I'm reminded of a couple of lines Heath Ledger quoted during his epic portrayal of The Joker. If you're a fan, or have seen the movie, you may recall. (1) "This town deserves a better class of criminal, and I'm going to give it to them." (2.) " So, this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets and immoveable object." Can't help but laugh every time I see those clips.
Why is it that every good book and great movie has a villain/antagonist? Some would argue for the story arc and share how there must be a protagonist and antagonist to build a storyline. And to not have such would be anticlimactic and produce a boring result.
True, I agree. But, I also think there's more to it than story arcs and character development. The older I get the more I'm convinced everyone has a story. And, every story has a villain. Looney tunes tapped into the concept and introduced me to the first villain I remember with the character of Brutus. If you remember, he was the arch nemesis in the script.
The old black and white cowboy movies were notoriously predictable as they placed a black hat on the, "Bad Guys," and white hats on the "Good Guys." All the classic fairytales featured, both protagonist and antagonist. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast share a common denominator of casting a villain.
The principal is as old as time. The Hebrew word שָּׂטָן translated as Satan, means, adversary. From Genesis to Revelation good and evil are both presented as fighting for the soul of mankind. And with that, here comes the rub. I'm convinced every story has a villain because your story has a villain.
Your story is being written and you already know, evil has never been more than a whisper away. You may not fear everything that goes bump in the night, but you are aware that bad things happen to good people all the time.
Sometimes it happens because the choices we make, and sometimes it happens because the choices others make, but it happens. If you had lived in Nazi occupied Europe prior to and during WORLD WAR II, you would have looked upon the personification of absolute evil. Hitler and his henchmen put a face on evil and millions of innocent lives were lost to genocide.
It was not the first time, nor shall it be the last opportunity, the world has to witness the worst of human potential. Because evil is present and active, there will never be a shortage of villains.
They show up in dark ally's and also set on corporate boards. Sometimes they look like blood soaked vampires, and other times they're dressed in the most expensive Armani suites money can buy. Regardless of the attire, villains are ugly.
I remember going with a friend to see an old Barnabas Collins movie when I was 8, or 9 years old. It would be considered fairly lame by today's standards, but in that day, it scared me silly. I had a hard time sleeping at night.
When I was a senior in high school, I went to see Friday the 13th with a group of friends. It scared us all and Jason quickly became the buzz of teen culture. That was followed by the Halloween series, and Freddy Krueger. I thought Stephen King's Salem's Lot was pretty spooky, even though I was forty years old when I watched it at home with my wife in our living room.
I recall getting spooked a few times while sitting at home after school waiting for my mother to return home from work. I would be watching television when an add would run promoting some then current horror movie. I would back myself in to a corner so I could see everything in front of me as the fight or flight mechanism was kicking in.
So, I have a question for you readers. Who do you consider to have been the most notorious villain, and what movie spooked you the most when you were growing up?
I wrote The Straw Man: The Witch's Son as an introduction to The Straw Man Trilogy. It's my first attempt at writing in the genre and is about a scarecrow being possessed by the spirit of a dying witch that was burned during the Salem Witch Trials. It is available on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Straw-Man-Witchs-Son-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00PPSGS0I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417666005&sr=8-1&keywords=Steven+Straw
I welcome your critique.
