Top Ten Movie Psychopath Performances

After seeing “The Dark Knight” last night, I could think of only one other film portrayal of a murdering psychopath that I enjoyed more than Heath Ledger’s Joker. After deciding on Ledger as my #2 all-time movie psycho, I thought it would be fun to come up with a full top ten of my personal favorites. These are based on the quality of the actor’s performance, and quality has been determined purely by my enjoyment of the character, as I remember it.

First, a few runners up:

Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb (Ted Levine in “The Silence of the Lambs”)
Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson in “The Departed”)
Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas”)
Norman Bates (Tony Perkins in “Psycho”)

Buffalo Bill might have creeped me out more than any other movie psycho I’ve ever seen (“It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again”), but he just didn’t get enough screen time for me to put him on the actual list. Costello and DeVito didn’t make the top ten because I’m not sure that gangsters should count, no matter how savagely murderous they are. Mobsters’ violent crimes are committed mainly for financial gain or to avoid getting pinched, and are usually done in carefully planned, methodical, businesslike ways. These two characters might have otherwise made the cut because the performances are amazing, and both characters do take special glee from their work and perform certain violent acts more for fun and/or emotional release than profit. But because they are actual mobsters, I felt I had to leave them off the list. Norman Bates didn’t make the cut because I haven’t seen “Psycho” since I was around twelve years old. I can barely remember most of his performance. Perhaps I should have watched it again before coming up with this list, because if this were an objective list of film psychos, Bates would have to be there, having been the titular character in a film that was really the first of its genre (and was actually called “Psycho” for pete’s sake). But this is a list of my personal favorites, and therefore he doesn’t make it. Onto the list…

10. HANNIBAL LECTER (Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs”)

Obviously, this is known as one of the quintessential performances of a psycho, and I do appreciate the greatness of it, but for some reason Lecter never grasped hold of my imagination as strongly as some other characters, leaving him lower on the list than many other people might had him. But my grandma has a friend named Clarice, and I love to say “Hello Clarice” to her in that weird voice, rolling the “r” slightly and extending the “c” like a snake, so there was really no way to leave him off the list entirely.

9. ANNIE WILKES (Kathy Bates in “Misery”)

The performance that thrust Bates into the spotlight. This was just the perfect role for her. It is amazing how she could seem so sweet and innocent one moment, almost cute, and then such a crazed, violent animal the next. I have no idea how she made her eyes go all dark and stormy like that.

8. ALEX FORREST (Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”)

A blistering portrayal of a severely unbalanced woman scorned. As she stood there in a white dress, entirely unaware that she was cutting herself with a giant kitchen knife while talking crazy to Michael Douglas, she simultaneously carved disturbance into the minds of moviegoers everywhere.

7. ALEX (Malcolm McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange”)

Ultra-violence! After Alex’s version of “Singing In The Rain,” nobody will ever look at Gene Kelly the same way again.

6. FRANK BOOTH (Dennis Hopper in “Blue Velvet”)

The ultimate creep. So ridiculously freaky. The nitrous, the penchant for Pabst Blue Ribbon, the crawling around on the floor, the weird groaning, the things he screams into Isabella Rossellini’s lap about what baby wants to do… I’m nauseous just thinking about it.

5. PATRICK BATEMAN (Christian Bale in “American Psycho”)

This performance is as funny as it is terrifying. After reading the novel, I find it even more impressive that Bale could pull this off as well as he did. His weird fang-like teeth definitely didn’t hurt.

4. ANTON CHIGURH (Javier Bardem in “No Country For Old Men”)

The scene with the old guy in the gas station alone puts him squarely in my top five. The character’s connection to organized crime almost made me question his entry onto the list (since I disqualified Frank Costello and Tommy DeVito), but he’s not really a gangster as much as “violence-for-hire.” This character is psychotic violence incarnate, and the acting is perfect. It’s my list and I’ll do what I want with it.

3. TRAVIS BICKLE (Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver”)

Gotta love De Niro with a mohawk. Bickle is one of the all-time classic film characters, and the only one on this list that is really a “good guy.” I mean he’s definitely a psycho, but at least he directed his murderous impulses on the scum of New York City in an effort to save a child prostitute. What a guy!

2. THE JOKER (Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”)

I don’t see how anyone could ever play The Joker any better. Nicholson’s turn back in the day seems merely cute by comparison. In fact, you can't really compare Nicholson and Ledger. It makes more sense to compare Nicholson and Cesar Romero. Ledger's take is a completely different beast. Not going to say any more about this in case anyone hasn’t seen the film yet (it’s only been out for three days after all).

1. JACK TORRANCE (Jack Nicholson in “The Shining”)

Yes, even though Nicholson’s Joker is not much more than a cranky Bozo the Clown compared to Ledger’s, Jack still retains the top spot as the reigning movie nutcase of all time, thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s vision of Stephen King’s greatest creation. I don’t know if anyone will ever outdo this mesmerizing portrayal of a troubled family man’s descent into murderous madness. And if someone does, I’m not sure I want to see it.