9 Once Terrifying Horror Villains Rendered Lame By Sequels

While Brian Cox was the first actor to portray Hannibal onscreen, it was Anthony Hopkins who made the character famous. His icy calm, piercing stare and flair for the dramatic made a lasting impression on audiences, with Hopkins even winning an Oscar for the part.

He managed to do this despite having less than twenty minutes screentime, and spending most of it locked up. Part of his menace was the fact he was caged up, and the fear of what would happen if he broke free. The belated sequel Hannibal let Hopkins get hammy, but the threat just wasn’t there anymore. He’d become a campy b-movie villain, and not a very scary one.

It got worse with Red Dragon, with Hopkins going through the (very well paid) motions, and while he was caged again he wasn’t menacing in the least. The prequel Hannibal Rising gave us a really unnecessary backstory for the character, and lead actor Gaspard Ulliel spent most of it looking like he was in a perfume commercial.