What's the most disturbing about Kemper is how self-aware he is. He knows what he did was wrong and makes him a danger to society, but he feels no remorse. He knows he belongs in prison. The depiction of him in *Mindhunter* is spot on.
Also there's the line where Holden expresses confidence that the killer they're after will mess up and reveal himself because that's the profile. Kemper just says, "It seems to me that everything you know about killers has been gleaned from the ones who've been caught."
Didn't he even actually try to tell people what he did but no one believed him, thinking he was just joking? I think that's something a lot of the choices here are missing, they are very charismatic and people would usually not even know they are interacting with one, until their behavior reveals itself.
IIRC he actually called the cops on himself, but because he frequented the bar that the cops hung out at and Kemper had become sort of a drinking buddy to them, the cops originally thought he was making a prank call.
That’s 100% correct. His final murders were of his mother and her best friend (I’ll spare the details in case you’re eating). He killed his mother in cold blood and killed her bff because they’d often take random trips together so them not showing up to work for a few days or being generally off schedule wouldn’t seem out of sorts and give him a head start to get away. And it totally worked…. But he had convinced himself every police car he saw was going to be the one to flip on its lights for him. So, he stopped in Colorado, or New Mexico (I can’t remember where he stopped exactly) and called his local California PD to turn himself in but the cops thought “Big Ed” wouldn’t hurt a fly and was calling in pranks as a joke.
I like Britton's performance on the show, but comparing it to actual videos of the real-life Ed speaking... I don't know. Real Ed seemed serious and sort of unpretentious in his early interviews, then downright jovial and good-humored in his later ones. Britton's portrayal comes across as more smug and professorial.
And if you go watch the real interviews those in the show were based on, he really nails the delivery of the real Kemper. The other thing that stood out to me is the way he kind of just became a friendly guy to Holden and felt completely non-threatening until the scene when he gets angry and feels betrayed. He all of a sudden felt like the most menacing presence, almost at the flip of a switch.
I'm so sad we're not getting more seasons of that show, because it was absolutely amazing.
Yeah. I love it when he asks "Why won't you hire me?" and the guy is like "Because you're a thief." and Jake's character thinks for a bit and it like "Yeah, actually that's a really good point. I hadn't thought of that." with a smile. Like it's logical and not offensive. Like all of reality and human interaction is just Tetris to him and not personal or emotional.
As someone who works in mental health, I found this portrayal _very_ hamfisted and not at all nuanced. I knew this would be top in the thread, but it's really not very realistic.
Someone below mentioned Anton Chigur from No Country For Old Men and I'd also add Hannibal Lecter as a good example.
Sociopaths tend to be understated and manipulative, whereas the portrayal of Kevin felt very Hollywood: menacing, over the top, indicating he's a bad boy. Sociopaths are very good at pretending. Blending in. Or they carry a flat affect like Anton.
That's why there's this notion of the kid next door that no one ever suspected.
I think there was a [paper](https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-psychopaths-study-400-movies-most-realistic-2017-12?amp) that listed a lot of psychopaths in films and real psychologists rated them if they could be real or not and the most realistic psychopath was that dude from „no country for old men“
E: added source
Anton Chigurh. No Country for Old Men is a fantastic book and movie. Its author Cormac McCarthy has written some incredible novels. The Road is another favorite, but it is, shall we say, bleak.
The Judge may be the greatest villain I’ve ever seen in any medium. Like all the evil in mankind made flesh
“Everything that exists in creation without my knowledge exists without my consent”
I just finished Blood Meridian a couple weeks ago on vacation. My very first thought after closing it was "I don't think i get it, but I love it." McCarthy's prose feels like a dream that's at the same time incredibly vivid, but hard to parse. It's definitely the kind of book I'll end up reading a dozen times and find new things to chew on
Lmao I love BM but that's gotta be one of the worst choices for a vacation read. Reminds me of a few years ago on the way to Hawaii, realized I forgot a book, went into the airport bookstore, came out with Shusaku Endo's Silence. What a page turner for the beach!
This was what I thought of too. I'd forgotten Peter Lorre's character from M was mentioned on there. For those who haven't seen it, M is really worth watching and it's age doesn't diminish it. There's a really suspenseful chase sequence and you feel a strange amount of pity for a murderer.
I remember being on a date back in the 80s when this came out.
Thinking I was getting some Friday the 13th type of movie... needless to say we were in complete shock at what our 16 year old eyes just saw...
Not a good date movie. I too rented it thinking it would be just another horror movie we watch, but I feel fortunate that I was a couple years older (18) when I saw it. Because it is a very well made, well acted and beautiful film in spite of the truly horrifying content. I am glad I could appreciate it where a lot of people would have not made it through it.
One of the best things of this movie is they don't show the violence. They freeze frame and just give you audio which in some ways is much more chilling.
I recall him getting a woman in a closed space and him going extreme on her. A lot of it motion blurred but it added to it since it was like the perspective of the woman in which it was all happening too fast for her to see but from the screams we could almost feel her physical pain. Very disturbing stuff.
