5. Captain Vidal Pans Labyrinth
Here we are: the big top five. Captain Vidal is not one of the more famous villains of this list, but I personally believe he belongs here because very few antagonists have angered me like this one. Vidal is selfish, violent, cruel and just plain frightening. It is easy to believe that he would kill a character at the drop of a hat. He is grotesquely cruel to innocent people and fuels a civil war with alarming nonchalance. He loves to torture his enemies and even his own subjects. He is increasingly cruel to his own step-daughter, and seems like a genuine, consistent threat throughout the film. Just try and sit through the scene where Vidal bashes a large hole in the face of an innocent peasant with a bottle. He does so in front of the mans own son and for no apparent reason. Try and feel empathy for Vidal after that. Its physically impossible.
4. Woo-Jin Lee Oldboy
Woo-Jin Lee belongs here based solely on how gross and horrific his scheme is in this film. His origin story is grotesque enough; in high school, our protagonist catches him having sex with his own sister, resulting in her committing suicide. Yeah, this is pretty messed up. But it gets more intense. He then proceeds to capture the protagonist and lock him in a hotel room for fifteen years. Upon releasing our protagonist, he manipulates events in the characters life in order to cause him to fall in love with (and sleep with) his own daughter. Woo-Jin then reveals this information to the protagonist, causing him to cut out his own tongue in shame. The point is that this guy is seriously sick, and based on this ridiculously complicated and cruel plan, he belongs in the top five.
3. Col. Hans Landa Inglourious Basterds
Hans Landa is a very, very entertaining villain to watch. He acts very reasonable and gentlemen-like, before proceeding to take great pleasure in his title, "The Jew Hunter", and ordering the execution of the Jews he sniffs out, who can rarely hide from him effectively. There are so many complexities that make this villain compelling. Firstly, we have his highly comical and care-free attitude towards his work; Christoph Waltz is typically brilliant at portraying this personality. Then we have the fact that he is so damn good at what he does; his ability to figure out the location of hiding Jews makes him a genuine threat to those who come up against him. But the biggest trait that makes this character an excellent villain is his apparent awareness of his wrongdoings, and his purely selfish motives. At the climax of the film, he gets our protagonists, the Basterds, to arrange a deal for him where he will get off scot-free if he helps them assassinate Hitler and all the other higher ups in the war effort. He is in it entirely for himself and even considers himself above the Nazis he works for. At least he gets a swastika carved into his head for his troubles.