10 Detestable Movie Villains We Never See

10. The Trucker - Duel

Steven Spielberg's fantastic feature debut Duel is a masterclass in "less is more" filmmaking. 

The film revolves around a travelling salesman, David Mann (Dennis Weaver), who is doggedly pursued by the driver of a semi-truck, and in the film's shrewdest directorial flourish, the driver is never fully seen.

We catch only fleeting glimpses of his arms and boots, but never do we see his face or get much visual impression of what he really looks like. 

This was a component of Richard Matheson's script and Spielberg further emphasised it in the film, along with the driver's total lack of motive, to basically make the truck itself the villain.

Anyone who drives will have dealt with aggressive motorists on the road, and Duel's villain is an unnervingly heightened rendition of that, with both Mann and the audience unable to glean any but the faintest fleck of humanity from the villain through his visual absence.