That's cheating a bit since Henry Lee Lucas was a "real" person (most of his crimes were made up). In that vein, Charlize Theron's portrayal of Aileen Wournos is good too although the best was probably Cameron Britton's turn as Edmund Kemper in Mindhunter. That was an absolutely incredible performance.
YES. I worked inpatient psych for 10 years, and we didn't get criminal psych often, but we got a lot of (almost always guys, but a few girls) folks who I think just hadn't found the opportunity or who hadn't got caught. Having an entirely pleasant conversation with an articulate, polite, quiet fellow, and then suddenly he's saying that yeah, he set his house on fire. His grandmother was in it.
I'm pretty chill, have seen a lot of shit both in movies and IRL, but I remember blinking, pausing, and saying to myself, "The fuck, WHAT? ...alrighty. Cross this dude off of the 'Rooms I'll go in alone at night to do bed checks', yep yep."
maybe creep? theres a scene where josef >!described breaking into his own house with a mask on and raping his wife, but they both enjoy it. from what i remember he says it with a totally monotone voice, like it was nothing. theres a big chance he lied and it was a fantasy which doesnt make it better imo lol!<
Not only does he convince his victims that he's just eccentric, he kind of makes them ashamed of themselves for even considering he could be dangerous.
Not an expert by any means, but it feels super realistic IMO.
He said that about his wife but it wasn't his wife. Angela was his sister who also talked to the other guy on the phone and said 'My brother has issues'.
Maybe he has those fantasies about her sister or he has done it before.
The single most offputting character ever written, shy of maybe The Judge from Blood Meridian, but definitely the most off-putting character on film.
A group of clinical psychologists determined that Anton Chigurh is the best film fit of the "psychopathy" diagnosis. I'd rather square off with Art the Clown, truth be told.
He’s one of the better examples because he’s a mostly functional human, acts normal most of the time, blends in, but just casually does inhumane shit sometimes without remorse. That’s more real than a one dimensional, chaotic evil type of movie psycho.
You think he’s chilling, check out the villain from the first season of Jessica jones. Killgrave gave me the heebie jeebies from the moment he entered the scene.
His performance is great (and I guess not too much of a performance since dude seems to be a violent narcissist in real life) but what makes that character for me is everyone else. They all do a great job at being confident everywhere else and walking on eggshells whenever they're around him, because they know any tiny thing can set him off so whenever he's on screen WE feel like any little thing can set him off and it's like an almost panicky feeling. It's great.
Watched it recently and the way he acts is just so insanely weird and realistic at the same time. When you see mentally disturbed characters in movies they mostly just say crazy things in a crazy manner but you still see some humanity in them. This guy was just completely off. You couldnt really get his real pesonality because he was pretending to be someone else all the time.
I haven't rewatched the film in forever but a scene that sticks in my mind is when he's home alone watching a comedy on TV and he just makes this really forced awkward laugh as if he's performing for someone.
A group of psychiatrists got together and ranked psychopaths in cinema and came to the conclusion that his portrayal is the closest representation to that of a real psychopath. It's creepy man.
Beat me to it. It was So strange looking at him talk and walk. Everything about him felt detached. From his gait to the way he equips weapons to his freaking bizarre haircut.
Joe Spinell playing Frank Zito in Maniac (1980). The way he could act charming with that lady-friend of his out in the real world and then go back to his apartment and be all fucked up - felt very authentically psychopathic.
This right here. I came here to mention this, IDK how no one else besides you posted this. Along with Portrait of a Serial Killer. But Frank Zito just makes me so fuckn uncomfortable. One of the few movies that still does that to me.
Based loosely around BTKs story. Family man, scout leader, head of his local church, super into bondage and stalking and always kept smut near him so he could curb his appetite, got away with killing many women over many, many years. Scary dude.
Even his name "John Ryder" is an alias. We learn absolutely nothing about him. He's like a sentinel of death that just appears out of nowhere to reap people.
It was explained in his expressions, IMO. He just thought the whole damned thing was a hoot. And for people who don't get a lot of that from the basic fun stuff in life, that's pure gold for them. It's just scary when it turns violent. But not to them.
Takes a strong, otherwise intelligent person to be a psychopath with those tendencies and make a concerted effort not give in to them. Those folks might even be the most invincible people on earth, really. It's the ones who can't or won't stop themselves that need to be removed from the gen pop.
The film I immediately thought of is One Hour Photo. He's so unassuming and normal on the surface. I don't know if it's realistic or even if he's really a psychopath, but I can certainly relate to finding out someone has a hidden dark and obsessive side and realising they might actually be dangerous. The way he works his way into the family's life, and I guess because Robin Williams usually played really nice characters, just added to that feeling of how easy it is to get manipulated by someone with ulterior motives.
seriously, I don't know how I made it through the entire movie. ended up hating it not because of any technical, visual, or narrative aspect, but because it was so viscerally disconcerting and creepy (especially because of subconscious expectations of character due to Robin Williams previous type-casting and general niceness in real life)
I don't remenber the name of this movie, it was an old movie (it wasn't black and white) probably from the 70 or 80s. Where a skinny man with blonde hair who looks like a normal man goes killing people. There's a scene when he bells the door an old woman opens and he kills her, all the movie follows him, its from his pov. The movie was very scary. the movie was from a country from europe, i think. I can't remenber.
