Most sympathetic horror villains part 1!
This evening we'll be highlighting five of the most sympathetic and misunderstood "villains" from a horror movie. As always, the choices on this list are of course up for debate. These are my personal choices for the first five that come to mind when one thinks of sympathetic villains. Characters who aren't just one dimensional as a typical bad guy. These choices have many layers with character development, and will make you think twice on if they actually are 'evil' or deserve the reputation that they are associated with. Stay tuned for part 2 later this summer!!!
5) Pinhead/Dr. Elliot Spencer
- It wasn't until Hellbound Hellraiser II that we learned that the Cenobites were actually once human before being turned into guardians of the underworld. In fact, some of the actual human forms are downright shocking once they are revealed! Hellraiser's poster boy and most iconic 'bad guy' aka Pinhead was actually a British military officer, who was transformed into 'Pinhead' the monster we all know today after opening the Lament Configuration. At the end of Hellbound, Kristy is able to reach whatever is left of Dr. Spencer to help her against Dr. Channard. Pinhead aka Elliot and the other Cenobites only buy Kristy a little bit of time, before tragically being killed. Still, I'll never forget the sad smile that Elliot gives Kristy, and a strange unspoken understanding going on between the two. More of Dr. Spencer is revisited in further detail in part III Hell on Earth (in my mind the last entry in the series) but this is another prime example of a hero surfacing from what we believed to think of as a villain.
4) Victor Crowley
- I'll give Adam Green credit where credit is due. In each entry of the Hatchet series, you learn a little bit more about the main 'villian' Mr. Victor Crowley. First off, you learn he was born horribly deformed, and his father who was his main caregiver, knew how cruel the world was, and kept him hidden away in a cabin in the middle of Honey Island Swamp, until tragedy struck on Halloween night when a group of kids started setting firecrackers off on the porch to Victor's cabin, and accidentally setting fire. With his father arriving, and hearing his son's frightened cries trapped inside as the cabin continues to burn, he panic and takes an ax and tries breaking down the door when tragedy hits when Mr. Crowley accidentally hits his son in the face with the ax killing him. Legend has it he died of a broken heart years later. It isn't until part 2 that you learn that Victor isn't this senseless unstoppable killing machine that rips people to pieces whenever they enter the swamp at night. In fact, in the sequel you learn that Victor was actually cursed before he was even born. It seemed that Mr. Crowley was married before, and his wife was dying a slow painful death to cancer. Watching her waste away, he found comfort in his wife's nurse, who he ended up getting pregnant. His wife discovered the affair before dying, and furious over what her husband had done, she curses them, as well as the unborn child the nurse is carrying (Victor). Well, Victor's mother dies in childbirth, and Victor is born deformed. Here, the terrible curse continues with his gruesome death, and unstoppable curse of him becoming a crazed killing machine, restarting over and over again no matter what's done to him, destined to stalk the swamps, and kill hundreds of innocent people. Part 3 showed the only way to stop Victor, and I'm sure I wasn't the only person who's heart broke when he stops long enough to look down at the urn and finally say his first understandable words in the series. "Daddy..." Ugh, heartbreaking!
3) Eli
- This won't be the only movie featuring a vampire in this brief list, but Let The Right One In (2008) is hands down one of the most visually stunning horror films I've ever seen. Mind you, I haven't read the novel yet, but years ago my roommate sold me on watching this by saying this one simple sentence "Wanna see what happens to a vampire when they enter a house without being invited?"
Man, am I glad my curiosity got the better of me, because this film is probably in my top five favorite vampire movies ever made. This so much about this movie that's left to the audience to decide, but Eli plays a young pre-teen 'girl' who lives in a small village in the late 80's in Sweden. She moves into the same apartment building as Oskar, a sensitive boy around the same age who's constantly picked on. The two strike up a friendship as outcasts, in which Eli often asks Oskar if he would still like her, even if she wasn't a 'girl'. Trust me, without spoiling anything this actually as a double meaning. The love story between these two are actually quite innocent despite the subject matter, and once you learn a little bit more about Eli's tragic past, and how she's been able to survive all these years, you don't view her as a blood thirsty monster, but as a being that was a child once, who had it's innocence stolen away. I don't know about you guys, but I root for Eli and Oskar the whole movie. Worth checking out 100%!
