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(#1) Hannibal Lecter
- The Silence of the Lambs
Not only does Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) stay several steps ahead of special agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and the other FBI agents throughout Silence of the Lambs, but he uses them to facilitate his own escape from confinement while still shedding light on the identity of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine).
Of course, one should never forget that Lecter managed to live among normal people for many years without detection, preying on patients, rude associates, and census takers, then serving them to high-society guests at dinner parties.
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(#2) Jigsaw Killer
- Saw Franchise
Smart is too small a word to use for John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) when one considers the amount of ingenuity, labor, and intelligence required to set up multiple tests for people to redeem themselves, train numerous apprentices, and leave a legacy that allows him to live on well after his demise.
Kramer not only built his original traps by hand, he orchestrated circumstances to bring together specific people in his life to afford them the opportunity to make amends in one of his games.
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(#3) Victor Frankenstein
- Frankenstein
Portrayed by multiple actors over likely hundreds of adaptations, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an intelligent villain who uses science to bring dead body parts back to life without regard for ethics or consequence.
Frankenstein's ability to overcome the biological certainties of life and doom in order to reverse or engineer them at will makes him a demented genius among horror antagonists for the ages.
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(#4) Patrick Bateman
- American Psycho
Viewers may never know if Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) actually carried out the slayings depicted in American Psycho, but we do know if he did, the lawyer kept his transgressions hidden due to his intelligence. Bateman presents a facade of New York investment firm decadence and materialistic obsession to fit in with his peers, using their own vanity and pride against them to make them targets.
He is also mistaken for other colleagues, using that to his advantage in gathering details about the disappearance of Paul Allen (Jared Leto), his supposed first victim, while staying under the radar of police and suspicion.
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(#5) Pinhead
- Hellraiser Franchise
Pinhead (played originally by Doug Bradley, then Stephan Smith Collins and Paul T. Taylor, respectively) is the Cenobite leader in Clive Barker's Hellraiser film series, possessing the ability to psychologically antagonize his targets while also recognizing a good bargain when it comes his way.
Articulate and cerebral, Pinhead knows exactly how to manipulate his prey into giving in to him and his fellow Cenobites for eternal misery.
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(#6) Mary Mason
- American Mary
Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle) is a surgical medical student turned extreme body-modification surgeon to earn extra money. Using her gifted abilities as a surgeon, Mary is able to become a wealthy purveyor of modification surgery in the underground world of extreme fetishes.
She even uses her newfound skills to exact revenge on the mentors and teachers who sexually assaulted her at a party, using photos of their nonconsensual body modification surgeries to bolster her business.
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(#7) Norman Bates
- Psycho
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) slays his emotionally manipulative mother and her fiancé after the relationship triggers his jealousy and rage. Guilty about what he'd done, Bates digs up his mother and keeps her mummified corpse in their home beside Bates Motel for years without anyone realizing it.
His dissociative rages where he lapses into his mother's personality to commit transgressions are like blackouts, but he is smart enough to hide evidence to protect "Mother" after the passing of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and other unknown targets.
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(#8) Freddy Krueger
- A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise
Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) somehow overcomes his demise to exact revenge upon the town that ended his spree as the Springwood Slasher, a serial slayer targeting children. His supernatural presence is fueled by fear and the memories the townspeople still carry of the atrocities he committed, allowing him to pull more targets into the Dream World where he offs them.
The smarts needed to twist the laws of life and the afterlife are fairly astronomical, not to mention his ability to use his targets' greatest fears to manipulate them into giving him exactly what he wants. Only a highly intelligent sociopath can look so deeply into the being of a person to extract that sort of information and use it to their advantage.
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(#9) Isaac Chroner
- Children of the Corn
In a town where failing crops still lead to prayers for a successful harvest and children bear names from the Bible, Isaac Chroner (John Franklin) creates his own religion following "He Who Walks Behind the Rows."
The 12-year-old leads a cult of children with his right-hand man, 18-year-old Malachai Boardman (Courtney Gains), convincing them to slay everyone above the age of 18 in their town and sacrifice their own when they hit the age of adulthood. It takes a special kind of intelligence and craftiness to hold dominion over those physically stronger than him and push them to off their own parents for an unseen deity.
