The 20 greatest female movie villains

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched is the oppressive and tyrannical head nurse of the psychiatric hospital in which the film is primarily set. Instead of caring for her vulnerable patients like a nurse should, Ratched manipulates them. She uses their mental illnesses against them and punishes them in the worst ways possible. By abusing her power, Ratched displays an inhumanity that is deeply disturbing. Louise Fletcher deservedly won an Oscar for her chilling performance. 

You know a character is evil when their first name contains the word ‘cruel,’ and their last name contains the word ‘devil. Cruella de Vil is the fashionista antagonist in Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians. With the help of her henchmen, Cruella kidnaps a litter of dalmatian puppies in order to make a fur coat for herself out of their skin. Anyone who wants to hurt puppies is already deranged, but Cruella has an eccentric streak that makes her truly insane.

One of Hollywood’s first great villains was the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. With her striking green skin, crooked nose, and pointy hat, she terrified young audiences all over the world in her quest to take the ruby slippers from Dorothy. Margaret Hamilton’s portrayal, which also includes that iconic high-pitched cackle, created a caricature that heavily influenced how witches were portrayed in future Hollywood movies. She is a truly timeless and classic villain. 

Killers and supernatural beings may be terrifying, but we all know there is nothing scarier than a high school mean girl. Take Regina George in Mean Girls, for example. As the Queen Bee of the Plastics, Regina is admired and feared by everyone at her school. She is a terrible friend who manipulates, bullies and backstabs without any remorse. She is popular, pretty, and rich, which allows her to get away with some of her seriously problematic behavior at school. 

In Gone Girl , we are initially led to believe that beloved wife and daughter Amy Dunne has gone missing, and that her husband Nick may be behind it. However, the narrative flips halfway through and reveals that Amy is a psychotic mastermind who has faked her disappearance and framed her husband. She is cold and calculated, and is effortlessly able to switch between sweet and menacing, largely thanks to Rosamund Pike’s highly unsettling performance.  

Misery is an adaptation of Stephen King’s hit novel, and if anyone knows how to write a great villain, it’s King. In the film, author Paul Sheldon is rescued from a car crash by superfan Annie Wilkes. At first, she cares for him, but he soon realizes he’s being held captive with no escape. When she learns Paul has killed off her favorite character in his book, she physically abuses him and restrains him. Annie takes the concept of an obsessed fan to a whole new sinister level.

One of Disney’s most iconic villains is none other than the malevolent Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. This dark fairy curses Princess Aurora so that on her sixteenth birthday, because she wasn’t invited to her baptism. To be fair, her pettiness is kind of understandable. Maleficent’s look and costume are highly recognizable, with her signature horns, sweeping black cloak, and enchanted staff. 

After the success of Get Out , Jordan Peele released his follow-up horror film Us. The plot follows a family who go away on vacation and are attacked by figures known as the Tethered, dressed in red, who are their deformed doppelgängers. Fittingly, the lead figure is called Red, mirroring mother Adelaide. Her appearance is frightening and striking, as is her raspy voice, which is tremendously delivered by Lupita Nyong’o. She has a truly unnerving presence. 

Voldemort may be the big bad in Harry Potter , but he couldn’t do his job without the wickedly evil Bellatrix Lestrange. As Voldemort’s right-hand Death Eater, she does a lot of his dirty work. What makes Bellatrix even more frightening than Voldemort is her insane, sadistic nature, which makes her completely unpredictable and dangerous. Helena Bonham Carter perfectly embodies the character, complete with large and frizzy hair that seems to match the state of Bellatrix’s mind.

Erotic thrillers were all the rage in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and one of the most notable is, of course, Fatal Attraction . Michael Douglas plays Dan, a married man whose one-night stand with Alex Forrest comes back to haunt him when she begins to stalk him and his family. She sets out to ruin his marriage and have him all to herself. Obsessive and completely unhinged, Alex goes to bizarre and violent measures to catch Dan’s attention, and Glenn Close is truly frightening.