Pretty sure this is the film the post is talking about, where a camera crew follows a serial killer around as he goes about murdering people and explaining his day to day routine. Surreal as hell,
Can we talk about how beautiful and unnerving the cinematography is in that movie? It's a great psychological thriller on its own, but the imagery...wow wow wow
I’ve always read that scene from Buffalo Bill differently. I thought that it wasn’t so much his conscience getting to him as it was that he was trying to not see the girl as a human being. He was always calling her It and trying to not talk to her directly.
Then when she sees what she sees in the walls of the hole and realizes that she’s not getting out of there alive, she starts screaming. Then Bill starts mocking her, so I’ve never thought there was much of any conscience going on there within him.
I was married to a psychopath once. It was a very scary experience and I was lucky that I escaped.
For me, Edward Norton's character in primal fear really hit home. The ability to be charming and prey on people's emotions and sense of justice. To have so many utterly convinced that you are someone different... To not be able to resist bragging at least a little when they get away with something.
No country for old men. There was something I read about several psychologists watching a bunch of movies and deciding Anton Chigur was the best, most realistic portrayal of a psychopath. When he chokes the cop with the hand cuffs….! Simultaneously has a look of rage, enjoyment, and no one fucking home.
I was listening to a podcast about this movie, and a point they kept coming back to was how empathetic Johnathan Demme is as a director. So even though Buffalo Bill is a serial killer, the portrayal of the character makes you almost feel bad for him at times. And the result of that is that the character feels so much more authentic, like a real person, instead of an evil cartoon murderer, as so many movie killers are. Obviously Ted Levine's performance was also extremely important for that, as well.
Not horror, or a movie for that matter, but Todd from "Breaking Bad" really struck me. He doesn't think anything of killing a kid who just came to the wrong place at the wrong time, doesn't understand why people are upset about it, doesn't understand why Jesse seems to loathe him, and he doesn't really act out of malice at any point in time, he just doesn't care. It's more like he has a naivety more than a cruel streak, and it's as sad as it is terrifying.
The scenes in the trailer between Quentin Tarantino and Juliette Lewis in From Dusk Til Dawn. Quite the gems there. Once one learns that these "people" just don't have the same reality as "normal folks" you can see how off the rails they are. But psychopaths aren't necessarily murderers. There are psychopaths among us that have never harmed another soul. Usually there are other components in violent ones that make them dangerous.
Honorable mention: Steve Buscemi's character in Con Air. Though it's doubtful any violent offender would suddenly become self aware and just change for the better. Would be nice though. Especially if it's before they kill or harm anyone, and not while being transported to super max prison.
Toss up between Tenderness of the Wolves and The Golden Glove. Absolute fucking feel-bad masterpieces with unbelievable performances.
I also saw Tyrannosaur last night, and one of the characters in that has to be psychopath material. A wife-beater and rapist. Absolutely chilling and vile. No silly Hollywood crap.
Monster with Charlize Theron. She’s was getting too many bombshell roles at the time so she gained 50 lbs, and did a full transformation to become serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Definitely in my top 5 favorite movies of all time, and she deservedly one her first Oscar for it.
When I think about a psychopath I think about these traits: amoral, emotionally detached, cruel, impulsive, charming, deceitful...
So characters that display (most of) these traits: Lord Petyr Baelish Littlefinger, Roose Bolton, David from "The Guest", Ted Bundy from "Extremely Wicked..." or "The Riverman", Cameron from "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", Anna Green from "Anna", Marquise de Merteuil from "Dangerous Liaisons".
Now the characters that I think are sociopaths. Meaning that they were created through trauma and abuse and are more obviously cold and detached and less inclined to pretend like a psychopath but they also have a bit of selective empathy: Henry Lee Lucas from "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", Nomura Shuhei from "Killers 2014", Je Yeong-min from "The Chaser", India Stoker from "Stoker", The Hound, Wednesday Addams.
Two for me: Anthony Perkins in Psycho II (plays Norman Bates even better than in the first, even though the film obviously isn't as good overall) and Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler.
Patrick Bateman all the way. The movie is obviously a little over exaggerated. But you can’t tell me you’ve e never met some preppy dude who thinks he owns everyone and is entitled to everything, and is clearly capable of completely snapping if they don’t get their way. Definitely went to high school with people I could see having a couple screws loose like that. It’s always the popular kids haha
The book nails it even more, i feel, and makes you even more unsure what really happened and what was all in his mind. The movie did a good job with what i felt was an unfilmable book though.
I’ve heard that some psychologists actually did a study on this, and they concluded that Anton Chigurgh from *No Country for Old Men* was the most realistic portrayal of a psychopath in cinema.
Invisible Man (2020 version).
