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To conclude our Countdown to Evertfest miniseries, we asked filmmakers, stars, and critics, “Who (and in some cases what) is the scariest villain you've ever seen on screen?”
“No doubt about it.”alien. ” The first time I met a girl named Sigourney was at Jim McClure's apartment in New York City. Jim was my roommate in college. Sigourney was his new girlfriend. She was a young actress who had just finished filming a science fiction movie called “Alien'' in Canada.
“I was thinking, 'How sad.' This is a young, pretty girl just starting out in show business. She has to go to Canada to film a science fiction movie called 'Alien.' It won't. Pathetic. '
“Meanwhile, I was doing children's theater in L.A., and it was the definition of sad. I wore leotards and stretchy overalls, held hand puppets, and played the piano. 1 3 shows a day, $120 per week. So sad.
“I told my compatriots that my college roommate’s girlfriend was in a sci-fi movie called Alien. I supported her in putting on a puppet show for six-year-olds at Hollyhock Elementary School, and then I wish I could see it.
“Everyone said, 'Yeah, let's go see Alien.' It's going to be a big deal!
“Oh. My. God. I could barely hear the opening credits. The scariest movie ever made. And Sigourney, aka Sigourney Weaver, was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. A movie star through and through.
“But I still have nightmares about aliens coming out of John Hurt's chest. Then I ended up working with Ridley Scott on Thelma and Louise, and I told him about Sigourney. It made him happy.”
“There is definitely an invisible devil.”exorcist. ” It symbolizes all evil. everywhere. ”
“After thinking about your question, I remembered an episode of a TV show.”outer limitI saw a movie in 1963 titled “The Xanthi Misfits.”
“The story is about a group of aliens from the planet Xanthi who are convicted criminals and sent to Earth as a penal colony.
“When the first alien emerged from the spaceship, I remember being horrified by the sight of it. It was a small, grotesque, insect-like creature with a frightening, human-like face. was.
“I was watching this movie alone at night at home, and I remember the first time the little monster appeared on screen, the atmosphere in the room changed around me. Later that night I had nightmares. I've come to believe that that horrible creature lives under my bed and that if I dangled either an arm or a leg from the side of the mattress, that creature would attack and mutilate me. Ta.
“It wasn't until the age of the internet that I happened to see the creature again one day. Even so, it still felt horrifying, although it didn't have the same effect of pure fear that was instilled in me as a child. was.”
“I used to watch it a lot when I was a kid.”wizard of oz' Every day after school for what seemed like a year.
“I memorized the movie, but that's not why I wanted to watch it again. I had to tame the Wicked Witch of the West in my imagination.
“Her appearance (so green), her powers (flying monkeys!), and even death (“I'm melting!”) scared me – and they still do. She's a timeless villain. ”
“”things from another worldIt was scary when I was a kid. ”
“I'm scared of Mary, the girl from William Wyler's 1961 film Mary.''Children's time”, a mean-spirited brat who exposes boarding school teacher Martha as a lesbian and destroys her life in the process.
“Don't think all children are innocent.”
“For me, the scariest thing about zombie movies is the simple math that zombies either kill you or turn you into another zombie. It's only a matter of time before the dwindling number of survivors disappear.
“For this reason, Zack Snyder'sdawn of the dead“The remake (2004) is still the scariest movie I've ever seen. Not just the zombie apocalypse scenes, but especially the intense “found footage” coda while the credits roll. ”
“Of course, there are countless great villains in the history of cinema, but if I were to name one of the scariest villains, they are completely irredeemable, in the sense that they are completely devoid of any sympathetic characteristics. , I think I'd have to go with Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin, the crazy senator's wife played by Angela Lansbury in the John Frankenheimer movie.Manchurian Candidate(1962).
“Here we have a person who is single-minded in his pursuit of absolute power, and to achieve it he must sacrifice what most people hold most sacred, including their country and their own children. He is an unreserved character who is willing to sacrifice.
“What makes this character all the more remarkable is the way Lansbury portrays her in such a calm and controlled manner, making a plot that could easily have become cartoonish seem frighteningly plausible.” She's a monster, but in Lansbury's deft hands, she becomes a distinctly human monster, and ultimately something even more frightening.
“I think the runner-up would be that elephant cat from “.''DumboBaby Dumbo is brutally teased and ostracized simply because he has big ears. It was terrible, and I was able to turn it around in the end, but even as a 3-year-old watching it for the first time, I didn't think it was good enough. ”
“Ben Kingsley”sexy beast. ” Oh my God, his posture, his physicality, his stillness, the way he slowly turns his head without moving his eyes, the strange jokes he makes like, “Dee Dee, you have such nice eyes.'' I didn't notice it until now. really? ”
“A weird little weirdo with a scary jackhammer guy. If he had succeeded in robbing a bank, he could have just shoveled through the cement himself.”
“The scariest villains in cinema are those who try to hide themselves in the movies. They are real-life tyrants whose threat lies in the masterpieces made under dictatorships, whether in the Soviet Union or elsewhere.” ('Ivan the Terrible', 'Sayat'), 'Nova'), Japan and Denmark during World War II ('I Had a Father', 'The 47 Ronins', 'Anger') The Day I Became a Woman), modern-day Iran (Subtraction, No Bears, The Day I Became a Woman), China (When the Night Falls, The World), and many other places. in.
“But the most terrifying incarnation of tyranny on screen is the titular villain of John Ford's 1962 Western.”The man who shot Liberty Valance. ”
“Lee Marvin plays a cynical, loud-mouthed outlaw named Liberty Valance who makes fun of his own name, has no problem looting and murdering when necessary, and blackmails law enforcement and political gatherings to protect himself. He makes himself invincible and intimidates the nation, murdering journalists who dare to report on his depredations, knowing that he is immediately carrying out his ruthless violent orders with the support of gangsters. even brought it to its knees.
“A tragic tale of a man who outlasts his villain, this is America's best political film.”