10 Most Underrated Horror Movie Villains

In Paul Verhoven's violent remake/re-imagining of the classic H.G Wells' story, brilliant scientist Sebastian Caine develops a way to turn living tissue invisible. Under pressure from his military backers to produce results Caine decides to experiment on himself and becomes trapped in the state. Once Caine begins to experience life as an invisible man he finds that the unseen (pun intended) benefits outweigh the negatives and soon he'll stop at nothing to stay that way.

Much like Captain Wafner, Bacon's Caine wasn't all that nice of a guy to begin with, but unlike the Captain much of Caine's negative aspects were hidden, or at least suppressed. He's an egotist whose worst crimes are that he lies to his colleagues and creepily peeps on his neighbour. All of this plants the seeds for what comes out when Caine is unleashed from the constraint of visibility.

The movie's lesser-used tagline, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't be seen?" posed that question to all of us in 2000 and in Caine's case he immediately exploits his situation to molest an unknowing colleague. From there he graduates to rape and, once he is in danger of being exposed, to murder - lots of murder.

Perhaps it's the sheer amoral nastiness of The Hollow Man's antagonist which has held the movie back from achieving cult status. But it's that nastiness which makes him so effectively creepy and loathsome. Where some monsters might spout the occasional cheesy pun and wink at the camera to remind us it's all just a bit of fun, we're afforded no such relief from Caine, and rightly so.