MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Favorite Psycho Killer Performances?

Favorite Psycho Killer Performances?


🎶i cant seem to face up to facts
Im tense and nervous and i cant relax
I cant sleep 'cause my bed is on fire
Dont touch me im a real live wire!

Psycho Killer!!

Qu' est-ce que c'est!?!

Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far away...🎶

1. For a crazy pants guy i nominate Joe Spinellii in Maniac...he was chillingly insane in this horror classic!
*shoutout to Elijah Wood who did a fine job in the remake but im team Joe on this one

2. For a crazy pants gal i nominate Charlize Theron...how she could look so nuts and haggard and 'holy shit run away' is beyond me but she nailed the lunatic lady role!

Care to share a favorite scary killer performance you enjoyed?

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Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert in "M" (1931), a classic German thriller that really got the ball rolling for the psycho killer genre. :)

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Wow!
A real blast from the past and all time classic
Nice one:)

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Thank you! :)

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Yikes, the subject matter of "M" is terrifying. It's curious that it made it to film.

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Bardem as Chigurh

Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy

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Bardem was a fine creep...he was cited early on in the thread

And Harmon as Bundy?!?!
Holy Moses i had no idea😄
I dont know why but this gave me a chuckle!
Was he any good?

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Up til then , I did not consider him much of an actor - but in his role he really surprised me - knocked it out of the park.

From everything I had read about Ted Bundy , Mark seemed to me to have portrayed him very well .They are still not quite sure how many the man killed - complete psycho

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Yeah i read the Ann Rule book about him...i seem to recall that he was charming, polite, pretty good looking and ambitious
He tricked a couple dozen victims to their demise

I gotta see this Harmon thing now
He just 'seems too nice' to play a lunatic...in other words he was probably perfect for the role

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That is why I admired his performance - I would never in my wildest dreams could picture Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy , but he actually made me see him as the charming sociopath

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A few faves:

John Glover in 52 Pickup (1986)
A unique sleazy nuanced performance . Especially his scenes with Ann Margaret.

Richard Lynch in The Seven Ups (1973)
One scary dude named Moon.

Brian Cox in L.I.E.(2001)
Very realistic & chilling performance of a manipulative pedophile

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Richard Lynch has the perfect psycho face...kind of 'scary-handsome' if that makes sense
A real 'B' and 'C' movie legend for sure
(Over 150 credited roles!!!)

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Love Richard Lynch! I’m going to watch Open Season (1974) tmrw

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Never saw that one
Enjoy
Lynch is a bad dude

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Where did you find it, yatzo?

It's a little disturbing so gird your loinage.

& make sure you report back after the viewing, pronto.

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It’s on YouTube. Looks crappy , but so did my puny b & w TV in the 70s

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I must have a VHS tape version because mine looks crappy as well. I saw it at premiere way back there. It was in & out of the theaters in an instant.

But, it's stuck with me for various reasons.

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It was never released on DVD and I know longer own a VCR.

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Alan Arkin in "Wait Until Dark" '67 as the killer takes pleasure in his work.

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This is going on my watchlist right now, I love him and have never heard of it. You're just brimming with good suggestions.

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Fine cast!
Thanks for the heads up

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Yes, it's the absolutely goods. Crenna's awakening to Arkin's pathology is tardy.

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How about Jessica Walter stalking Clint in Play Misty For Me?

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I have not seen that one
Heard it was pretty good!
Thx!

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yatzo, did she actually kill anybody though?

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On screen ?...., almost, but no.

A psycho killer in training perhaps?

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No excuse for her behavior but he treats her like utter shit.

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I dunno , seems like fair treatment for 1971

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Kevin Spacey in 7

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Yes...good one

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That movie really really scared me so freaking much .

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It was pretty scary

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I was like Morgan and brad got this. But then they didn’t !

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This movie almost physically hurts somehow. I saw 7 for the first time earlier this year, 2018 - after Kevin Spacey's scandals...

