15 Chilling Movie Villains That Are Harrowing To Watch

Another villain who unfortunately actually existed, Edwin Epps is a repulsive and cruel slave-owner. Like many other historical villains, the real-life individual was even worse, but then again no artistic depiction could ever fully capture the horrors of the slave trade. 12 Years a Slave, the excellent but enormously upsetting Best Picture winner of the 86th Academy Awards, made a very good effort of it.

The film is full of vile characters, but the most unpleasant one is easily Michael Fassbender's appalling slave-owner. In another great performance that cements Michael Fassbender as one of our greatest living actors, Fassbender gives a rage-filled, demented and painfully intense performance as the remorseless master who abuses his slaves without hesitation and often without good reason.

Epps works particularly well as a symbol of the horrors of slavery. Not only is he a horrible master but he's also a childish, unintelligent drunk who's been given control over a large number of human lives. Thus, he not only represents the living nightmare slaves endured but also what can happen when the wrong people are given too much power over the lives of others, as they were in the slave trade.