10 Horror TV Shows Where The Hero Became The Villain

Death Note is one of the finest anime series of all time, channeling elements of supernatural horror as it charts the electrifying game of cat-and-mouse between detective L and schoolboy-turned-supernatural-killer Light Yagami.

Viewers are introduced to Light as the perfect high school student - one who excels academically, is popular amongst his peers and has a father who just happens to be the Chief of the National Police Agency. However, it's Light's strong sense of justice and intelligence that becomes his hubris. Light's moral corruption begins when the series' mysterious Death Note falls into his hands - all Light has to do is write a person's name in the pages and that person will die.

There's nothing more dangerous than a villain who thinks he's doing righteous work. Light initially sees himself as an upstanding vigilante, a person who will do the dirty tasks that society is too squeamish to deal with. However, the well intentioned young man is quickly overcome with delusions of grandeur as he uses the Death Note to mercilessly cleanse society - resorting to acts of unspeakable violence and dubbing himself the God of his new world.

When one considers the moral depths that Light has plumbed by the time Death Note's finale rolls around, it is almost staggering to think that audiences once saw him as the anime's hero.