Who’s the greatest movie villain of all time? It’s a debatable question, but you would certainly recognize the names that are frequently thrown into the discussion. Darth Vader, Hans Gruber, Hannibal Lecter, Alex Delarge, and the Joker are just some of the characters who will always pop up in lists devoted to best cinematic evildoers. Yes, those are the villains that everybody knows, and rightfully so, but there is an entire collection of big-bads out there that are often times overlooked, under-appreciated, and underrated.

For this list, we’re looking at some of the greatest unsung villains in movie history. These are the scoundrels and rogues that viewers love to hate, which just means that they’re exceptionally good at doing their jobs. We know there are a lot of names to consider, but this final list contains the most intimidating, frightening, cruel, and underestimated bad guys who have pushed their heroes to the edge and made it look easy.

From drug lords to serial killers, here are 15 Most Underrated Villains in Movie History.

15. Franz Sanchez (Licence to Kill)

Robert Davi in Licence to Kill

James Bond has fought his fair share of supervillains over the years. From Auric Goldfinger to Raoul Silva, they each tested 007’s strength, wit, and resourcefulness. While Bond’s arch nemesis is no doubt criminal mastermind Ernst Starvo Blofeld, his most underrated villain has to be the ruthless Franz Sanchez from Licence to Kill.

As one of the most powerful drug lords on the planet, Sanchez has more muscle and influence than almost any other Bond villain. To him, money is no object, buying up politicians, policemen, and even military escorts. Even more important to Sanchez than money is loyalty. He’s the kind of bad guy that will throw you in a pressure cooker to watch your head explode if he finds out you double crossed him. He’s also the kind of villain who feeds his enemies to sharks, which he gladly does to Bond’s best friend, Felix Leiter. He’s just as sophisticated as he is intimidating, and gets our vote for most underappreciated Bond villain in the franchise’s history.

14. Luther (The Warriors)

The Warriors come out to play

Warriors, come out to play-i-ay.”

Unlike the heroes, villains never have to worry about being honorable. Actually, a lot of villains are straight up cowards. Percy from The Green Mile is a sniveling weasel who thinks himself above the law, and Wormtail in the Harry Potter series will do just about anything to save his own skin. With that in mind, one of the biggest cowards in movie history has to be Luther, the leader of the Rogues and the man who shoots beloved gang leader Cyrus in The Warriors.

As the man responsible for framing the Coney Island Warriors, Luther is despicable, spineless, and a perfect bad guy. He’s the exact opposite of the Warriors, a gang that lives by a strict code of street ethics. Luther has no code, and starts mayhem just to sit back and watch the chaos. When Swan finally confronts the madman in the end, he asks why he shot Cyrus in the first place. “No reason. I just like doin’ stuff like that,” is Luther’s mocking response. Though he’s a coward and a liar, he knows exactly what buttons to push to incite a riot, making him a gutless worm of a bad guy that deserves his brutal fate by the film’s end.

13. Eleanor Shaw (The Manchurian Candidate)

The Manchurian Candidate

For this entry, we’re taking a look at the most evil puppet masters in cinema history. These are the villains that are behind the curtain pulling the strings, manipulating others to do their bidding for them. And while we love the dastardly Harry Lime in The Third Man or the calculating Chirstof from The Truman Show, nobody is more maliciously scheming than Eleanor Shaw from The Manchurian Candidate.

While Meryl Streep did a superb job of portraying the villain in the 2004 remake, we’re going with Angela Lansbury’s Oscar nominated performance in the 1962 original as our embodiment of the character. As a communist spy, Shaw will do anything to solidify her power over others, which includes brainwashing her own son into an assassin, who she coldly sends out to kill her enemies. Lansbury’s icy presence as Shaw is unforgettable, evolving from the overbearing mother to one of the most criminally underrated masterminds in all of movie history.

12. Alonzo Harris (Training Day)

Denzel Washington in Training Day

Just because someone’s in a position to uphold the law, it doesn’t mean that they will. Some of the greatest villains of all time have been politicians, judges, firefighters, and police officers. There’s Tom Berenger’s misguided Sgt. Barnes in Platoon, and Gary Oldman’s psychotic DEA agent from Léon: The Professional, but for this entry, we’re going with Denzel Washington’s corrupt police detective from the 2001 cop drama, Training Day.