2) Jerry Dandrige
- "I'm going to give you something I never had. Choice." - Ah yes, words spoken long before the film Interview With The Vampire came out. This is our second vampire film on the list, and I'm sure once I whip but part 2 there might be more sympathetic vampire characters, since after all I feel there is something quite tragic about them. Maybe it's the fact that most of their pasts are left mysterious, or that them being turned was beyond their own control. Whatever it is, I always think that Chris Sarandon's Jerry Dandrige from Fright Night is one of the most underrated sympathetic villains around. In fact, I know I'm not alone on this since I've brought up his character before several times to other fellow horror fans, and they all agree. He isn't this typical black and white bad guy who just kills and turns people. No, Jerry was someone despite the terrible things he did, actually was someone you couldn't help but feel sorry for. Sure he was murdering people left and right in order to feed, but remember...when Charlie got the police involved, Jerry originally gave him fair warning. "I'm going to give you something I never had. Choice. Forget about me, and I'll forget about you Charlie." First off, it makes you wonder. Jerry must have been turned against his will. Even if we include the sequel's storyline with his sister, perhaps both siblings were turned against their will over a thousand years before. We saw the paintings in his home of past lovers (one of which looked exactly like Amy it was almost comical.) Still, that mysterious comment "She was somebody I knew...long ago." Clearly this person meant a great deal to Jerry, and over the years he's lost many loves. Have they died, while Jerry stayed frozen in time? Maybe...nevertheless, Jerry seems like someone who's very haunted, and in pain. In fact, it almost looks as if with Ed, Amy, and even Billy he's trying to build his own family. Let us not forget the talk he has with Ed in the alleyway. I honestly do believe he meant it, that he would protect him. Also, his cries for Amy at the end?! Heartbreaking! Plus, remember earlier in the movie when he comes to scare Charlie. and he states that he doesn't want to wake Charlie's mother since that would mean he would have to kill her too? Remember after he gets stabbed in the hand, Charlie's mother starts yelling down the hall that her door is stuck? Jerry actually looks in panic, before hurrying away, showing he meant good on his promise. He didn't want to hurt her. Hummm...interesting. I don't know about you guys, but I would love to see a prequel fan film about Jerry and his sister when they were first turned. What? Only me?!
1) Daniel Robitaille/Candyman
- I feel this would be the number one choice for almost everyone. I always have viewed the first two Candyman films as tragic love stories. In fact, I can't wait for the newest entry in the series later this fall (might be the one movie to get me back in theaters.) In part 1 (and expanded on more in the sequel) we learn about Daniel Robitaille, born the son of a slave in the late 1800's. Building a name for himself as a talented artist, he made a name for himself for painting portraits of wealthy families. Falling in love with the daughter one a rich landowner, and getting her pregnant, the affair was discovered and Daniel was chased after by a Lynch mob. Here they cut his right hand off, and smeared him with honey stolen from an apiary, attracting bees that stung him to death. Transfering his soul into a mirror, the legend of Candyman was born, after his bloody stump had a hook shoved into it, and his body burned, with the ashes scattered on the land that would later become Cabrini-Green. Throughout the first film, you learn that Helen, the young beautiful graduate student is the spitting image of his long lost love, and in the sequel, that his bloodline did in fact live on with the daughter born from the tragic affair that cost him his life. I find Candyman the most sympathetic, and tragic out of all of these so call 'villains'. I can only hope he gets his time to shine in the newest movie!
So who would you include? Stay tuned later this summer for part 2!