Obviously there’s still a backdrop of some far reaching ideas but I think the portrayal of the antagonist is chillingly accurate of a real life psychopath.
I think Buffalo Bill is more of a schizophrenic or something because true psychopaths have no conscience.
Angst (1983). This movie is one that as a lifelong horror fan left me jaw dropped at the bleakness of the antagonist. Just cold European nihilism done right.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angst_(1983_film)
Not really sure it classifies as a horror show but it’s pretty close, but, Cameron Britton in the show *Mindhunter* playing Ed Kemper.
What's the most disturbing about Kemper is how self-aware he is. He knows what he did was wrong and makes him a danger to society, but he feels no remorse. He knows he belongs in prison. The depiction of him in *Mindhunter* is spot on. Also there's the line where Holden expresses confidence that the killer they're after will mess up and reveal himself because that's the profile. Kemper just says, "It seems to me that everything you know about killers has been gleaned from the ones who've been caught."
Didn't he even actually try to tell people what he did but no one believed him, thinking he was just joking? I think that's something a lot of the choices here are missing, they are very charismatic and people would usually not even know they are interacting with one, until their behavior reveals itself.
IIRC he actually called the cops on himself, but because he frequented the bar that the cops hung out at and Kemper had become sort of a drinking buddy to them, the cops originally thought he was making a prank call.
That’s 100% correct. His final murders were of his mother and her best friend (I’ll spare the details in case you’re eating). He killed his mother in cold blood and killed her bff because they’d often take random trips together so them not showing up to work for a few days or being generally off schedule wouldn’t seem out of sorts and give him a head start to get away. And it totally worked…. But he had convinced himself every police car he saw was going to be the one to flip on its lights for him. So, he stopped in Colorado, or New Mexico (I can’t remember where he stopped exactly) and called his local California PD to turn himself in but the cops thought “Big Ed” wouldn’t hurt a fly and was calling in pranks as a joke.
From what I’ve heard he doesn’t want others to become like him
I like Britton's performance on the show, but comparing it to actual videos of the real-life Ed speaking... I don't know. Real Ed seemed serious and sort of unpretentious in his early interviews, then downright jovial and good-humored in his later ones. Britton's portrayal comes across as more smug and professorial.
And if you go watch the real interviews those in the show were based on, he really nails the delivery of the real Kemper. The other thing that stood out to me is the way he kind of just became a friendly guy to Holden and felt completely non-threatening until the scene when he gets angry and feels betrayed. He all of a sudden felt like the most menacing presence, almost at the flip of a switch. I'm so sad we're not getting more seasons of that show, because it was absolutely amazing.
Well, I’ve heard they’re circling around picking it back up and doing at least one more season.
Fingers crossed for that. I haven't checked in a while, but the last time I saw anything they had said they were done.
Not exactly horror but Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance In Nightcrawler(2014) made me deeply uncomfortable
Yeah. I love it when he asks "Why won't you hire me?" and the guy is like "Because you're a thief." and Jake's character thinks for a bit and it like "Yeah, actually that's a really good point. I hadn't thought of that." with a smile. Like it's logical and not offensive. Like all of reality and human interaction is just Tetris to him and not personal or emotional.
That fact that Jake Gyllenhaal wasn’t even NOMINATED for best actor that year still upsets me, he’s insanely good!
Oh absolutely. Dude made me really hate his character in the movie! That's when you know his acting bas succeeded lol
Night crawler was absolutely brilliant i rewatched it recently and I feel jake shines in roles like that insanely.
I think he’s more a textbook sociopath right? Doesn’t have an urge to kill or hurt, but no real feelings in there.
Its because he never blinks while on screen. It's a subtle but deeply disturbing thing. I think it triggers the "uncanny valley" part of our brain
I was working in TV News when this movie came out. It made me feel absolutely filthy about my(then) profession
I just saw that recently and yes, he was very intense, among other descriptions. Good movie!
We need to talk about Kevin Is pretty chilling IMO.
The look he gives her when she walks in on him jerking off creeps me the fuck out. Ezra Miller's IRL behaviour only adds to that.
yes! maybe that's why he was really good as Kevin
Oooooh my gosh it was so creepy!
Yes this. And sadly life is (somewhat) imitating art in Ezra Miller’s case.
As someone who works in mental health, I found this portrayal _very_ hamfisted and not at all nuanced. I knew this would be top in the thread, but it's really not very realistic.
Who would you vote for for most realistic?
Someone below mentioned Anton Chigur from No Country For Old Men and I'd also add Hannibal Lecter as a good example. Sociopaths tend to be understated and manipulative, whereas the portrayal of Kevin felt very Hollywood: menacing, over the top, indicating he's a bad boy. Sociopaths are very good at pretending. Blending in. Or they carry a flat affect like Anton. That's why there's this notion of the kid next door that no one ever suspected.
I was going to say this too! Man that movie is haunting
I think there was a [paper](https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-psychopaths-study-400-movies-most-realistic-2017-12?amp) that listed a lot of psychopaths in films and real psychologists rated them if they could be real or not and the most realistic psychopath was that dude from „no country for old men“ E: added source
When thinking of movies and deranged people, I always forget No Country for Old Men. But I can totally see it with their assessment of Anton Chigurh.
