evil protagonists?

Okay maybe hate is a strong word for "Old Yeller" but I remember not liking that part growing up.

I will have to check out What Just Happened
 
jl - those visual color effects are so subliminal but we really do catch them subconsciously. Hitchcock had 'great' marketing campaigns, really. I love the
phrase in the movie where they're commenting on the rain and Bates states

"it's dirty"

instead of it's just raining. Little things like that. Man I got a chill when they pulled that car out of the lake there.
 
Excellent film (LTROI)!
Yes you are on to something I think, having a protagonist that does bad things but there is a reason for that involving sympathy for the protagonist, or at least empathy. I have read many times that we must identify with the protag, have empathy, not necessarily sympathy but at least empathy.

Nitsuj said:
Maybe "Let the Right One In"?
Or "Interview with a Vampire"?
It almost seems to me that the profile you are describing suits best as a vampire or maybe a frankenstein story. Reason could be that they were in fact a victim and can't help what they have become or do so the audience can relate in some way and be forgiving. Not sure just thinking here.
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We need a feature film remake of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, told from the perspective of the bears. Hehe. All a matter of perspective as you say.
 
I totally agree. Which is why I do not get into movies like the Saw series, seeing an evil dude torturing and killing. But a movie with an 'evil' protagonist I recently watched that I really liked was The Uninvited; however in that movie, we don't see the protagonist (Anna, played by Emily Browning) as evil or bad until the very end of the movie, during the entire first 99% of the movie we see her as a victim, are sympathetic and empathetic towards her. And even when we do discover the heinous acts she has committed, we still have some sympathy for her because of her mental illness and because of what caused that mental illness. So the key may be not showing the evil the protagonist does, instead purposely misleading the audience (to some degree wasn't that done in Psycho, where we think maybe Norman's got a crazy mother stabbing people?).

Nitsuj said:
...So going the route of the evil protagonist could easily turn off your audience.
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Good ash.. bad ash... I'm the guy with the gun. I like protagonists with lots of distasteful flaws.
 
Batutta said:
You have seen the Saw movies, haven't you?...I guess that's not really a protagonist...Maybe the showtime series Dexter?
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Dexter is a good guy, though. He just doesn't prescribe to societal morality -- he has a higher code than that.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Can horror stories have an evil protagonist, one that kills off victims, walks away at the end of the story without getting caught? Examples from film?
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Some of these have been mentioned already...

American Psycho
Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer
American Psycho
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

The protagonist can be evil but they should also have some quality that endears them to the audience. For example Dexter, he's a serial killer, but in his own mind it's justified. He's not a hateable character at all. They do a good job of humanizing him beyond just being a cold-hearted killer.

I don't think the protagonist in films like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, etc... is evil because the villains are not the protagonists in those films. Halloween had Laurie Strode, Nightmare on Elm Street had Nancy and Saw had different protagonists in each film (mostly whichever cop was tracking down Jigsaw.)
 
One of the most famous 'evil' protagonists is Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley. Those books have been filmed several times, most notably "The Talanted Mr Ripley" with Matt Damon. The hardboiled criminal stories of the 40s/50s are full of them. A upcoming movie 'The Killer Inside Me' based on the excellent Jim Thompson novel has caused quite a stir at this year's Sundance due to very graphical violence. It's protagonist is evil beyond a doubt, being a sadomasochistic sociopath and to further the horror the novel is told in first-person.
 
Israel Romero said:
How about Yagami Light, from Death Note?
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Excellent suggestion. :thumbsup: Although, I wouldn't necessarily consider him "evil" - just lacking in self-control and good judgment.

Maybe the protags from these movies fit the bill?

Falling Down
The Ugly
The Devil's Rejects
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (I know, not a movie)
A Clockwork Orange
The Shining
Public Enemies
...
 
Actually Dr. Horrible's an excellent example, because his stated goal is to get into the League of Evil (is that what it's called?) He most definitely considers himself a villain.
 
In Amadeus, Salieri wins by outsmarting and killing Mozart.

But Salieri goes mad, as Mozart's music lives on, while Salieri's disappears into mediocre oblivion.

It's funny, and memorable, and a good example I think.
 
Just watched Law Abiding Citizen last night, great example of an evil (murderous) protagonist, kills, even in rather grisly ways, and yet we are empathetic to him, identify with his motive.
 
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