Motion Picture Meltdown Villain Countdown: Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes (Misery)

Hello motion picture maniacs.  In the absence of our podcasts the last couple of months, Mark and I have decided to re-dedicate ourselves to making sure Motion Picture Meltdown always has something going on. Podcasts are going to start up again regularly soon, but for fun on the side, I've decided to put together some lists. Starting today, I'll be ranking my opinions of the twenty-five best villain actors in movies. Because of the pure awesomeness of the actors involved, I really have no way of ranking them, therefore I'll just keep it at a basic list for fun. Also...I'm not really for the pr-70's oldies...so I'm keeping the list narrowed to movies after 1970. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!!


Villain #25 - Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes

Movie - Misery (1990)

For those of you that live in holes and haven't seen Misery, here's a little refresher. The story is about a writer that finally has finished a new book and gotten away from a franchise that has defined him as a writer. He decides to leave his lodge in Colorado, but his trip is cut short when his brakes are cut and his car flies off a mountain road, breaking his legs and rendering him unconscious. He's pulled from the wreckage and wakes up in a bed as his the "number one fan" of his franchise series now is "taking care of him".

Why she makes the cut

Anne Wilkes is goddamned crazy. There is no other way around it. Her character has completely lost trace of reality and bases her happiness on what happens to a character she loves to read about. At first she seems ok, but when she reads his new rough draft, she starts going nuts...spilling soup on his broken legs and screaming at the tops of her lungs. Unfortunately the writer has the bad luck enough that his final book in the Misery franchise series (in which he kills off the main character in) is releasing while he's under her capture. This causes her to completely fly off the handle, and decide that he's going to write a new book...where the character comes back from the dead? Yeah. The writer thinks it sounds stupid too...which is why she allows him to go days without medicine while he has two compound fractures in his legs. She always seems to be one step ahead of him. He gets the strength to wheelchair around the house a bit, she fires back by breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer. She has no problem murdering the police officer investigating the writer's disappearance. Oh yeah...I forgot to mention that this whole time she's making one of the original cast members from The Godfather (James Caan) scream and wince like a newborn baby throughout the entire movie. If that wasn't enough, to add to her backstory...she's had some run ins with the law...for being a serial killer....A BABY SERIAL KILLER! She's one of the only actors/actresses to win an Oscar for being a villain, and would probably be closer to a top 10...but I just watched this and couldn't contain myself. Sure...in an ideal situation one might be able to easily defend themselves against Annie Wilkes...but when you're helpless and at the mercy of your caregiver...she takes the cake as one of the better villains of all time, and possibly the best female villain ever.

[caption id="attachment_4337" align="alignnone" width="387"] Sonny Corleone....not your average pussy.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3281" align="alignnone" width="915"] The face of an obvious sane person.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4338" align="alignnone" width="450"] Batter's Up![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4339" align="alignnone" width="400"] The only way we can be happy is if I kill you and then kill myself. Sounds logical.[/caption]