50 Creepiest Movie Psychopaths

Alex A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Psycho: Leader of the London ‘droogs’, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is an anarchist with violence in his veins.

Fun nights include getting wasted on milk plus, battering old people and stealing cars.

Creepiest Act: On one such bender, Alex rapes a writer’s wife (Adrienne Corri) while warbling ‘Singin’ In The Rain’.

Ghostface Scream (1996)

The Psycho: A movie-loving killer who chases teens around while wearing a scary ghost costume (‘Father Death’ is his official name).

Likes teasing victims over the phone with horror movie trivia.

Creepiest Act: Offing Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) and then stringing her up to a tree like some kind of grisly piñata.

Henry Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (1986)

The Psycho: All the scarier because he seems like a regular guy, Henry (Michael Rooker) wouldn’t turn your eye on the street – unless he’d decided to hack it out for you.

Creepiest Act: Henry calmly talks about how he murdered his mother. His reason? She humiliated him as a child.

Mark Lewis Peeping Tom (1960)

The Psycho: Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm) likes making movies – only you won’t find his as the local cinema.

See, Mark likes to film his victims dying. Not very mainstream.

Creepiest Act:
Mark reveals his private passion to Helen (Anna Massey), showing off his pimped-out camera – which comes with a mirror so that his victims can bask in their own fear as they die…

Mr Blond Reservoir Dogs (1992)

The Psycho: With a grin like a viper, Mr Blond (Michael Madsen) is part of a crew of thieves who botched a jewel heist.

Creepiest Act: That infamous, unforgettable moment when Mr Blond has taken police officer Marvin Nash (Kirk Baltz) hostage.

Which involves slicing off his ear while jigging along to ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’.

Captain Vidal Pans Labyrinth (2006)

The Psycho: Using his very own wickedly brutal methods, Vidal’s on a mission to hunt down the Spanish Maquis during the Spanish Civil War.

Creepiest Act: Vidal brutally murders two stragglers who could have been rebel allies – but were probably just harmless countrymen.

Anton Chigurh No Country For Old Men (2007)

The Psycho: A bowl-haired hitman, Anton Chugurh (Javier Bardem) may have a silly haircut, but that doesn’t stop him being terrifying.

Right down to his habit of deciding a victim’s fate by flipping a coin.

Creepiest Act: Chigurh visits Carla Jean Moss (Kelly Macdonald), and her fate remains a mystery – though we assume she’s been offed, just as her husband (Josh Brolin) was.

Kevin We Need To Talk About Kevin (2012)

The Psycho: A malicious teenager who’s entirely apathetic towards his mother.

Kevin (Ezra Miller) goes on to massacre students at his high school.

Creepiest Act: Literally everything Kevin does is creepy, but we'd argue his treatment of his little sister probably takes the biscuit. Or eye.

The Reverend The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

The Psycho: Harry Powell (aka The Reverend, Robert Mitchum) hates “perfume smellin’ things”, which is women to you and me.

He’s on his own personal crusade to rid the world of anything with boobs.

Creepiest Act: Seducing and marrying the wife of dead cellmate Ben Harper (Peter Graves), just so he can get his hands on the cash Harper hid after a robbery.

David McCall Fear (1996)

The Psycho: A devilishly handsome jock, David McCall (Mark Wahlberg) is nonetheless the scarily jealous type.

When he starts dating Nicole Walker (Reese Witherspoon), it’s not long before his psychotic behaviour bubbles to the surface – including bedding one of her friends and killing another.

Creepiest Act: David carves Nicole’s name into his chest…

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.