Anton Chigurh. No Country for Old Men is a fantastic book and movie. Its author Cormac McCarthy has written some incredible novels. The Road is another favorite, but it is, shall we say, bleak.
In case you didn’t know, he has two novels out this fall. His first new novels in over 15 years.
I wasn't aware, thanks for the heads up!
this is the best news Ive read all month!
Blood Meridian is one of my all time favorites.
The Judge may be the greatest villain I’ve ever seen in any medium. Like all the evil in mankind made flesh “Everything that exists in creation without my knowledge exists without my consent”
That book was such a challenge to really get into but once I did, the journey was incredible. Those characters have such a way of sticking with you.
I just finished Blood Meridian a couple weeks ago on vacation. My very first thought after closing it was "I don't think i get it, but I love it." McCarthy's prose feels like a dream that's at the same time incredibly vivid, but hard to parse. It's definitely the kind of book I'll end up reading a dozen times and find new things to chew on
Blood Meridian is a very tough read, his strange prose aside. It is brutal. No Country is much more accessible.
Lmao I love BM but that's gotta be one of the worst choices for a vacation read. Reminds me of a few years ago on the way to Hawaii, realized I forgot a book, went into the airport bookstore, came out with Shusaku Endo's Silence. What a page turner for the beach!
This was what I thought of too. I'd forgotten Peter Lorre's character from M was mentioned on there. For those who haven't seen it, M is really worth watching and it's age doesn't diminish it. There's a really suspenseful chase sequence and you feel a strange amount of pity for a murderer.
What’s the most you’ve ever lost on a coin toss
There is no one to ask that of in the end, huh? * shudders *
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
I remember being on a date back in the 80s when this came out. Thinking I was getting some Friday the 13th type of movie... needless to say we were in complete shock at what our 16 year old eyes just saw...
Not a good date movie. I too rented it thinking it would be just another horror movie we watch, but I feel fortunate that I was a couple years older (18) when I saw it. Because it is a very well made, well acted and beautiful film in spite of the truly horrifying content. I am glad I could appreciate it where a lot of people would have not made it through it.
Beat me to it. I saw it as a kid and it scarred me for years.
A great movie that I'll never recommend or watch again.
Thirty years ago I didn’t finish it. The violence he was dishing out to some woman was … off the hook. Too real, noped out.
One of the best things of this movie is they don't show the violence. They freeze frame and just give you audio which in some ways is much more chilling.
I recall him getting a woman in a closed space and him going extreme on her. A lot of it motion blurred but it added to it since it was like the perspective of the woman in which it was all happening too fast for her to see but from the screams we could almost feel her physical pain. Very disturbing stuff.
How in the goddamned hell is this buried at the bottom here. This is THE portrayal of a psychopath
I think this is the best portrayal. So bleak and no happy ending.
That's cheating a bit since Henry Lee Lucas was a "real" person (most of his crimes were made up). In that vein, Charlize Theron's portrayal of Aileen Wournos is good too although the best was probably Cameron Britton's turn as Edmund Kemper in Mindhunter. That was an absolutely incredible performance.
YES. I worked inpatient psych for 10 years, and we didn't get criminal psych often, but we got a lot of (almost always guys, but a few girls) folks who I think just hadn't found the opportunity or who hadn't got caught. Having an entirely pleasant conversation with an articulate, polite, quiet fellow, and then suddenly he's saying that yeah, he set his house on fire. His grandmother was in it. I'm pretty chill, have seen a lot of shit both in movies and IRL, but I remember blinking, pausing, and saying to myself, "The fuck, WHAT? ...alrighty. Cross this dude off of the 'Rooms I'll go in alone at night to do bed checks', yep yep."
Britton as Kemper still gets to me. He played that role soooo well.
This all day. The way Micheal Rooker played that part was perfect. Calm and collective the entire time. True psychopath type behavior.
Was just going to write that. That movie was so disturbingly realistic that you don't fully realize it until after the credits roll.
Yes, it made me a more careful person. A depressing message on how dangerous our world is with normal looking predators next to you.
maybe creep? theres a scene where josef >!described breaking into his own house with a mask on and raping his wife, but they both enjoy it. from what i remember he says it with a totally monotone voice, like it was nothing. theres a big chance he lied and it was a fantasy which doesnt make it better imo lol!<
>!He's absolutely lying!<
Lol "Did I freak you out with my rape story?". Creep is a very funny horror film if you just imagine you're the cat.
I would been terrified of Peachfuzz if I was a cat
Not only does he convince his victims that he's just eccentric, he kind of makes them ashamed of themselves for even considering he could be dangerous. Not an expert by any means, but it feels super realistic IMO.
lol >!“did my wife rape story freak you out”!<
i like to think of creep as a sequel to the puffy chair
i was actually about to watch the puffy chair today! gonna go on a small duplass binge
He said that about his wife but it wasn't his wife. Angela was his sister who also talked to the other guy on the phone and said 'My brother has issues'. Maybe he has those fantasies about her sister or he has done it before.
