Villain Song/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Villain Songs in Film include:

Subpages

Other Examples

  • Unusually, "Marley and Marley" (yes, there's two of them just so they could put Statler and Waldorf in the movie. The new one is named Robert) from The Muppet Christmas Carol is a posthumous villain song, but still counts.
    • And speaking of A Christmas Carol, the Albert Finney musical version, Scrooge, has "I Hate People" for the title character, which should be self-explanatory, and later, the toe-tappingly nasty "Thank You Very Much", in which everyone who owes Scrooge money gloats over his death in the Bad Future. The latter song gets a light reprise upon Scrooge's redemption.
  • Labyrinth.... since the Big Bad is played by David Bowie, pretty much the entire movie was designed as a vehicle for villain songs. Dance, magic, dance!
  • Several Beatles classics became Villain Songs in the movie Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The actual quality of the musical interpretations are a mixed bag. The treatment given to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by Steve Martin is best forgotten, as is a version of "Mean Mr. Mustard" sung by robots. OTOH, Aerosmith's version of "Come Together" has outlived this movie and become one of their signature songs.
    • Across the Universe uses "I Want You {She's So Heavy}" as a Villain Song—quite effectively. For the entire Vietnam War.
      • Also in Across The Universe there's Eddie Izzard's spoken word version of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!".
      • How can you tell?
  • "Main Hoon Don" from the Bollywood movie Don; in a twist, it's sung by someone who has to impersonate the villain. Or so we thought.
  • Veruca Salt's destructive "I Want It Now" number in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the last musical number not sung by the Oompa Loompas, possibly because they were too busy at the moment trying to stop her. It also doubles as (yep...) an "I Want" Song, after a fashion.
    • Lyricist Leslie Bricusse helped adapt the film into a stage play for regional theatres and gave each of the other brats a song as well, which aren't as mean but certainly sum up their vices: "I Eat More" for Augustus, "Chew It" for Violet, and "I See It All on TV" for Mike.
  • Although he doesn't sing it himself, Necros, The Dragon from the Bond film The Living Daylights gets a thoroughly Badass Villain Song called, "Where Has Everybody Gone?" It's always playing on his Walkman when he's about to strangle people with the headphone wires. And his Leitmotif is the instrumental version of the song. The song fulfills the criteria of the Villain Song, in that while the Big Bad is a fairly low-key Smug Snake, Necros is the main physical danger to Bond throughout the movie, manages to get away with a surprising amount of successful assassinations for a Bond Villain, and gets a spectacular, over-the-top final fight/death scene.
  • It only makes it onto the soundtrack, but since it's a particular character's theme, it still counts: "Turkish Delight", a G-Rated Drug addict's lament sung from a tweaked-out Edmund's point of view, is by far the best song on The Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack. (How much of a villain Edmund is is, granted, questionable, but he's still the most villainous of the Pevensie kids.)
    • A similar example is "Gollum's Song" from the Two Towers soundtrack, sung by Emiliana Torrini. (It was originally written for Bjork.)
    • As is "New Jack Hustler (Nino's Theme)" from the New Jack City soundtrack, by Ice T.
  • Highlander: The Kurgan has a theme song entitled Gimme The Prize, but only part of it is heard during the movie.
    • Likewise, the rendition of "New York, New York", which transitions from The Kurgan singing it in character to the soundtrack of Freddie Mercury hamming it up in equally raucous style. Sadly the only track Queen performed specifically for the film that has yet to be officially released in full length.
  • Battle of the Bulge gives Col. Hessler and his men Panzerlied as their theme.
  • "Feed Me", "It's Suppertime", and "Mean Green Mother" (and the Cut Song that made up part of it: "Bad") from Little Shop of Horrors.
    • Not to mention "Dentist!" from the human villain.
    • A song cut from the original musical, "I Found A Hobby", counts. The human villain basically describes how he discovered he was a sadist.
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show has two: "Sweet Transvestite" and "You'd Better Wise Up, Janet Weiss (SLUT!)". Which makes sense, since the evil Dr. Frank-N-Furter is much more important than the hero Brad Majors (ASSHOLE!)
    • Three, actually-- "I Can Make You A Man/Charles Atlas Song" is all about what he plans to do with Rocky.
      • Actually, "Sweet Transvestite" is more like an "I Am" Song, while "I Can Make You a Man" is an "I Want" Song. The only villain song in the movie is "You Better Wise Up, Janet Weiss!".
  • "World War II Boy" from The Blood Waters of Dr. Z, sung by an offscreen Jamie DeFrates as the Mad Scientist walks back to his lab from the beach at the beginning of the film. Only counts if you interpret the lyrics to be about escaped Nazi scientist Doctor Leopold and him "planning re-veenge on [his] friends!
