Why does almost every film need a villain? This week on The Film Whisperers, our movie nerds Saj and Alice dig into the bad guys, what makes a villain iconic, what makes one forgettable, and why the great screen villains are so often men.
From Regina George and Miranda Priestly to Darth Vader, Patrick Bateman, and the Joker, Saj and Alice work through why male villains so often get layers, backstory, and anti-hero status while female villains get written off as one dimensional.
Along the way they get into the camp and queer coding of Disney’s villains, the long history of queer characters cast as predators and monsters, the redemption arc, and the films that let a villain simply stay a villain.
They also dig into the anti-heroes and outright bad guys that audiences root for anyway, from Monster and Promising Young Woman to Wolf of Wall Street, Hustlers, and the gangster films, and the moral questions a really good villain leaves you arguing about long after the credits roll.