20 Greatest 90s Movie Villains

17. Cape Fear - Max Cady

Though Cape Fear is a long, long way from Martin Scorsese's best work, it nevertheless unleashed one of his and Robert De Niro's greatest creations on the world. The latest in a long line of psychopaths crafted by one of cinema's most acclaimed actor-director partnerships, Max Cady is absolute nightmare fuel.

A vicious sexual predator who's seeking revenge on the defence lawyer who buried evidence so that Cady would go down, Max immediately announces himself as a different level of messed-up when he does that most taboo of things early on: he kills his target's adorable pet dog. That's already crossing a line many antagonists wouldn't go near, but this sicko is just getting started. 

Max carries out many grotesque acts of violence throughout the story, though the way in which he manipulates the authorities and outwits his targets is almost as disturbing. Like many of the best villains, he's deranged but also smart and totally in control, making him exceptionally dangerous. 

Cady would, of course, not be quite as great without such stellar work from Robert De Niro. The '90s were the end of De Niro's golden age, with him frequently burying himself in dreadful comedies from the 2000s onwards, so it's refreshing to watch this reminder of what he can really do when he fully commits to a part. Here, he created an antagonist so good that, even after Cape Fear was legendarily parodied in The Simpsons, he's still as frightening as ever.