10 Horror Villains Who Were Just Misunderstood

Hannibal Lecter might be the fictional world’s most fearsome cannibal but there’s no denying he had justifiable motive. Growing up in Nazi-occupied Lithuania, the young Hannibal saw his family killed by German soldiers and his surviving sister cannibalised by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators. A childhood as traumatic as that would have a major effect on even the hardiest of souls or, you know, in Hannibal’s case turn him to cannibalism too.

Let’s take a look at some of his victims though. Hannibal’s first kills were the men who ate his sister which is completely understandable while over in 2001’s Hannibal he took out corrupt official Paul Krendler by sautéing and eating his brains and was complicit in the death of sadistic paedophile Mason Verger. And let’s not forget he helped Clarice Starling capture serial killer Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Sure, he cannibalised a few innocents along the way but a guy’s got to eat right? His moral compass may be slightly askew especially when it comes to satisfying his hunger but it’s probably safe to say the world’s a better place without the likes of Verger and Buffalo Bill in it.