Washington gives one of his most bombastic performances as Alonzo Harris, a dirty cop who manipulates the system in any way he can. He bribes judges, he fakes arrest warrants, he engages in gunfire in a crowded street, and he rips off drug dealers for quick cash when he’s in a pinch. Washington plays Alonzo with a wild swagger that is often times exaggerated, but never distracting. Alonzo is a larger than life personality, and Washington plays him that way without missing a beat. He’s intimidating, threatening, and worst of all, above the law, using his badge as a tool for extortion rather than a tool for justice.

11. Uncle Charlie (Shadow of a Doubt)

Joseph Cotten in bed in Shadow of a Doubt

***SPOILERS***

The only thing more frightening than a psychopath is a psychopath who has been hiding right under your nose the entire time. Edward Norton’s character in Primal Fear pretends to have split personalities, only for his lawyer to discover that he has been faking his condition to get away with murder. Agent Kujan is shocked at the end of The Usual Suspects when it is revealed that the man he’s been after the entire time has just walked out of the police station scot-free.

Besides crafting the unforgettable Norman Bates, director Alfred Hitchcock is responsible for an entire string of mysterious movie killers that hide in plain sight. Perhaps one of the creepiest of all is from his 1943 film, Shadow of a Doubt, which features Joseph Cotten as the chilling Uncle Charlie. While he’s known to his family as a sophisticated delight, Charlie is actually a murderer who marries old widows in order to reap their fortunes. Cotton plays Charlie with a sort of sunny cynicism, with the audience never knowing what is truly going on inside his head. While he’s not as well-known as Bates, this psycho is easily just as unnerving, and serves as one of Hitchcock’s most underrated villains.

10. Scorpio (Dirty Harry)

Often times, a great villain is one that is the polar opposite of the hero. The Joker is the manic killer that pushes the buttons of Gotham’s Dark Knight, while Hans Gruber is a sophisticated terrorist that goes up against every-man John McClain. It’s their conflicting morals, beliefs, and lifestyles that make their confrontations so compelling to watch on screen. In this sense, no villain is more contrasting than Scorpio, the manic, unhinged gunman who plays a game of cat-and-mouse with San Francisco detective Dirty Harry.

While Detective Harry Callahan believes in enforcing the law by any means necessary, Scorpio is a sadistic serial killer with a moral compass that has no sense of direction. Played with a vicious glee by Andrew Robinson, he is one of the most morally bankrupt villains ever to grace movie screens, getting his kicks from strangling young women, shooting random victims with his sniper rifle, and taking a school bus full of children hostage. Even more disturbing is Scorpio’s boyish delight as he lives out his most twisted fantasies. It’s a blissfully deranged and underrated performance by Robinson, delivering the perfect yin to Dirty Harry’s yang.

9. Warden Norton (The Shawshank Redemption)

Bob Gunton as Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption

If the audience is supposed to empathize with the hero the most, then it would make sense that the person they loathe above all else is the villain. An effective bad guy commits the most despicable actions possible, beating the hero down until they get their comeuppance in the movie’s final moments. The decrepit Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life and the deranged Commandant from Beasts of No Nation are some of the best movie bullies out there, but if we’re talking about an absolute tyrant, then we have to go with the Warden from The Shawshank Redemption.

Scene after scene, Warden Norton proves that he’s one of the slimiest, bullheaded, and most immoral villains imaginable. He makes Andy his own personal lackey, forcing him to cook the books for Shawshank so he can continue to embezzle money. Even worse, he kills an inmate in cold blood when he reveals he has info that could clear Andy’s name. Every time it looks like our hero is going to catch a break, the Warden pushes him back down again. He’s a deplorable human being that viewers couldn’t wait to see what he got coming to him, and that’s exactly what a good villain is supposed to be.