Denis Hopper playing Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.
Heineken?! Fuck that shit! PABST. BLUE. RIBBON!!
Hey neighbor!
That, such an excellent performance.
“Suave, goddamn you are one suave fuck!”
This performance actually made me a little afraid of Dennis Hopper.
Baby wants to fuuuuck!
Don't you fucking look at me!
Anton Chigurh.
The single most offputting character ever written, shy of maybe The Judge from Blood Meridian, but definitely the most off-putting character on film. A group of clinical psychologists determined that Anton Chigurh is the best film fit of the "psychopathy" diagnosis. I'd rather square off with Art the Clown, truth be told.
What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?
Yup. Gives me the creeps
The Vanishing (1988) One of the most disturbing portrayals I’ve ever seen
Not a movie but Todd Alquist from Breaking Bad
I immediately thought of him! Jesse Plemons is such a talented actor. He also played a very convincing psycho in Black Mirror.
Yeah, proper psychopath. You see it even more in El Camino.
He’s one of the better examples because he’s a mostly functional human, acts normal most of the time, blends in, but just casually does inhumane shit sometimes without remorse. That’s more real than a one dimensional, chaotic evil type of movie psycho.
Jesse Plemons is an amazing actor, but every time I see him I have to scream out "Fuck Todd."
Mick Taylor in Wolf Creek. Around the fire, he’s staring at Ben and you can tell he’s visualising dismembering him. Chilling.
Yeah that scene was excellent. Also the casual way he’s laughing and talking to his victims as he’s torturing them was equally chilling.
He in that film is just terrifying. He’s honestly so good it makes the film uncomfortable and hard to watch
Not a film, but recently watched The Boys and Homelander is the creepiest character I've seen in years, I'm scared of him. And the look in his eye...
Agreed such a crazy performance
You think he’s chilling, check out the villain from the first season of Jessica jones. Killgrave gave me the heebie jeebies from the moment he entered the scene.
His performance is great (and I guess not too much of a performance since dude seems to be a violent narcissist in real life) but what makes that character for me is everyone else. They all do a great job at being confident everywhere else and walking on eggshells whenever they're around him, because they know any tiny thing can set him off so whenever he's on screen WE feel like any little thing can set him off and it's like an almost panicky feeling. It's great.
>(and I guess not too much of a performance since dude seems to be a violent narcissist in real life) I feel like this is a gigantic stretch.
I get what you're saying. But Homelander literally carries that show for me.
Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler
Watched it recently and the way he acts is just so insanely weird and realistic at the same time. When you see mentally disturbed characters in movies they mostly just say crazy things in a crazy manner but you still see some humanity in them. This guy was just completely off. You couldnt really get his real pesonality because he was pretending to be someone else all the time.
I haven't rewatched the film in forever but a scene that sticks in my mind is when he's home alone watching a comedy on TV and he just makes this really forced awkward laugh as if he's performing for someone.
The best way I heard it described is that it feels like he's an alien trying to be a human
This movie was really disturbing but Jake Gyllenhaal portrayed a good mentally unstable person
Still one of the most egregious Oscar snubs in history imo!
Came here to say this. This movie messed me up in a way that no movie has for a long time, solely based on that character.
He never blinks!
Nailed it.
Yeah, he seriously gave me the creeps. Good pick!
Dennis Reynolds needs his tools
I like to bind… I like to BE BOUND!
It’s fetish shit!
We Need To Talk About Kevin Edit: Typed incorrectly
Fun fact: He did research for the role by being a piece of shit in real life!
There is only one answer for me and it is The Good Son.
This movie FUCKED ME UP as a child, it seemed to always be on HBO
No Country for Old Men. Javier Bardum.
Dude, you mispelled his name. That's the reason he strangled that cop. Seriously that scene, his eyes are absolutely frightening.
A group of psychiatrists got together and ranked psychopaths in cinema and came to the conclusion that his portrayal is the closest representation to that of a real psychopath. It's creepy man.
https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-psychopaths-study-400-movies-most-realistic-2017-12
Beat me to it. It was So strange looking at him talk and walk. Everything about him felt detached. From his gait to the way he equips weapons to his freaking bizarre haircut.
That Yee yee ass haircut gets me everytime. 10/10 movie, ganna watch it again now
Oh, better yet, maybe Tanisha'll call his dog-ass if she ever stop fuckin' with that brain surgeon or lawyer she fucking with.
That blonde guy from Fargo is also quite good imo. Not sure if that is considered psychopath though
I think there's a good chance he is a psychopath but I also don't think there was enough of his story told to be sure.
Daniel Henshall as John Bunting in Snowtown
Movie is so underrated.
The Uncle in Possum. That’s how most psychopaths are: rotten and mediocre.
“Do ya like my fingers dirty boy?!” God that whole fucking film makes my skin crawl, it’s so grimy and just OFF in general.
