Movie Characters That Viewers Love to Loathe
While audiences flock to movies to watch interesting characters, not every on-screen persona inspires viewers to love them.
Some characters are awful, the kind of fundamentally unlikeable people anyone would actively avoid at a party — they're not all evil, though some of them are; they're just the kind of folks who rub others the wrong way.
Sitting through a full-length movie with this type of character can feel like getting trapped in an elevator with someone just as obnoxious. Maybe for that reason, audiences cheer when these characters get their comeuppance.
1. Percy Wetmore: The Green Mile (1999)
Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison), a sleazy, sadistic, spiteful man, abuses his power. Nobody would have employed him anywhere, let alone a prison. If not for his uncle being the governor, he would have been fired on the spot for purposely sabotaging an execution.
Any audience members who didn't hate Wetmore before he made a living person burst into flames will loathe him after and cheer for his landing in an insane asylum.
2. Dolores Umbridge: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Imelda Staunton has made a career out of playing obnoxious busybodies, but her iconic turn as Dolores Umbridge elevates her (or is that lowers?) to new heights.
With her obsession with cats, marshmallow pink, and enforcing petty rules, she represents the banality of evil that allows monsters like Voldemort to rise to power. Her overriding cowardice doesn't help her case, and by the time a group of centaurs hauls her off into the Forbidden Forest, audiences have had to suppress the urge to throw popcorn at the screen.
3. Carter Burke: Aliens (1986)
Paul Reiser gives a phenomenal turn as the slimy corporate shill Carter Burke in James Cameron's Aliens. Viewers hate him as soon as he opens his money-loving mouth.
Apparently, Reiser took his mother to the premiere, and when Carter met his grisly demise at the hands of the Xenomorphs, she turned to her son and said: “Good.”
4. Sara: My Sister's Keeper (2009)
Some audiences deemed Sara (Cameron Diaz) an absolute monster; what kind of mother has a child so they can use them for donor parts for another one? (Actually, quite a few when another child's life depends on it, but never mind.)
Regardless of the morality of Sara's actions, viewers often root for her daughter, Anna, to want to divorce her parents. Really, a movie like this (as with the novel it's based on) should inspire nuanced discussion. Sara shouldn't come off so loathsome. Chalk that failing up to inept direction by Nick Casavettes.
5. Marla Grayson: I Care a Lot (2020)
Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), an unrepentant con artist, causes suffering to countless elderly people and their families, all to make a fast buck. Fortunately, she meets her match in the form of Jennifer (Diane Weist) and Roman (Peter Dinklage), a pair of mobsters who catch Marla in her grift.
Comedy of the darkest sort ensues, as Marla and Roman try to outwit each other. Regardless of who meets with an unpleasant end, audiences will have a ball watching these vile characters get what's coming to them.
6. Mrs. Carmody: The Mist (2007)
She might be bonkers, but this Karen-turned-cult leader destroyed any hopes of the people trapped in the store ever getting out of the situation in one piece with disruptive, abrasive, and later, zealous and violent behavior.
Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) always remembers to send thoughts and prayers but would never give a homeless person a buck. That she doesn't hesitate to give everyone else an earful of religious judgment makes audiences cheer when alien invaders set her in their sights.
7. Commodus: Gladiator (2000)
Audiences almost feel sorry for Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), a weak man full of misplaced ambition that far outpaces his limited ability. The emperor-in-waiting tells his father he only wants his love…just before he kills him to usurp the throne.
If his regicide doesn't make viewers loathe him on sight, his torturing of Maximus (Russell Crowe) over the ensuing two hours surely will. No doubt Crowe took home his Oscar, in large part, because Phoenix's loathsome performance made him look so good by comparison.
8. Nurse Ratched: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975
The ever-authoritarian Nurse Ratched doesn't give two figs for the well-being of the patients in her care. Rather that treat their anxieties and mental illnesses, she strives to keep her asylum inmates cuckolded and humiliated. The arrival of the irreverent McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) kicks off a cold war between the two with deadly consequences.
Louise Fletcher took home an Oscar for her performance in a role rejected and condemned by most other actresses of the time. Angela Lansbury, Jane Fonda, Colleen Dewhurst and Geraldine Page all found Nurse Ratched so repulsive, so anti-feminist, they wanted nothing to do with the film.
9. Jerry Lundegaard: Fargo (1996)
Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is a greedy, selfish, and meek coward, who cares more about money, and saving face than the safety and happiness of his own family. Moreover, he's an imbecile. How did he think hiring two violent career criminals to kidnap his wife would turn out?
By the time Jerry has a body stuck in a wood chipper, viewers want to see him meet with an equally ghastly end. Without giving too much away, Fargo doesn't disappoint in that department.
10. Guy Woodhouse: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) sells out his loving, doting wife for money, power, and fame…along with the rest of the human race. Seriously, who sells his soul and lets Satan impregnate his spouse? When the Apocalypse comes, does Guy think his money and fame will spare him?
Falling far short of husband (or father) of the year, Guy deserves anything bad that could possibly happen to him. Audience desire to see him meet with some tortured end helps make Rosemary's Baby so compelling…in the ickiest way possible.
11. Colonel Tavington: The Patriot (2000)
Jason Isaacs plays the British soldier, Colonel William Tavington, a man so cartoonishly evil it's a wonder he doesn't grow a curly mustache to twirl at one point. He also manages to do so many pointlessly wicked things throughout the movie.
He indiscriminately murders women and children and even burns down a church with all the parishioners locked inside it. What ever happened to the British as the model civilized society?
12. Paulie: Rocky (1976)
In the Rocky series, the racist Paulie beats women and takes advantage of his so-called best friend, Rocky's kindness, loyalty, and rising fortunes. How Rocky didn't beat him to a pulp over the course of the movie remains anyone's guess.
Even more miraculous: it doesn't happen at all over the course of the endless Rocky movies and its spinoffs. No doubt the series could have one another Best Picture Oscar of voters had the chance to see Paulie take a wollap.
13. Danny Pennington: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
No 90s child will ever forgive Danny Pennington (Michael Turney) for selling out the Turtles by telling Shredder where they were hiding. The Turtles flee in terror, and their master, Splinter, gets tortured within an inch of his life.
Danny gets off pretty easy, all things considered, but the nasty aftertaste lingers. Even when the Turtles save the day in the end, why does nobody reprimand Danny for his stupidity?
14. Colonel Hans Landa: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) is a villain, and he knows it. He enjoys it. Egotistical and ambitious, Landa is an opportunistic sociopath who acts only out of pure self-interest. Even by Axis standards, the audiences loathe the man, and that says something.
Then, when the war turns in favor of the Allies, he instantly surrenders and tricks the Allies into pardoning him so he can live out his days in the US without ever paying for his numerous war crimes. Given what happens in the climax of the movie (no, we won't spoil it), that Landa doesn't get some more awful form of comeuppance feels like a cheat.
15. Ginger McKenna: Casino (1995)
Some who watch Casino have a lot of problems with Ginger McKenna, played by Sharon Stone. A drug-addled lady of the night, she neglects and abuses her child in both the name of vanity and as a way of getting back at her mobster husband, Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro).
Stone gives a magnificent performance in the movie, and doesn't hesitate to wallow in Ginger's loathsomeness. When she meets her humiliating end, viewers rejoice. It somehow still feels like she got off easy.
