr. Blonde (played by Michael Madsen) does. He's menacing and unsettling throughout, and the infamous scene featuring the use of "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel still might be the most horrifying one Tarantino's ever shot, thanks to the character of Mr. Blonde.
8 The Scorpio Killer from 'Dirty Harry' (1971)
The titular anti-hero from Dirty Harry is far from a good guy. Clint Eastwood plays the kind of person Harry Callahan is to perfection, being a gruff, no-nonsense, and frequently aggressive cop who uses violence to combat violent criminals. As such, any villain he goes up against needs to be significantly worse than him.
Enter The Scorpio Killer (Andrew Robinson) from the first movie in the Dirty Harry series, who terrorizes the city of San Francisco by indiscriminately killing civilians from afar. He's pure evil through and through and comes close to being cartoonishly villainous in an otherwise gritty and down-to-earth crime/thriller, though not usually to the point where it detracts from the movie.
7 Bernie Rose from 'Drive' (2011)
Drive essentially centers on an unnamed getaway driver (Ryan Gosling) who falls for a neighbor and then gets roped into a plot involving various criminals, thanks to his neighbor's recently paroled husband taking part in a heist. When the heist goes wrong, the Driver finds himself in great danger, with criminal mastermind Bernie Rose wanting to tie up all loose ends... often violently.
Rose is a chilling antagonist in the film and manages to radiate evil even when he's not physically being violent to other characters. He holds great power and influence over most of the movie's characters and stands out even more as a villain because he's played by Albert Brooks, who's best known for playing comedic roles.
6 Norman Stansfield from 'Léon: The Professional' (1994)
Gary Oldman can do a great job of chewing scenery, and few of his performances are quite as explosive as his one in Léon: The Professional. It's an action/crime movie about a young girl befriending a hitman and being trained by him to exact revenge on Oldman's character, Norman Stansfield, who's responsible for killing her family.
Stansfield is even more terrifying because he's a DEA agent, and so on paper, he should be on the "right" side of the law. But he abuses his power for his selfish ends, with his over-the-top mannerisms giving the sense that he also takes a degree of pleasure in doing the terrible things he does. He's a great love-to-hate villain who's also genuinely dangerous, and as such, it's easy to root for the film's main characters.
5 Michael Corleone from 'The Godfather: Part II' (1974)
While Michael Corleone is a significant part of the first Godfather, it's not until 1974's The Godfather: Part II that he emerges as the true protagonist of the crime saga. Part II sees him as the head of the Corleone crime family, trying to expand his empire into new parts of the country and overall ruling in a more vicious and calculated way than his father, Vito Corleone, previously did.
Al Pacino effectively hinted at the darker side of Michael in the first movie but truly gives a sense of how cruel he can be in the second film. Michael Corleone hardly ever gets his hands dirty but wields the power to hurt or even kill anyone he sees as an obstacle. He's monstrous enough that family bonds don't matter to him anymore, as demonstrated by what happens to his one remaining brother, Fredo.
4 Bill the Butcher from 'Gangs of New York' (2002)
Though Gangs of New York centers on Leonardo DiCaprio's character seeking revenge, the most memorable part of the film is ultimately its villain: Bill the Butcher, played by the often explosive Daniel Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis chews so much scenery it's surprising there was any set left standing for the film's final scenes.
But to his credit, it does genuinely work for the movie, which is a heightened and sometimes even melodramatic crime/revenge epic. It might not be one of Scorsese's very best films, but it's compelling and largely works, with Day-Lewis being a big reason for it remaining a solid watch throughout.
3 Patrick Bateman from 'American Psycho' (2000)
When it comes to American Psycho, there is a certain degree of ambiguity surrounding what was imagined and what actually happened. Its lead character, Patrick Bateman, has an unstable mind and may or may not be hallucinating many of the violent things he does — murder included - throughout the darkly comedic crime/satire film.
However, the fact remains that Bateman has these dangerous thoughts and, at the very least, vividly imagines doing some unspeakably horrible things. If he hadn't snapped in the film, maybe it stands to reason that one day he will, which still makes him one of the most terrifying fictional characters in crime film history.
2 Henry in 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' (1986)
There are plenty of movies that center on serial killers, but few do so with as much grisly detail as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Its plot is fairly loose, depicting Henry as he satisfies his bloodlust through numerous murders while also trying to keep that side of him hidden from some of the people he has to interact with.
It's a notably controversial movie that still feels shocking when watched today, despite its age. It looks at the idea that people capable of terrible things might also be terribly good at keeping those things from others, making this a potentially paranoia-inducing watch, on top of also just being shocking because of all the violent scenes on display.
1 Anton Chigurh from 'No Country for Old Men' (2007)
No Country for Old Men is a dark take on the Western genre, deconstructing its tropes while telling a tense crime/thriller story. It revolves around two men wanting the cash from a botched drug deal out in the desert, with the two playing a stomach-churning and violent game of cat and mouse with each other throughout.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is the clear villain of the two and unapologetically murders the vast majority of people he comes into contact with. Few people speak to him and live to tell the tale, and he's so effective at his job that when the film abruptly ends, he's still out there at large and likely capable of causing more bloodshed. Murderers in crime movies aren't rare, but murderers who kill much of a film's cast and don't themselves die at the film's end? That's far more uncommon, which makes Anton Chigurh truly terrifying.