8. O-Dog (Menace II Society)

Menace II Society 1993

Can the villain of a movie be the hero’s friend as well? Tommy DeVito is Henry Hill’s best friend in Goodfellas, yet many viewers are quick to label him the antagonist. Begbie is a loose-cannon who seeks out violence in Trainspotting, but Renton keeps him around in case of a pinch. If it’s better to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, than the best “frenemy” you can have is the immoral, aggressive, and sadistically violent O-Dog from 1993’s Menace II Society.

While Kane wrestles with trying to escape his fate, O-Dog is a person that embraces it. In the very first scene of the movie, the character brutally shoots two people at a Korean convenience store for simply ruffling his feathers. After stealing the security tape, O-Dog proudly shows it to his friends, gloating about the heinous murders. To him, human life is about as valuable as a bottle of beer. Though he’s a product of his environment, O-Dog an absolute monster, and described by Kane as “America’s nightmare. Young, black, and didn’t give a f***.”

7. Mama (Dredd)

Lena Headey sitting in a high-rise in Dredd

Much like the protagonist, a villain should not be afraid to take a challenge head-on. These are the bad guys that get a thrill when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. They welcome the excitement of a fight, be it a physical one like Clubber Lang in Rocky III or a match of wits like Howard Payne in Speed. It’s always a blast to watch two formidable foes duke it out, such is the case in 2012’s Dredd when crime lord Mama goes up against judge, jury, and executioner, Judge Dredd.

Lena Heady is absolutely ferocious in the role of Mama, the gun totting, drug dealing kingpin of Mega City One. The prostitute turned drug lord commands 20 stories of a slum that she has made into her own personal fortress, no small challenge for even the city’s toughest Judge. Mama and her gang of thugs disregard the law or any sense of morality, relishing the deaths of their enemies who dare try to get in their way. She’s fierce, aggressive, and not afraid to take on the world, making her quite the villain to be reckoned with.

6. Henry (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer)

Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Serial killers always make for good movie villains. From Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, to John Doe in Seven, these bad guys are cold, cunning and absolutely terrifying. While the halls of cinema history are filled with the blood of famous film slashers, none of them are more underappreciated than Michael Rooker’s haunting portrayal of Henry in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Though you may recognize him from The Walking Dead fame, Rooker delivered his best performance to date in this 1986 horror. Loosely based on real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, Henry is a drifter, committing a series of brutal murders as he moves from place to place. He and his buddy Otis choose their victims at random, making sure not to leave any witnesses. One of Henry’s more disturbing acts of violence is a home invasion that goes horrible wrong, leading to the deaths of three innocent people. Rooker is so convincing in the role, and the violence so visceral, that the film is often times hard to look at it, but that’s part of the reason why Henry works so well as an effective villain.

5. Lil Ze (City of God)

While a good villain can be the polar opposite of the hero, sometimes it’s interesting to note their similarities. Professor X and Magneto both want mutant freedom, but have radically different views on how to obtain it. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick both play Terminators in T2, but have completely different motivations. Two characters can come from the same place, but wind up on opposite sides of the fence, much like Rocket and Lil Ze from City of God.

Both are characters that grow up in a brutally violent neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, but Lil Ze is a character that chooses to embrace his fierce surroundings. While Rocket becomes an inspired photographer, Lil Ze becomes the most ruthless drug dealer in the city. He develops an obsession with expanding his empire, wiping out his enemies without a second thought. His upbringing is so saturated with violence, that Lil Ze has become completely desensitized to it, forcing children to shoot each other in order to pass the time. Lil Ze is the embodiment of the vicious cycle of gangster life, a lifestyle that almost always ends with a bullet in the back.

4. Mad Dog (The Raid)

The Raid Mad Dog

It’s a hard life for movie henchmen, who are often times a mere afterthought compared to the main baddie. However, once in a while, the lackey can steal the show. Goldfinger was the main big bad of his self-titled Bond flick, but if you were hard pressed to remember a villain from Goldfinger, your mind would probably race towards his mute henchman Oddjob, who slays his victims with his bowler hat. A right-hand man has to be something special to eclipse the main villain, and that was certainly the case in Gareth Evan’s The Raid.

