The Western genre has delivered to audiences some of the best stories and characters in cinema since the origins of the genre in the early days of Hollywood. Focusing on a variety of characters, from legendary lawmen to gunslinging outlaws, the genre has no shortage of compelling heroes and villains. While everyone loves a good frontier hero, every good story needs a great villain to make it even more entertaining.

Western villains vary in style and motivation, from dastardly outlaws characterized by excessive violence to ruthless land barons exploiting the residents of the towns under their rule. The genre’s tropes and themes are as well-defined as any, allowing writers to turn to villain types that are always intimidating and familiar. Some films do a much better job of giving audiences truly terrifying villains than others, and that helps make their stories memorable for years after their release.

10 Denton Baxter is a ruthless cattle baron

Open range

Open range follows a group of ranchers led by Boss and Charley. When they stop in a small town, they cross paths with a ruthless cattle baron, Denton Baxter, who has the entire town under his thumb, including a corrupt sheriff. After the ruler kills one of their friends and leaves another near death, Boss and Charley turn to the local doctor and his sister for refuge – and plan their revenge against the killers.

Denton Baxter is as classic a Western villain as they come, drawing inspiration from characters like Shane’s Ryker and Pale Rider LaHood. He is also one of the most realistic depictions of a Wild West villain, using violence to achieve his goals and being defined by a vicious and cruel character, believing that might makes right. Played by Michael Gambon, who is no stranger to playing a villain, the character’s brutality helps viewers share Charley and Boss’s need for revenge.

9 Butch Cavendish is a classic western villain

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger tells the story of John Reid, a young lawyer who travels to Texas where he crosses paths with an outlaw, Butch Cavendish, captured by John’s brother, Dan. However, when the demon is released by his gang, he murders Dan, motivating newly deputy John to seek justice. Joining forces with an outcast Native American, Tonto, the masked ranger travels through Texas and eventually learns of a conspiracy involving an industrialist and a corrupt military officer.

Butch Cavendish is basically the child’s image of a dastardly Western outlaw, and William Fichtner sells him brilliantly to the audience. The character establishes himself as both terrifying and evil from the start, when he takes revenge on Dan Reid by literally eating his heart fresh out of his chest. Intentionally written to be a classic one-dimensional Hollywood villain, the villain is one of the genre’s most brutal antagonists – even if he isn’t the mastermind of the film.

8 The Domergue gang is a replacement for a classic sci-fi monster

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight begins when two bounty hunters, John Ruth and Major Marquis Warren, cross paths in a snowstorm. Ruth allows the major to board his stagecoach, in the company of his prisoner, Daisy Domergue, whom he intends to see hanged in the town of Red Rock. Along the way, they pick up a new passenger, the town’s new sheriff, Chris Mannix, a Confederate war criminal. Seeking refuge from the snow, they turn to Minnie’s Haberdashery, a small cabin occupied by a group of guests. When a few people inside are killed by poisoned coffee, Warren and Mannix form an unlikely alliance to try to determine who among them is the killer.

The Domergue gang is used by Tarantino as a Western interpretation of John Carpenter’s monster, the Thing, playing on the heroes’ paranoia as they do not know who in the room is a killer. In this sense, the characters are all at their best when their identities remain a mystery and viewers have to figure out who the murderer is.

7 Ben Wade is a cynical outlaw with a code

3:10 p.m. in Yuma

3:10 p.m. in Yuma begins with the capture of a feared outlaw, Ben Wade, and the formation of a group to transport him to the town of Contention, where he is to be loaded aboard a train bound for the Yuma penal colony. The group includes Dan Evans, a Civil War veteran turned farmer, who agrees to provide for his family and keep their land. Transporting the criminal proves more difficult than expected, as the group must deal with the arrival of his gang, who massacre everyone except Ben, Evans and his son.

Ben Wade is one of the most interesting characters in the West, as the film sees him gradually gaining Evans’ respect, to the point of avenging his death. That said, he is the villain for most of the film’s running time and proves himself when he murders a band member with a fork to stop him from singing. Russell Crowe plays the character with a deadly combination of cynicism and determination, building him as the mirror image of the film’s hero.

6 Caleb and Junior Sykes are relentless killers

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1

Horizon: an American saga tells the story of a variety of characters during the settlement of the West as their paths converge around the fictional town of Horizon, Texas, and the efforts to defend it. One such story is about a woman who fled the Sykes family, shot the father of her child, and rebuilt her and her child’s lives. The man’s brothers, Caleb and Junior, pursue him to take revenge and bring the child home. When they find her in a small Wyoming town, they murder her and her new husband, but are forced to pursue a prostitute, Mary, and a protective horse trader, Hayes Ellison, who kills Caleb.

