100 GREATEST MOVIE VILLAINS

Pt. 9  41-45

CATHERINE TRAMELL

Who's she?: Technically, she's a crime novelist. In reality, instead of wracking her brains trying to come up with one intriguing plot after another, she basically enacts them in real life and then write about it later.
How bad is she?: When I say Catherine enacts the plot of her novels for real, I mean that she usually cast herself as the villain of the piece. Do not let her gorgeous appearance fool you. Catherine is a psychopath who seduces men and women, take them for one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride and then get rid of them once her latest opus is complete. Sometimes she'll just put an ice pick into you when she can't come up with a better ending.
What happened?: Her latest victim was a recovering drug addict cop, already in a relationship, whom she emotionally tortured to get him on the brink of insanity. She manipulated him into killing an innocent woman. She did not ice pick him, though. She later moved to London, carrying on with her usual bag of tricks.
Appearances: Basic Instinct (1992), Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

LEATHERFACE

Who's he?: Just a simple butcher. Leatherface comes from a long line of butchers and abattoir operators down in Texas.
How bad is he?: Essentially, Leatherface is an autistic person who's just born into the wrong family. Instead of sending him off in therapy, Leatherface's folks just introduced him to the family business. When a couple of kids came along uninvited, Leatherface flipped out and killed them all. Most of his victime were later served for supper, as his family had discovered the taste of human meat makes for a perfectly balanced meal.
What happened?: Armed with his trusty chainsaw, Leatherface killed those kids one by one. Except for that One Girl, who managed to escape after spending an harrowing night among Leatherface's peculiar family.
Appearances: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and many further sequels and remakes.

NORMAN BATES

Who's he?: The manager of the off-the-road Bates Motel, somewhere in California. He operates it with his bed-ridden, ill-tempered mother.
How bad is he?: Well, initially Norman may appear as a shy, introverted young man with a couple of Mommy issues but don't let that fool you. Norman is dangerously insane. When his sexual desires get in the way of management, expect him to have one argument too many with his Mom and unleash his mean streak. Ask Marion Crane, a one-time resident of Bates Motel.
What happened?: Norman's mom had died some years back, yet blood runs thicker than water. And its quite difficult to clean, too. He was sent to the loony bin for about twenty years. And then he was released. And Bates Motel was reopened for business.
Appearances: Psycho (1960), Psycho II (1982), Psycho III (1986)

RAMSES II

Who's he?: Pharaoh of Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC.
How bad was he?: Ramses had issues with his adoptive brother Moses. See, for about 400 years, Egypt "employed" Hebrew slaves to do most of the hard work. Moses, it turned out, was a Hebrew adopted by Ramses' father, Seti. However, Moses origin were revealed to him by God Himself and ordered Moses to liberate the slaves. Ramses wouldn't have any of it. He had quite an extensive building program going on and needed all the help he could get. You could say the Exodus was a labor problem gone from bad to worse.
What happened?: It's never a good idea to oppose someone chosen by God to do something. Several plagues struck Egypt at that point, and then Moses made his move. He parted the Red Sea to allow the slaves safe passage but when Ramses and his army followed suit, the Red Sea engulfed them all.
Appearance: The Ten Commandments (1956)

DR. GONZO

Who's he?: Is real name may be Oscar Zeta Acosta. An associate of journalist Raoul Duke (aka Hunter S. Thompson). Believe it or not this man was actually an attorney. Raoul Duke's attorney. One day, both of them went to Vegas to cover a motorcyle race, and went back again to cover a law enforcement conference on narcotics.
How bad is he?: Dr. Gonzo is not evil. Frank Zappa once said that taking drugs is somebody giving himself permission to act like an asshole. So, how assholish can someone be when he has ingested almost every drug known to mankind (at the same time)? A lot, I say. You do not want to be in the same room with Gonzo when he is fueled by a coctail of uppers, downers, coke, booze, mescalin and high-powered blotter acid. All the while wielding a gun and a very large Bowie knife. You just don't. You also do not want to be a waitress, working the late night shift at an out-of-town diner when Gonzo comes a-callin' as a customer. You see, he won't actually hurt anyone, but the killer is that you don't know that he won't.
What happened?: The trip to Vegas was...quite interesting...shall we say (in the Chinese meaning of the word). As for Acosta, he later visited Mexico in 1974 and was never heard from again. His son believes he has been killed by drug people.
Appearances: Where the Buffalo Roam (1980), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)