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(#10) Samara Morgan
- The Ring Franchise
A young girl full of unimaginable evil and powers, Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase, Kelly Stables, and Bonnie Morgan) is able to infuse her ethereal being into a videotape - and eventually digital media - to claim new targets for years after her passing.
She also successfully manipulates Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) into releasing her from the prison of the well where her adoptive mother drowned her, allowing her to eventually possess Keller's son, Aiden (David Dorfman).
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(#11) Francis Dolarhyde
- Manhunter, Red Dragon
Francis Dolarhyde, AKA The Red Dragon, is the main antagonist of the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon and its film adaptations. Portrayed by Tom Noonan and then Ralph Fiennes, Dolarhyde slays pets and families during full moons to fulfill his ritualistic needs and belief that the transgressions will turn him into the Red Dragon.
Since biting is a part of the ritual, Dolarhyde cleverly has two sets of false teeth created in Hong Kong to throw law enforcement off of his trail - one set for daily use and one of his grandmother's crooked teeth to bite targets. Furthermore, his employment as a film tech allows him to choose people based on seeing their home movies at work, giving police no connections between targets.
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(#12) Damien Thorn
- The Omen
Damien Thorn (Harvey Spencer Stephens) is the Antichrist reborn, and he uses a millennia of knowledge to render himself untouchable by his human adoptive parents. The Antichrist devises a plan to rise in the ranks of the world's government, which comes to fruition through thousands of years of meticulous planning.
From placing the newborn Damien with the politically active Thorn family and their ties to the US president to eventually becoming a powerful and rich CEO with the resources to prevent the second coming of Christ. Who can outwit an entity who used preternatural knowledge and eons to perfect their rise to power?
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(#13) Chucky
- Child's Play Franchise
Charles "Chucky" Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) not only busts out a Haitian voodoo ritual to bind his spirit to that of a Good Guys Doll as he slowly perishes in a toy store, but he also manipulates young Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) into helping him seek revenge on his former partner, Eddie Caputo (Neil Giuntoli).
Chucky is also able to make it appear that Andy is the slayer of Norris, his babysitter, and all of his other targets by knowing when to act like a hapless doll and when to come to life. Even his ultimate plan, to possess Andy and live again, is a smart move for the antagonist since he could viably jump into another body from that point.
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(#14) David Powers
- The Lost Boys
The public face and leader of an organized group of teenage vampires, David Powers (Kiefer Sutherland) uses his knowledge of adolescent machismo and peer pressure to bait Michael Emerson (Jason Patric) into joining the ranks of the undead.
Throughout the entire movie, the real head of the vampire clan is unknown due to David's leadership ability and intelligence, making it appear he was the one running things all along.
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(#15) Toby
- Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Activity 2, Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4
In the Paranormal Activity franchise, Toby (Mark Streger) is the name used by the younger versions of sisters Katie and Kristi to describe the demon posing as the latter's imaginary friend in their childhood. Throughout the films, Toby shows his intelligence and cunning by manipulating generations of women with promises of wealth and power in exchange for firstborn sons in their family lineage.
Toby also uses the imaginary friend conceit to keep parents from worrying about his presence until stopping him is too late. At no point during the series of movies does Toby ever lose or find himself up against anyone with any clue as to how to defeat him or stop his collection of sons throughout the years.
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About This Tool
We often remember the hero, but rarely the villain. That’s because, in most movies, the villain himself is a towering presence designed to foil the hero. They have high Iq, but often bad to the bone, do all kinds of evil, some are born ugly. The hero is the hero, and there are many positive or profile descriptions to show its lovely, whereas the villain is always a little monotonous, bad also bad thin.
This random generator tool collates 15 items, documenting some of the most intelligent villains in horror movies. Because of their high Iq, they are more difficult to deal with than other characters, including Hannibal Lecter, Jigsaw Killer, Victor Frankenstein, Patrick Bateman, Pinhead, Mary Mason, etc. . Have you ever been intimidated by them?
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