This 2011 action flick on steroids is filled to the brim with mad dog killers, but none of them more feral than the Mad Dog himself. Right hand man of the notorious drug dealer the police are trying to arrest, the Mad Dog is a one man disposal unit for taking out the police. He’s a master of hand-to-hand combat, which makes sense considering he’s played by Yayan Ruhian, one of the fight choreographers of the movie. Although he’s eventually bested by the end of the film by the protagonist and his brother, the Mad Dog more than leaves his impression on the legacy of butt-kicking henchmen.

3. Vincent (Collateral)

Tom Cruise on a train with a gun in Collateral

There’s no one more intimidating than a movie assassin, villains who spend years acquiring a special set of skills that make them the deadliest killers on the planet. There’s O-Ren Ishi from Quinten Tarantino’s Kill Bill saga, Alejandro from Sicario, and even the shapeshifter Mystique from the X-Men franchise. However, if there was ever a movie assassin that should get more recognition for their killer skills, then it would have to be Vincent from Michael Mann’sCollateral.

It’s not often that Tom Cruise gets to play the bad guy, but Vincent proves that the actor is more than capable of stepping outside the ring of his nice guy persona. This grey haired, man-eating super assassin prowls the streets of L.A., chauffeured by a poor cab driver as Vincent’s victims continue to pile up. The contract killer is absolutely remorseless as he crosses off the names on his hit list, killing a jazz club owner after having a friendly chat about Miles Davis, and shooting two common crooks that were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Shooting skills aside, what really makes Vincent so frightening is his bleak, philosophical look on life, his perception of the world that won’t remember the dregs of the criminal underbelly he’s tasked with killing. Despite his cynicism, he’s at times likable, but without a doubt one of cinema’s most vicious killers to date.

2. Owen Davian (Mission: Impossible III)

Philip Seymour Hoffman looks menacing in Mission Impossible III

Like Tom Cruise and his portrayal of Vincent, there are some actors that bring an unexpected humanity to their roles. While a silent killer can be effective, adding some depth and an extra layer to a villain can be ambitious and prove to pay off. Philip Seymour Hoffman demonstrated that he was one of the best character actors time and time again. Known for playing lowlifes, misfits and bullies, he was continually pushing the bounds of making even the most heinous characters sympathetic.

Frequently playing supportive roles, Hoffman may have been one of the most overlooked actors in Hollywood, and one of his most overlooked performances is that of Owen Davian in Mission: Impossible III. The franchise has never received a villain so cold, so calculating, and so convincing as Hoffman’s maniacal Davian.

Immune to interrogation (he doesn’t give a shred of info even when threatened with being thrown out of an airplane), he’s the master of psychological torture, making Ethan believe he killed his wife by shooting a random victim in front of him. Davian may be heartless, but because of Hoffman’s chilling performance, we find him compelling for his amazing ability to intimidate.

1. Clarence J. Boddicker (Robocop)

Our final entry is one that combines all of the elements from the names listed above. This bad guy is a remorseless psychopath, a master manipulator that relishes the pain of his victims. We’re of course talking about the cruel, the charismatic, and the magnetically fascinating Clearance J. Boddicker from 1987’s Robocop.

Before he was the lovable Red from That 70’s Show, Kurtwood Smith was doing a little more than threatening to shove his foot up your behind. Instead, he was blowing away cops and snorting lines of cocaine in Paul Verhoeven’s ultra-violent sci-fi masterpiece. Clearance is the man responsible for the creation of the film’s hero, shooting Murphy into oblivion so his corpse can be reanimated into Robocop. He’s a narcissist that thrives on the misfortune of others, whether it’s the Detroit police, rival gangs or even his own henchmen.

Clearance is backed up by one of the most powerful businessman in Detroit, which means he’s able to get away with pretty much anything. This includes blowing up local businesses, robbing banks, dealing drugs, raping, killing, and just about any criminal activity you can think of. Clearance J. Boddicker is the type of scoundrel that even the most evil bad guy wouldn’t want to cross paths with, and gets our vote as the most underrated movie villain of all time.