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46. Kevin (Elijah Wood) – Sin City (2005)

Who could’ve picked the saviour of The Shire as a skin crawling near mute serial killer with a taste for human flesh?

45. Mr Blonde (Michael Madsen) – Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Give a man a razor blade and he’ll maim a half dead policeman. But give that man access to the ‘Super Sounds of the 70s’ and he’ll turn that torture into a cultural phenomenon.

44. Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) – The Three Musketeers (1973)

The cartoon-like nemesis of the swashbuckling musketeers is a near-perfect villain and proof of the fiendishness well groomed facial hair can extol.

43. John Doe (Kevin Spacey) – Se7en (1995)

He cut off Gwyneth Paltrow’s head, an action sure to generate a strongly worded letter of complaint from Chris Martin at the very least. A brilliant Kevin Spacey brings a disturbing logic to this madman’s actions.

42. The Child Catcher (Robert Helpmann) – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

As a child, few characters were scarier than the greasy, long-nosed Child Catcher, who complete with hook, net and horse-drawn cage haunted many an afternoon. The overtones to the darker side of society are hard to avoid, which makes Ian Fleming’s creation unpalatable even today. Roald Dahl wrote the movie's script.

41.The Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) – Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Some of the villains on our list are terrifying, only one has threatened to cut Kevin Costner’s heart out with a spoon. Foes must be fiendish, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun; as demonstrated by Alan Rickman’s superb turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the laughably inaccurate Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

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