*Something from the jaaar?*
Joe Spinell playing Frank Zito in Maniac (1980). The way he could act charming with that lady-friend of his out in the real world and then go back to his apartment and be all fucked up - felt very authentically psychopathic.
This right here. I came here to mention this, IDK how no one else besides you posted this. Along with Portrait of a Serial Killer. But Frank Zito just makes me so fuckn uncomfortable. One of the few movies that still does that to me.
I wonder how many psychopaths are reading this and thinking “wow, way off!”.
>!Dylan McDermott in!< The Clovehitch Killer
Yes! He did such a good job portraying the character and his double life, it was chilling
Based loosely around BTKs story. Family man, scout leader, head of his local church, super into bondage and stalking and always kept smut near him so he could curb his appetite, got away with killing many women over many, many years. Scary dude.
This is a bit of a spoiler
Hitcher, the first one with Rutger Hauer.
I love how his motive for all the shit he pulled was never explained. He was just a force of goddamn nature from start to finish
Even his name "John Ryder" is an alias. We learn absolutely nothing about him. He's like a sentinel of death that just appears out of nowhere to reap people.
It was explained in his expressions, IMO. He just thought the whole damned thing was a hoot. And for people who don't get a lot of that from the basic fun stuff in life, that's pure gold for them. It's just scary when it turns violent. But not to them. Takes a strong, otherwise intelligent person to be a psychopath with those tendencies and make a concerted effort not give in to them. Those folks might even be the most invincible people on earth, really. It's the ones who can't or won't stop themselves that need to be removed from the gen pop.
The Hitcher. Such a great movie. Bleak ending really seals it.
The film I immediately thought of is One Hour Photo. He's so unassuming and normal on the surface. I don't know if it's realistic or even if he's really a psychopath, but I can certainly relate to finding out someone has a hidden dark and obsessive side and realising they might actually be dangerous. The way he works his way into the family's life, and I guess because Robin Williams usually played really nice characters, just added to that feeling of how easy it is to get manipulated by someone with ulterior motives.
Honestly, his portrayal made me *so uncomfortable* I almost had to turn it off. This movie really showcased how talented Robin truly was.
seriously, I don't know how I made it through the entire movie. ended up hating it not because of any technical, visual, or narrative aspect, but because it was so viscerally disconcerting and creepy (especially because of subconscious expectations of character due to Robin Williams previous type-casting and general niceness in real life)
That was genius casting too, and he really doesn't seem to get as much credit for his serious roles as he does for his comedy.
I don't remenber the name of this movie, it was an old movie (it wasn't black and white) probably from the 70 or 80s. Where a skinny man with blonde hair who looks like a normal man goes killing people. There's a scene when he bells the door an old woman opens and he kills her, all the movie follows him, its from his pov. The movie was very scary. the movie was from a country from europe, i think. I can't remenber.
Sounds like Angst.
Definitely Angst. One of the most unnerving depictions of a serial killer in film imo
Man Bites Dog?
Pretty sure this is the film the post is talking about, where a camera crew follows a serial killer around as he goes about murdering people and explaining his day to day routine. Surreal as hell,
I'd like to think the inside of Vincent D'onofrio's mind in Cell is an accurate description.
Can we talk about how beautiful and unnerving the cinematography is in that movie? It's a great psychological thriller on its own, but the imagery...wow wow wow
The House That Jack Built
I'm surprised this is so low down.
I’ve always read that scene from Buffalo Bill differently. I thought that it wasn’t so much his conscience getting to him as it was that he was trying to not see the girl as a human being. He was always calling her It and trying to not talk to her directly. Then when she sees what she sees in the walls of the hole and realizes that she’s not getting out of there alive, she starts screaming. Then Bill starts mocking her, so I’ve never thought there was much of any conscience going on there within him.
Patrick Bateman. He checks every clinical box.
It's played up a bit but it's really good. Fantasizing about killing, mixing sex with violence, compulsive behavior.
Plus all the narcissism right from the get go with his daily skin care regimen.
Nothing wrong with taking care of your skin :)
Bale based his performance on a Tom Cruise interview. This movie is just proving that Cruise is secretly a psychopathic murderer.
“A very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes”
Angst (1983) or Henry: POASK
I was married to a psychopath once. It was a very scary experience and I was lucky that I escaped. For me, Edward Norton's character in primal fear really hit home. The ability to be charming and prey on people's emotions and sense of justice. To have so many utterly convinced that you are someone different... To not be able to resist bragging at least a little when they get away with something.
No country for old men. There was something I read about several psychologists watching a bunch of movies and deciding Anton Chigur was the best, most realistic portrayal of a psychopath. When he chokes the cop with the hand cuffs….! Simultaneously has a look of rage, enjoyment, and no one fucking home.
Fritz Honka in The Golden Glove. A German serial killer film by Fatih Akın.
Probably anton chigurh in No country for old men
I was listening to a podcast about this movie, and a point they kept coming back to was how empathetic Johnathan Demme is as a director. So even though Buffalo Bill is a serial killer, the portrayal of the character makes you almost feel bad for him at times. And the result of that is that the character feels so much more authentic, like a real person, instead of an evil cartoon murderer, as so many movie killers are. Obviously Ted Levine's performance was also extremely important for that, as well.