  • "Professional Pirate" and "Shiver My Timbers" from Muppet Treasure Island. The former is sung by (for good measure) Tim Curry, and the latter ends with Captain Flint opening fire on his own crew with two flintlock pistols. And this is in a Muppet movie. Produced by Disney.
    • Even better, Long John Silver is Genre Savvy and understands how important his Villain Song is, remarking "Upstage, lads! This is my only number."
    • In short: If the movie is a musical and has Tim Curry in it, he will be the Big Bad, and he will have one of these songs. And he will rock you like a hurricane.
  • In Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, corrupt fast food tycoon General Lee Roy gets the songs "Generous General", an upbeat folk song where he smoothly denies accusations that his food is unhealthy, and "Murderous General", a dementedly bouncy number where he declares what he thinks the new white meat is to the protagonists.
  • The movie version of The Little Prince has "A Snake in the Grass". And with Bob Fosse playing the Snake, the choreography is definitely show-stopping.
  • Following the Rule of Funny, this turns up at the end of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, an otherwise non-musical Affectionate Parody that presents him as a likable Villain Protagonist played by Peter Sellers. Not only does he succeed in his quest to create the elixir he needs to regain his youth and strength, he then unleashes his master plan for world domination: rock music. (The film is set in the 1930s.) The finale has him performing in full Vegas-era Elvis style garb "Rock-A-Fu", a distinctly early-1980s tune that gets both the goodies and baddies dancing, and forces Nayland Smith (also Sellers) to admit that at last, Fu's won.
  • "Secret of Survival (in a Very Nasty World)", sung by the Weasels to Mole when he's lost in the Wild Wood in Terry Jones' version of Wind In The Willows.
  • "The Witch Is In The House" by the Wicked Witch of the West in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Miss Piggy nearly outdoes Curry's performance in Treasure Island. (Jokes about Piggy being a Large Ham are obvious, but if you make them she will hunt you down.)
  • Repo! The Genetic Opera has Gold for Rotti Largo. Mark It Up showcases the villainous Luigi and Pavi, but isn't as much of a showstopper as the others, so it only sort of fits this trope—especially because they're only trying to one-up each other and probably don't even consider themselves that bad.
    • Rotti also gets Things You See in a Graveyard, complete with plenty of gloating and cackling.
    • Amber Sweet has Come Up And Try My New Parts, in which she proves her willingness to use her body as a tool, as a borderline Villain Song (especially for those fans who want Grave-Robber and Shilo to end up together.) It was actually cut from the theatrical release because it was too good.
    • The Repo Man has "Thankless Job". It's Anthony Stewart Head with a voice like Christian Bale gargling broken glass, dancing and twirling away as he sings about organ theft, then gutting a person and using him as a human glove puppet... TO JOIN IN WITH THE SONG.
    • Arguably also "We Started This Op'ra Sh*t" for GeneCo as a company; it's certainly the most scenery-chewing number in the film, and features Rotti, Luigi, Pavi, and various GeneCo employees and customers generally hamming it up.
  • In the film Troll a song called "Cantos Profane" is performed by Torok the troll's minions.
  • In the live action adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jim Carrey as The Grinch sings "You're A Mean One Mr Grinch", which is traditionally an example of "The Villain Sucks" Song.
  • The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland has Mandy Patinkin singing "Make It Mine". It's very catchy.
  • Despite being a very low-level and banal form of evil, Sharpay and Ryan get one in each of the three High School Musicals, but it's only in the third one where "I Want It All",' is one of the big show-stopping numbers.
    • And some people prefer these upbeat songs to the ballad-y ones by the protagonists.
  • While more Grouch than villain, Oscar sings the "Grouch Anthem" at the beginning of the movie Follow That Bird: "Don't let the sunshine spoil your rain! Just stand up and complain!"
  • Forbidden Zone had both "Witch's Egg", an "I Am" Song by Susan Tyrrell, and "Squeezit The Moocher", an "I Want" Song sung by Danny Elfman as Satan. Both scenes are very awesome.
  • In Suicide Club, the psychopath Genesis sings a downbeat rock song with his minions in an abandoned bowling alley while his other minion rapes and stabs a woman trapped in a bedsheet sack. Good stuff.
  • The Leprechaun's rap number at the end of Leprechaun: In the Hood.
  • "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" from Friday the 13 th Part VI: Jason Lives. Jason couldn't sing, so he had Alice Cooper do it for him.
  • Hans Conreid brings on his Large Ham with the songs "Get-Together Weather" and "Do-Mi-Do Duds", AKA "Dress Me", an unconventional Camp Villain Song, while his many minions and staff of the Terwilliker Institute sing "Terwilliker Academy" and "The Elevator Dungeon Song"; in ~The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T~, the only live-action movie by Dr. Seuss.
