Top Five: Book Villains

Five
It

   To start things off we've began with every child's worst dream. IT, from Stephen King's novel. Pennywise the clown is just one of this villain's guises. As scary and ominous as clowns are, Pennywise is just the most prominent persona the evil being that lurks under Derry Maine chooses to be in the minds of its prey.
   This evil creature can know what scares you and use that against you. Whether it be a half-rotted corpse of a dead person you knew, or a giant, veiny eyeball that glides on its dangling tendons (seriously, that was in the book). IT will do this out of its own pleasure and hunger.
   IT is one of our favorite villains, I and my brother were afraid of clowns when we were younger, and still find them fantastically creepy, and Stephen King nailed it.
If you think IT was as villainous as it gets, just wait and see who beat him out on the list.

Four
Dracula

   Count Dracula hardly needs an explanation as to what makes him a worthy villain to add to this list if you've read the book.
   Bram Stoker created one of the most fundamentally chilling characters of the fiction world. He reaches to the heart of what is scary and disturbing and fearlessly pulls it out to the surface.
   Stoker's Dracula is not the suave gentleman with the grease-backed hair that is portrayed all-to-often in television shows and half-assed movies. Bram's Dracula is the real deal. If you want to truly experience the real Dracula, read Stoker's tale, you won't forget it.

Three
Carlos The Jackal

   Don't know who Carlos The Jackal is? Read Robert Ludlum's "The Bourne Identity". I don't want to explain the character in too much detail because I don't want to ruin it for you if you do decide to read the novel(s). I'll just say that The Bourne Identity isn't just about a man with no memory, It's about Bourne discovering the man he was after before his life was nearly taken from him in the process, and why he was after him. The man is the world's deadliest assassin, and he is known by the name Carlos.
 





Two
The Overlook Hotel

   Not what you would expect? Most would think of Jack Torrance as the villain of the story, but that's most likely founded upon what Stanley Kubrick's version showed. Which was a mentally unstable man that seems to start edging over the line of sanity as soon as he was driving his family to the overlook and what was basically the beggining of the film.
   Now don't think I don't enjoy the movie, I very much do, but the Overlook I've placed in the number two spot in this countdown, like Pennywise earlier, is the one from Stephen King's Novel. In the book, Jack Torrance has had a problem drinking and has suffered from violent outbursts in the past, but is explained as resulting from his father's violent behavior toward his as a child. Jack is far more relatable and not villainous at all in the book. In fact, there is a scene in which Jack is looking at his son Danny at the begging of the story and almost cries because he realizes how much loves him.
   The Hotel is the villain because it wants Danny so badly (because of how strong the child "shines"), it uses Jack's violent and irrational side against Danny and Wendy. Possessing him, corrupting him, and using him so it can fulfill it's evil desire. This disturbing, and horrifying villain deserves second place.

One
Morgoth

   When people think of a J.R.R Tolkien villains, they think of Sauron in the Lord of The Rings trilogy, mainly because of the not-so-adaptations made by Peter Jackson. But Sauron, while a very frightening foe (especially if you read the books), is really second to the true dark lord of Tolkien's world, the first dark lord, Morgoth. Sauron was under Morgoth's command and feared him (as told in "The Silmarillion"), that should tell you something about just how powerful of a villain Morgoth was.
   Morgoth was one of the first created beings of Middle-earth, mightiest of all the Ainur, and the greatest of knowledge. He was first called Malkor and was as good as the rest of the Ainur, but eventually became jealous and wicked. He changed his form to a dark lord and was called Morgoth. He created and commanded armies of evil, he built fortresses of darkness and shadow to dwell in and rule from. His hatred of the world and of good and righteous things drived his malevolence and wickedness. Morgoth was described as being massive in size and height, clad in iron and armor and wielding his mighty hammer, "Grond".
   Morgoth earns the top spot on our countdown because of his truly terrifying power, presence, and evil intent.

~Stefan