10 Captivating

Iconic villains have been a staple of global cinema for what feels like an eternity, and some of these devious characters have even gone on to become more popular than the heroes of the stories they were a part of.

Yet, some brilliant bad guys/gals weren't lucky enough to be a part of a truly magnificent piece of filmmaking and found themselves wedged into a movie that quite simply failed to take up permanent residence in the memories of those who chose to sit through them.

Be it a character who shot to prominence in a different - more watchable - project or just a stand-out force of evil in an otherwise unremarkable offering, these villains all deserve to be plucked from the realms of mediocrity and applauded for their terrific presence in spite of the stale film they called home.

You may even recognise a few of the antagonists on this list, but you'd probably be hard pressed to remember much about the disposable narratives they were tangled in.

And that's probably for the best, all things considered.

Remember the 2002 sequel to Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire in 2002? Queen of the Damned?

Of course not.

That was probably down to the fact that none of the original cast - Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst among them - from the first movie chose to return for the sequel and this subsequently resulted in a significant drop in both acting and overall film quality.

Queen of the Damned left out a fair few important characters and plotlines from the book series upon which it was based, which led to many critics and even the writer of the series, Anne Rice, denouncing the half-baked finished product. Rice would go on to say the filmmakers "mutilated" her work.

Despite the sequel's obvious pitfalls, one character did manage to find a way to stick out. Singer-actress Aaliyah's deliciously serpentine portrayal of the ancient vampire queen, Akasha, was both a triumph and an overwhelming shame.

Aaliyah would tragically die in a horrendous plane crash whilst the movie was in post-production, and this compelling performance - as the venomous villainess - stands as a reminder of just how brilliant a performer she could've gone on to be, had she not been taken at such a young age.