10 Best Horror Movie Villains With Absolutely No Motive

3. Mick Taylor - Wolf Creek (2005)

The Strangers
Dimension Films

Arguably one of cinemas most chilling sadists, Wolf Creek's Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) is one horror movie villain whose cruelty is unmatched.

Writer-director Greg McLean’s inspiration for this character was derived from real-life killers Bradley John Murdoch and Ivan Milat to create a villain that was quintessentially Australian. But don’t let Mick's Aussie charm fool you, because it might just be your last mistake.

This is a fatal lesson a group of backpackers learn when their car breaks down in the Australian Outback. Mick arrives out of the blue to take them back to his camp where he can fix their car, but - as you’ve likely gathered from his appearance on this list - he has much darker intentions.

After being drugged, Liz (Cassandra Magrath) awakes bound and gagged to witness Mick torturing and assaulting her friend. In typical genre fashion, it’s then up to them to find a means to escape; but Mick isn’t going to make it easy.

His actions are unspeakably vicious, with the less said about the “head on a stick” scene the better. Nothing else is divulged about who Mick is or why he kills. He’s simply an evil person who does terrible things because he can.

Contributor
Contributor

Glasgow-based cinephile who earned a Masters degree in film studies to spend their time writing about cinema, video games, and horror.