Psychopathy, loosely defined, is a combination of cruelty, lack of compassion, and violence. The most extreme psychopaths can kill without remorse, and mutilate their victims with 'as much' emotion as you and I brush our teeth.
This is known as "classic" or "idiopathic" psychopathy, but sometimes the disorder is more hidden, as is the case with some manipulators who are not necessarily violent.
In 2014, Belgian psychiatry professor Samuel Leistedt wanted to find out which movie characters best embodied the traits of psychopathy.
Leistedt called 10 of his friends to help him watch 400 movies over three years. The films spanned nearly a century, from 1915 to 2010. When the team finished watching them all, they found 126 characters who fit the definition of a psychopath.
Anton Chigurh, from 'No Country for Old Men, is the most realistic psychopath
Javier Bardem's character in No Country for Old Men is a classic psychopath, Leistedt and his colleagues at work concluded.
Chigurh relates to the murder with a strange and surprising sense of normality. He's perfectly happy when he unloads his trademark slaughterhouse pistol without so much as a wince.
"He appears to be effectively invulnerable, immune to any form of emotion or humanity," the researchers wrote.
Two characters, Hans Beckert in 'M' and Henry Lee Lucas in 'Henry, Portrait of a Murderer
In the 1931 German film M, the Vampire of Düsseldorf, Peter Lorre plays a child killer who embodies many of the traits now believed to identify a child predator, Leistedt and his colleagues observed.
"Lorre portrays Beckert as a seemingly ordinary man tormented by the impulse to ritualistically murder children," the researchers wrote.
In 1986, John McNaughton's film Henry, Portrait of a Murderer features a protagonist character unable to plan ahead with a turbulent personal life and failed family relationships. All of these traits, according to Leistedt, make him a textbook idiopathic psychopath.
Early interpretations of psychopaths were unrealistic
Characters such as Tommy Udo in the 1947 film Kiss of Death and Cody Jarrett in the 1949 film Red Hot have contributed to the misconception of the psychopath as a genre villain, such as gangsters and mad scientists.
The team noted that in movies, these individuals were frequently depicted as exaggerated versions, characterized by sadism, unpredictability, emotional instability, and an insatiable compulsion for gratuitous acts of violence, murder, and mayhem.
These characters were often presented with a series of strange behaviors and gestures such as nervous laughter and facial tics, often resulting in famous but unrealistic characters."
'Slasher' films have reigned for decades as the latest (false) representation of psychopathy
Films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th offered a new vision of the cinematic psychopath. However, Leistedt and his colleagues argued in their research that neither Freddy Krueger nor Jason Voorhees are psychopaths.
According to the report, in slasher films (depicting gruesome or terrifying murders committed by ruthless individuals), psychopathic characters often exhibit a multitude of traits and characteristics, including sadism, high intelligence, and the uncanny ability to anticipate their prospective victims' escape plans. However, these attributes are more in line with the portrayals of fictional murderers who have gained widespread popularity rather than with actual psychopaths.
