O'GRADY FILM

[WARNING: The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS for 13 Assassins, Skyfall, Django Unchained, and Avengers: Endgame.] What defines a...

One of the primary thematic questions driving Disney’s recent animated output has been “Where does evil truly reside?” As in real life,...

In light of the recent controversy surrounding the independently-produced visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club!, I decided to do...

Unlike some Marvel movie fans, I don’t feel that Thor: The Dark World (2013) is a bad film, necessarily. It does, however, suffer from...

When The Force Awakens was first released one year ago, I sang its praises, but even I had to admit that the film had, for lack of a...

In the weeks since the release of The Force Awakens, I’ve observed two distinct and powerful reactions to the film’s central villainous...

As played by the incomparable Klaus Kinski, Loco is the definitive Black Hat: cunning as a fox, venomous as a rattlesnake, and dirtier...

Can true evil exist in the absence of malice? Can a character really be considered a villain if he is incapable of comprehending morality...

When you get right down to it, the sadistic sociopath (indirectly) responsible for the creation of the metal-headed hero in Paul...

The dashingly handsome protagonist of Michael Crichton’s 1979 heist movie (played by the always-charismatic Sean Connery) isn’t...

Robbery. Rape. Murder. To Alex DeLarge, it all adds up to a day well spent. This common thug with delusions of “culture” loves torturing...

Played by Orson Welles at his charismatic best, cinema’s most memorable black marketeer manages to charm nearly everyone he...

When I first learned that a significant number of Shakespeare scholars consider Iago–slimy, scheming, irredeemably evil Iago–the...

Of all the henchmen and hired killers buried by suave super-spy James Bond, few are more gleefully sadistic and psychotic than Mister...

In terms of storytelling, what really defines a character as a villain? His actions? Well, consider Putnam, who spends the entirety of...

In the process of developing a personality for the charismatic killer in Quentin Tarantino’s throwback to ‘70s low-budget cinema, Kurt...

4. Suganoichi, Blind Menace: Unlike Zatoichi, Shintaro Katsu’s more famous blind masseur, Suganoichi is rotten to the core. As a boy, he...

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder if Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark...

Few cinematic serial killers ooze calculated creepiness quite like Sir Anthony Hopkins’ “Hannibal the Cannibal.” From the slurping to the...

5. Wang Kang, Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman Forget Batman v Superman. In the world of martial arts cinema, this is the gladiator...