Perhaps the most ambitious western in sixty years, Horizon has no shortage of compelling characters, from heroes to villains and everything in between. The Sykes are undoubtedly the scariest characters in the film, with brothers Caleb and Junior written as ruthless and vengeful outlaws, whose mere presence intimidates those around them.

5 Henry Delarue is a man twisted by war

Salvation

Salvation follows a Danish settler in the West, Jon, as he welcomes his wife and son to America. While traveling by stagecoach to his home, they are attacked by two criminals, who throw Jon from the car and murder his wife and son. After catching up with them, the vengeful man kills the attackers and seeks refuge with his brother Pierre. However, unbeknownst to him, one of the criminals was the brother of local crime lord Henry Delarue, who brutally seeks revenge on the brothers. With his family dead, Jon, gravely injured, draws on his past as a soldier to take revenge on the outlaw and his gang.

Henry Delarue was once said to have been a good man, warped by his violent past as a soldier and pushed toward a more nihilistic worldview, where power is all that matters. The villain is as good as it gets when it comes to Western revisionist villains, bringing cold brutality to the West. Delarue has no compassion, even for those close to him, and would not hesitate to kill even a friend to make an example of them. Played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan fresh off his portrayal of Negan, the villain is a perfect match for the film’s hero.

4 Villain Wolverine was a big twist for Logan

Logan follows an elderly Wolverine in 2029, where he cares for Charles Xavier, whose advanced age and mental decline have caused the death of the X-Men, and must be controlled with medication. After learning that a research center has created a female clone of his genetic material, Logan agrees to transport his “daughter”, Laura Kinney, to northern Canada, where she will be safe from mercenaries. Along the way, the hero is forced to fight a younger copy of himself, X-24, who has all his abilities but less intelligence.

X-24 is basically a feral version of Wolverine, trained to be a force of uncontrolled aggression and rage, as shown in his incessant fight scenes with Logan. Answering the question of what a Wolverine villain would be like, X-24 eclipses all other villains in the film as the most terrifying – and unstoppable – character.

3 Calvin Candie embodies the evils of American slavery

Django unleashed

Django unleashed follows the story of Django Freeman after his liberation from slavery by a German bounty hunter, Schulz. The duo forms a partnership and travels the South collecting bounties. When Django learns that his wife is being held captive by a ruthless slaver, Calvin Candie, he and his Schultz hatch a plan to try to buy her, but things go horribly wrong.

Just as Hans Landa was made to be the face of Nazi evil in Inglourious BasterdsCandie is also the personification of the evils of American slavery. From his odious taste for slave fights and barbaric punishments to his bad temper and his adherence to phrenology, the villain excels at embodying the evils of the time. Brilliantly played by Leonardo DiCaprio, the villain is one of the most reviled villains in modern cinema, and the actor’s performance remains one of the best of his career.

2 Troglodytes sow horror in the West

Bone Tomahawk

Bone Tomahawk begins when a wanderer, after seeing his friend killed, stumbles into the town of Bright Hope, where he is soon arrested. His presence there attracts warriors from a lost tribe of Native American cave dwellers, who have regressed to the practice of cannibalism. After kidnapping some of the townspeople, the sheriff forms a small group to pursue them and rescue their captives.

Troglodytes has long been one of the most terrifying additions to the western and horror genre, taking the premise behind The hills have eyes to the old west. The killers are completely beyond reason, defined instead by their ferocity, speed, and viciousness as they begin to kill and consume their captives.

1 Anton Chigurh brings a unique intensity to the neo-western genre

No country for old people

Based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, No country for old people focuses on Llewelyn Moss, a Texas hunter who stumbles upon the scene of a gang shootout. After finding a bag full of money, he tries to help one of the survivors, but is discovered by assassins. Narrowly escaping, he flees across the state in hopes of making off with the money – but is pursued by a relentless psychopathic hitman, Anton Chigurh.

Anton Chigurh has been hailed by many as the most accurate – and terrifying – portrayal of a psychopath on screen, and Javier Bardem’s performance helps sell him as one of cinema’s greatest villains. Known for his strangely calm and cold disposition, the villain happily murders anyone who crosses him or gets in his way, sometimes leaving people’s fates to chance. Armed with his weapon of choice, a captive bolt stunner, the assassin is loyal only to himself and his own twisted moral code. Once someone finds themselves on the wrong side of this killer, they are virtually guaranteed to die, no matter how far they travel.