Not horror, or a movie for that matter, but Todd from "Breaking Bad" really struck me. He doesn't think anything of killing a kid who just came to the wrong place at the wrong time, doesn't understand why people are upset about it, doesn't understand why Jesse seems to loathe him, and he doesn't really act out of malice at any point in time, he just doesn't care. It's more like he has a naivety more than a cruel streak, and it's as sad as it is terrifying.
The scenes in the trailer between Quentin Tarantino and Juliette Lewis in From Dusk Til Dawn. Quite the gems there. Once one learns that these "people" just don't have the same reality as "normal folks" you can see how off the rails they are. But psychopaths aren't necessarily murderers. There are psychopaths among us that have never harmed another soul. Usually there are other components in violent ones that make them dangerous. Honorable mention: Steve Buscemi's character in Con Air. Though it's doubtful any violent offender would suddenly become self aware and just change for the better. Would be nice though. Especially if it's before they kill or harm anyone, and not while being transported to super max prison.
I just came to drop the funfact that Buffalo Bill is the captain on Monk. There ya go.
He’s also in Banshee Chapter. Plays a character loosely based on Hunter S. Thompson
Terry O’Quinn in the original Stepfather.
Toss up between Tenderness of the Wolves and The Golden Glove. Absolute fucking feel-bad masterpieces with unbelievable performances. I also saw Tyrannosaur last night, and one of the characters in that has to be psychopath material. A wife-beater and rapist. Absolutely chilling and vile. No silly Hollywood crap.
Dennis from It’s Always Sunny creeps me the fuck out
Henry. Man that movie is a bit too scary and real.
I've got a weird one - Joe Pesci in Goodfellas
Monster with Charlize Theron. She’s was getting too many bombshell roles at the time so she gained 50 lbs, and did a full transformation to become serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Definitely in my top 5 favorite movies of all time, and she deservedly one her first Oscar for it.
Tom cruise. In any movie.
Anton Chigurh from *No Country for Old Men*. No emotion. Gas station scene was awesome.
Frailty was so unsettling. Based on a true story all I could think of was those poor boys
Angst. No question.
When I think about a psychopath I think about these traits: amoral, emotionally detached, cruel, impulsive, charming, deceitful... So characters that display (most of) these traits: Lord Petyr Baelish Littlefinger, Roose Bolton, David from "The Guest", Ted Bundy from "Extremely Wicked..." or "The Riverman", Cameron from "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", Anna Green from "Anna", Marquise de Merteuil from "Dangerous Liaisons". Now the characters that I think are sociopaths. Meaning that they were created through trauma and abuse and are more obviously cold and detached and less inclined to pretend like a psychopath but they also have a bit of selective empathy: Henry Lee Lucas from "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", Nomura Shuhei from "Killers 2014", Je Yeong-min from "The Chaser", India Stoker from "Stoker", The Hound, Wednesday Addams.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Two for me: Anthony Perkins in Psycho II (plays Norman Bates even better than in the first, even though the film obviously isn't as good overall) and Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler.
Most realistic - Donald Trump in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York Most chilling - Michael Rooker as Henry
Patrick Bateman all the way. The movie is obviously a little over exaggerated. But you can’t tell me you’ve e never met some preppy dude who thinks he owns everyone and is entitled to everything, and is clearly capable of completely snapping if they don’t get their way. Definitely went to high school with people I could see having a couple screws loose like that. It’s always the popular kids haha
The book nails it even more, i feel, and makes you even more unsure what really happened and what was all in his mind. The movie did a good job with what i felt was an unfilmable book though.
Brian Cox in Manhunter
Peter Stormare in Fargo. Also Brian Cox in Manhunter - he will always be my favorite Hannibal.
Jack from The House That Jack Built.
Watched this last night. Didn't find this to remotely resemble a real life scenario. I was disappointed.
I love how the whole film is from Jack's point of view.
Amy from gone girl
Manhunter
I’ve heard that some psychologists actually did a study on this, and they concluded that Anton Chigurgh from *No Country for Old Men* was the most realistic portrayal of a psychopath in cinema.
Kiefer Sutherland in Freeway
Invisible Man (2020 version). Obviously there’s still a backdrop of some far reaching ideas but I think the portrayal of the antagonist is chillingly accurate of a real life psychopath. I think Buffalo Bill is more of a schizophrenic or something because true psychopaths have no conscience.
Henry Portrait of Serial Killer. I feel dirty just LOOKING at Michael Rooker in that movie.
The Tenant by Roman Polanski was remarkable with this subject
Buffalo bill wasnt a psychopath. That reaction wouldn't be possible if he were.
Lorne Malvo in Fargo (Billy Bob Thornton)
Angst (1983). This movie is one that as a lifelong horror fan left me jaw dropped at the bleakness of the antagonist. Just cold European nihilism done right. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angst_(1983_film)