The American Film Institute did dual lists of the top 50 film heroes and 50 film villains last summer. This was going to be a two-part list to go along with theirs, but I gave up on the heroes.

10. Mark Byars, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1994) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (1996). What can I say? The man is real, and he's still alive, and he is quite possibly the murderer of three young boys, including his own son. He trounces around the two brilliant documentaries by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky practically daring the authorities to arrest him. The shocking revelations toward the end of the first film concerning a knife he gives the filmmakers as a gift are blown away by revelations in the second film about such things as his dental history. It is a travesty that the West Memphis Three are still in prison because it is clear that they are innocent; almost as clear is the fact that the guilty party is right under everyone's nose.

9. Uehara, Boiling Point (1994-Japan). Uehara ranks so high not because I'm trying to be a film geek and name-drop obscure films (although that's part of it), but because he's one of the few bad guys in film that I remember simply wanting dead. Every moment he spent onscreen was near torture, to the other characters in the movie and to viewers. Takeshi Kitano, who also wrote and directed the film, plays Uehara as an unpredictable psychopath: he's a misogynist, a bully, and a killer. He's also very charismatic, so part of wanting him dead was revulsion at finding him so entrancing. He's also apparently a Japanese archetype of the bisexual rapist, but the significance of that was lost on me.

8. Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). That her tyranny only affects that handful of people under her command in the psych ward does not diminish her evil; rather, I think the fact that she has complete freedom to torment however she wants makes her a more terrifying villain—the only escape for those under her control is seemingly death or the bliss of a lobotomy. As portrayed by Oscar winner Louise Fletcher, she is a great depiction of the tyranny of petty authority, no less evil than a concentration camp guard; in fact, since she is supposed to be helping people, perhaps she's worse.

7. Aguirre, Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1978-Germany). As portrayed by Werner Herzog's muse and alter ego, Klaus Kinski, Aguirre is a perfect picture of ambition gone wrong. One could imagine him being a great general, and I suppose he sees himself as such. However, his ambitions override any good instincts he has, burying his sense in a narcissistic avalanche of grandiose delusions. When he proclaims himself the wrath of God, in a way he's right: he is the cruel hand of fate sent to destroy his Spanish militia for their pride. The justly famous final scene, where he commands a sinking raft full of screaming monkeys, shows just how mad he has become.

6. Amon Goeth, Schindler's List (1993). Another real person, this time brought to terrifying life by Ralph Fiennes in a performance that was robbed of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Fiennes portrays the Auschwitz commandant as almost pure evil; there are signs of humanity, but they are perverted, such as his "love" for his Jewish maid. The most memorable and frightening scene, the one that best shows his sickness, is the famous one where Schindler seems to convince him that the greatest power comes in forgiving, so he attempts to forgive the stable boy—but he cannot.

5. Batty, Blade Runner (1982). Batty, played with such humor, pathos, and viciousness by Rutger Hauer, is one of the best examples of a complex villain in film history. He does terrible things, but the actor and the filmmakers are careful to reveal little snippets of humanity. It is ironic that this replicant teaches Deckard (who may or may not be one himself) what it means to be human. The final sequence, where he hunts Deckard through Sebastian's carnivalesque apartment, scared the heck out of me when I was younger, and it still does.

4. Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The most cultured and polite villain in film history, Lecter, as played by Anthony Hopkins, is a modern Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde. His frightening, almost extrasensory intelligence is a mask for the horrific brutality underneath the surface. He's the best at getting under people's skins (pun acknowledged, but not intended); his torment of Senator Martin is most memorable. Even his greeting—Hello, Clarice—is cringe-inducing. He's also the most quotable villain on my list. Hopkins apparently modeled him on HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

3. The Wicked Witch of the West, The Wizard of Oz (1939). This one might be too easy, but as the most popular villain from one of the most popular films of all time, she deserves her high place just for her historical value. I have to admit that Margaret Hamilton as the Witch scared the pants off me when I was younger, especially the part where she appears in the enchanted forest and sets the Scarecrow on fire. She has the best lines, the best hat, the best nose, and the best exit of any villain in film history, period.

2. Reverend Harry Powell, The Night of the Hunter (1955). The most theatrical and creepy of the villains on this list, Robert Mitchum's bad guy from this Brothers Grimm-meets-Flannery O'Connor film is one of the most stylized of screen villains. More a force of evil than a human being, especially in this allegory of the battle between good and evil, Powell is the perfect wolf in sheep's clothing. The handsome Mitchum with his perpetually half-closed eyes and his beautiful baritone portrays a sociopatic murderer who believes himself to be a preacher but who uses his "office" to find wealthy widows to rob. The expressionistic lighting used in this film turns him into a mythical monster, his approach as inevitable as death. It is impossible for me to hear the hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" without shuddering and thinking of Reverend Powell's wry smile.

1. Darth Vader, Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1981), Return of the Jedi (1984), except for the end. Vader is the most memorable villain in film history, and is among the best characterized. Emerging in the first film as evil personified, he becomes more complex as the series progresses, up until his final reversal at the end of Return of the Jedi, which I think was a betrayal of his character. Sure, it gives viewers a nice warm feeling to see him change his ways, but it doesn't fit in with the character as developed through the first two films. Despite this, Darth Vader was the source of many nightmares for me when I was young, and he is still the most distinctive bad guy I have ever encountered in a dark theater.