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Ya... that’s kind of a grey area. But it’s not like he plays the hero in the movie

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Made even worse knowing he probably didn't have to act hard to get in character, at least not the brutal killing parts.

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Ya. You gotta shut the actors are real people part of your brain off when you’re watching a great movie

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Perfect example of a scary movie where the implied visuals of bleak atmosphere and gruesome acts come off more sinister than seeing the scenes in real time due to perception. I still have chills thinking about it.

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Yes. Those are some of the more thrilling moments . To me that was one of my favorite Pitt roles as well.

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Perhaps more of an anti-psycho killer, but maybe doubly chilling for that reason: Andrea Riseborough as Mia Nolan in Black Mirror S4:E3 "Crocodile".

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I need to watch this series....im out of the loop:(

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Did you ever check it out?

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Would you lose all respect for me if I said I have not yet?

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Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers

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Oh yeah!!!
He was awesome in this one

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Crazy as shit haha

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Yes!

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Woodys crazy in everything!
How about his crazed Meth head gangster role in Out of the Furnace? yikes!!

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Hell of a movie!
I told all of my friends to check that one out and none of them disliked it

Good stuff

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Dexter Morgan, brilliantly acted by Michael C. Hall, in the series, Dexter. Kind of the Tony Soprano of serial killers: he could make you laugh your ass off yet simultaneously make you feel revolted and creepy.

Luke Evans, playing a character identified in the credits as The Driver, in No One Lives. The cast also includes Lee Tergesen, formerly of Oz. The Driver is the superhero of serial killers, able to kill anyone anyhow anywhere. He and his girlfriend get carjacked/kidnapped by Tergesen’s crew, and then the fun begins. You gotta love a movie with a script that includes, “Cut the arterial vein.”

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Dexter was a cool psycho

I will keep an eye out for No One Lives...sounds pretty good

Thanks

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Dexter! That show made me love Michael C. Hall so much more.

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Remember how, at the end of the opening credits, Hall shot a quick sideways glance at the camera, and then smirked the perfect self-satisfied, self-aware smirk? Or the first time that Doaks pissed Dexter off enough for Dex to drop his mask, and Hall, easily 30 pounds less than Doaks, charged into the detective with the ferocity and intensity of a Pitbull, driving Doaks back? The guy can act!

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I'm a huge dork when it comes to opening credits or theme songs. That smirk? Talk about gold! The relationship between Doaks & Dexter was great, I loved that moment! Pushed him back like it was nothinggg.

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First, I wouldn’t call you a dork, unless you want to be. Dweeb at most! “Nothinggg”! I love it! Love the triple g at the end👏🏻. Very impressed! And that’s hard to do, thewaitress. I like you; and that is the first time that I have said that in a MC public forum, outside of PM mode. The actor who was playing Doaks was very strong, in every sense, because you cannot have a great protagonist without a great antagonist. The first four seasons of Dexter were as good as the first four seasons of any other premium cable series that I have seen, in its own, warped, wonderfully twisted and demented way, including The Sopranos, Counterpart, Big Little Lies, Westworld, Rome, all the iterations of Spartacus and Game Of Thrones, and on a much more modest budget. Three words: Michael C. Hall. Plus really good scripts.

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I don't know the difference between dweeb & dork so either one works :) Haha, glad my triple g impressed you! You're nice!

The first four were incredible but man I had a reaction to Trinity killer.
I haven't seen Counterpart,Spartacus, Big Little Lies (been meaning to watch this), Rome and I haven't finished Westworld.

Dunno if you've seen it or not but Michael C. Hall is amazing in Six Feet Under. Fantastic series.

