Who are the scariest villains of fiction?

[kamrinjacobs]

For me they'd be the ordinary people rather than aliens, monsters, etc. Like in an episode of Hawaii Five-O where a family of rednecks have been murdering people across America and now Hawaii for small sums of money and when finally caught, the father tells Steve McGarrett that they weren't kin so it didn't matter if they killed them and stealing off dead people don't count.

Or the Purple Man in a Marvel comic. His words are absolute law to others. He goes into a McDonalds for breakfast. Lots of noisy people and kids running about so he tells them to hold their breath. When he left after eating his meal and reading a newspaper, there were 30-odd dead adults and kids left behind him.

Yet when it comes to films, there are not many real villains about. The Joker of course, but he's from the comics.

[charlhussey]

Mr. Squears from Nicholas Nickelby. He's horrible.

Mrs. Havisham from Great Expectations is a villain of the emotional sadist sort.

Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist. Thug nasty.