The New York Film Academy recently published a pretty awesome infographic on their website, featuring the top 10 darkest characters in film. I’ve been known to be partial to the darker characters – I’m still a bit unsure whether I’ve a dark passenger of my own inside me or not, but I can’t help but always like the dark characters more than the happy ones. As I see it, they make any story more interesting.
Anyway, let’s check out their top ten – click the image to enlarge it (and click on the links in the caption to visit the NYFA’s website and their original article!)
It’s a great list. I especially appreciate the entries of Se7en‘s John Doe and Misery‘s Annie Wilkes (incidentally, I saw Misery for the first time two weeks ago, so her special kind of crazy is still fresh on my mind!), and Charlize Theron‘s Aileen Wuornos in Monster definitely deserves a place on this list. Otherwise, I’d definitely shuffle it around a bit.
I’d have preferred to see a few more characters from international film, though I appreciate that Asami Yamazaki of Audition is on it (though I’m a bit conflicted – isn’t Kakihara of Ichi The Killer (also directed by Takashi Miike) even darker?). I’d replace Pulp Fiction‘s Zed (who is a rather minor character in the movie) with The Shining‘s Jack Torrence. I’d even consider replacing Buffalo Bill with Hannibal himself, who always seemed darker to me than Bill… And what about American History X‘s Derek Vinyard?
What do you think of the list? Which characters would you keep and which would you take off? Any other characters you’d add?
If you like this infograph, don’t forget to share it on your social media accounts! ^_^
(featured image source: Monster – Columbia Pictures/Newmarket Films)
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