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I understand that it is, but I’ve nearly died twice so far in this life, so 6 Feet’s context just does not appeal to me, personally. I was just horsing around with distinctions between dork, dweeb and geek. I think dork pretty much means a dick, and you’re the wrong gender, a geek is a technophile, which you may be, and a dweeb is an unpretentious, down-to-earth person who makes no effort to be cool. These words seem to exist only in high school, where I was called all three of them. You will enjoy Big Little Lies, which has great music and Emmy-winning acting. And I think that MovieChat is already enjoying having you here.

PS Not everybody thinks that I’m nice. A person is judged by who her or his detractors are as well as by who her or his supporters are😊

PPS Sorry, how could I forget to include nerd in my list of high school derision?! Nerd is the grand-daddy of ‘em all, and is celebrated in the title of one of my favorite movies, Revenge Of The Nerds. A nerd is a very horny uncool kid. I got called nerd as well. I read, on another topic, that you don’t want to live in a world without sex. NEITHER DO I😈 So, nerd, nerd, nerd!! (I also saw that you wrote that most of the women you know aren’t interested in having sex. We both know that’s because of who they would have to have it with!)

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Oh wow really? Well I'm glad you didn't die either time. I was told I had a near death experience when I was a baby but of course I lack the details. Oh high school, time in my life I wish I could forget. No telling what people called me but I'd probably go with nerd. It seems to be the one that fits me still to this day and totallyy fit me back then haha. I'm excited to watch BLL :) I'll have to start that soon.

You are nice to me at least! I'm liking MovieChat a lot. Its nice to have a place to come to after a long day at work and just BS around with chill people.

Revenge of the Nerds is a good movie. Makes me want to watch it right now. LOL YES. That's true about who they have to have sex with but most women suck and only want money and power/control. At least the ones I know.

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Both hetero genders suck, waitress mine, but for different reasons. Women are smarter than most men. Women created civilization and society. “I’m sick of living in a cave! Build me a house!” And I applaud them for that! But women—not all, not the very best—have been taught to see men as the source of status (power) and security. Who the hell in or his right mind does not want both, and toss in safety and security to boot?

I am going to repeat something that I have said here before, but that I doubt that you have seen: I think that, to me, Woman is the best idea that God has ever had. For me, she makes life worth living. She, second only to my union with the Lord God, is what made me fight to remain alive. You should know that I am a gym rat. Some day, I will elaborate. I once heard a woman in the gym where I was training at the time say, “My girlfriend wants a husband with a Master’s degree and making $250,000 a year.” I said, “I have a Ph.D. Does that count?,” knowing perfectly well that she’d no idea of what a Doctor of Philisophy degree is. She said, “But you’re not hege [North Shore Boston for “huge”). I said, “Depends where you look, Darlin’. It’s a muscle. It gets bigger, and stronger, the more you USE it.”

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Yeah those four things are pretty great to have in life.

Women are nice to look at, most are easy to get along with. I get sick of hearing things like that woman at your gym said. I'm glad you threw that one at her though, hilarious. I would have liked to see her reaction.

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My heart bleeds for our species, but, every night in my prayers, I thank The Lord for having helped me to see that there are wonderful people in the world, both women and men, and I thank Him for them, and ask Him to let me find many more of you; and to let many more of you to find me; because, waitress, I think you are one of them.

I have been in both mass-market and luxury retail for 18 years, with a substantial knowledge of the hospitality industry, to boot. Retail, especially in our no-social-skills-having world, is a hard gig. In the high end, it’s not as bad, but requires an exceptional level of people skills, confidence and guts. How are you holding up?

PS I left out my near-death experience as an infant, which may correlate to yours: My mother told me that she came into my nursery and found that I had my head underneath my crib’s mattress, and that I was suffocating. She/The Lord saved you me.

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That's sweet of you to say!

I have my good days and bad days R. For the most part, I still really enjoy the job. I like people, I like helping them in any way I can. I like hearing that I'm sweet for giving them a store coupon or some discount that we might be offering that particular day. I like making them smile, even if they forget about me once they get into their car.

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Then, as I expected, you are exceptional, and in such a small
space as we are forced to write!

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