When Coraline moves into a boring old house, she finds a secret door that leads to an alternate world that is an idealistic version of her own reality. At first, Coraline’s Other Mother seems to be kind, doting, warm, and generous, despite her button eyes. However, it is revealed that she is no motherly figure, but a monster called the Beldam who has tricked Coraline and intends to devour her soul. When her true intentions are revealed, so is her sickly, spider-like appearance. 

In the third installment of the Avatar series, audiences meet a new and threatening Na’vi tribe known as the Ash People. They are led by Varang, the menacing and seductive sorceress who teams (and hooks) up with the film’s other villain, Quartich. Varang is alluring due to her striking character design, mixing red and black with the traditional Na’vi blue. After her people are attacked by fire, she learns to manipulate and weaponize it, making her extremely volatile. 

The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most beloved films, and features a number of memorable characters such as Ariel, Sebastian, and, of course, Ursula. This deliciously evil and flamboyant sea witch offers Ariel a dangerous deal: become human, but lose her voice, which could be permanent. With her eel henchmen, Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula makes for a frightening yet fabulous villain, complete with her delightful musical number, ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’. 

The DC universe is full of iconic villains, such as the Joker, but one of the most popular is his squeeze, Harley Quinn. Despite her insanity and derangement, she is cheerful and somewhat charming, making her easy to like. She started out as Joker’s sidekick, but now holds her own. Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Quinn has become synonymous with the character, appearing in two different Suicide Squad films and stealing every scene she is in.

Based on Roald Dahl's book, The Witches follows a young boy who is turned into a mouse and must stop a group of witches who want to rid the world of children. While The Witches is marketed as a family movie, the witches themselves are utterly terrifying, particularly the Grand High Witch. The ghastly prosthetics and practical effects used to bring her to life make her truly repulsive and are the root of many nightmares for young viewers around the world. 

Carrie may be marketed as a horror film, but really, it is a sad and cautionary tale of a lonely girl ridiculed by others and oppressed to the point that her rage manifests as violent telekinesis. However, the real villain in Carrie is her mother, Margaret White. Domineering and fanatically religious, Marget shelters and controls her daughter in every way possible. Everything is a sin (including menstruation), and she believes the devil is inside her daughter. No wonder Carrie snapped. 

There is no school teacher or principal scarier than Miss Trunchbull from Roald Dahl's Matilda. Known for torturing her students, she tyrannically runs her school as a dictator, and enforces extreme punishments and discipline for simple things such as wearing pigtails. Even the teachers are scared of her, such as the warm Miss Honey. Matilda is the only one with the brain to outsmart her, but she suffers a great deal due to Trunchbull’s oppressive authority. 

There are many classic Disney villains, but one who is severely underrated is none other than the scheming Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove. When Emperor Kuzco fires her as his advisor, she hatches a plan to poison and kill him, along with her dimwitted sidekick Kronk. Unnaturally thin, with lavender-toned skin and freakishly long eyelashes, Yzma is one eccentric and unique-looking villain. Eartha Kitt voices her with such flair and energy. 

Weapons was one of the most talked about horror movies of 2025, with the breakout character being the sinister yet wacky Aunty Gladys. The story sees a group of children from the same classroom go missing, all except for Alex. He is visited by his Aunty Gladys, an apparent long-lost relative, but it soon becomes clear she is definitely not his aunt. Gladys is revealed to be a witch-like figure who uses black magic to weaponize and violently hurt her oblivious victims. 

In The Chronicles of Narnia , the main antagonist is the White Witch, who lures children in with Turkish delight and has frozen Narnia into an eternal winter. When she first meets Edmund Pensive, she pretends to be kind, but her true colors are soon revealed. Claiming to be the Queen of Narnia, the White Witch is mercilessly cruel and as cold as the ice castle where she lives. Tilda Swinton’s portrayal in the 2005 film perfectly captured her lack of warmth and humanity.