  • In both the film of Pink Floyd's The Wall and the album that inspired it, the three songs in the third act sung by the fictional Pink's fascist persona: "In the Flesh", "Run Like Hell" and "Waiting for the Worms". In addition to being a comment on the stupidity of fascism and bigotry, using holocaust imagery to show just how far our protagonist has fallen, they are also over-the-top villain songs sung with a sense of insane glee with some of the catchier melody-lyric parings (to the point that you start singing a split-second before realizing that some of the lyrics aren't for polite society).
  • The Return of Captain Invincible features at least two. "Evil Midnight" is sung about Christopher Lee's character ... Mr. Evil Midnight by him and his nemesis Captain Invincible, and is a combination Villain Song (Mr. Midnight's part) and "The Villain Sucks" Song (Captain Invincible's part). "Name Your Poison is sung BY Mr. Midnight, and is one of the highlights of the film.
  • Carolyn' car radio sing-a-long of Bobby Darin's Don't Rain On My Parade in American Beauty
  • The song about The Spanish Inquisition, "The Inquisition", from Mel Brooks' History of the World Part One. After some opening narration and a brief air of seriousness, it comprises the entire segment.
  • "O Death" sung by the Klansman in Red in O Brother, Where Art Thou??
  • This list isn't complete without Dr. Evil's memorable rendition of "Hard Knock Life". DOMINO, MOTHERF** KER!
  • The self-titled "Floop's Song" from Alan Cumming's Depraved Kids' Show Host in Spy Kids, which doubles as a Disney Acid Sequence.
  • In the sci-fi parody The Creature Wasn't Nice (AKA Spaceship), the titular monster stops his rampage long enough to sing a little ditty entitled "I Want To Eat Your Face".
  • In the early Adam Sandler movie Going Overboard, General Noriega briefly sings "It's A Sad Sad World When Your Head Looks Like A Pizza". Yes.
  • In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Matthew Patel gets the Bollywood-esque "Slick". It's also the only musical number in the entire film and has the cast gaping in confusion as he performs it.
  • The antagonists of both Camp Rock movies tend to have better (or maybe just catchier) songs than the protagonists.
  • The Gremlins in Gremlins 2 organize their own rendition of "New York, New York" with the Brain as lead vocals.
  • The Golan/Globus production of Red Riding Hood had two. The Big Bad Wolf gets "Good at Being Bad". The wicked duke (It Makes Sense in Context) gets "Man Without a Heart".
  • In the So Bad It's Good movie musical The Apple, corrupt music executive\Louis Cypher Mr. Boogalow gets a couple of musical numbers. "How To Be A Master" is the one that most fits the definition of a villain song thematically, since it has him extensively bragging about how successful being evil has made him ("Reaching the top is such a long, hard climb/Millions of people stand and wait in line/Do you think I got there being patient and kind?").
  • Freddy Krueger had (oddly enough, the rap numbers) "Are You Ready For Freddy?" and "Nightmare on My Street" made to coincide with the release of one of his films.
  • Angela's briefly raps in Sleepaway Camp III Teenage Wasteland.
  • In Popeye, Bluto sings "I'm Mean" as he tears apart the Oyl household after Olive stands him up.
  • Although he's not a central villain, Nick Duran from Street Trash has a hilarious closing credits song available here. There's not really any spoilers to speak of, since this "plot" has little, if anything, to do with the rest of the movie.
  • The Direct to Video movie Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000 has a mad scientist and his two brawny henchmen sing about Zoom Gas.
  • Bugsy Malone had "Bad Guys" in which Fat Sam's thugs sing aobut how they're "just the best at being bad."
  • In Eurotrip, the main character's girlfriend is cheating on him with a member of a rock band, and said member writes a song about how he's screwing her while the protagonist is totally oblivious to it. Then he performs the song right in front of him!
  • Tommy has several, given that the entire thing is sung-through. The main villain, Tommy's wicked stepfather Frank, gets "Bernie's Holiday Camp," which introduces him and his sleazy attempts to mack on Tommy's mother, and "Welcome," in which he sings about his plan to make Tommy's holiday camp overpriced. Tommy's Rich Bitch mother Nora, meanwhile, gets "Champagne," which is about how she's profiting from her son's celebrity without caring about him in the slightest. She eventually turns out okay, though. As far as supporting villains go, there's "Fiddle About" for Wicked Uncle Ernie, and "Cousin Kevin, Model Child" for... Cousin Kevin, Model Child. "Pinball Wizard" is a subversion; it certainly seems like it should be one of these, given that it's the most spectacular, memorable number in the thing and it's sung by the arrogant pinball guy opposing the protagonist, but the song is actually about the opponent being impressed by the protagonist.
  • The Muppets has "Let's Talk About Me," which really has to be seen to be believed.
    • Tex Richman of The Muppets raps an odd song, complete with lyrics and a bouncing ball, about himself.
  • In Casablanca, Big Bad Strasser and his men briefly sing a Nazi anthem in Rick's club... which, in the film's defining Crowning Moment of Awesome, is then drowned out by "Marseillaise," sung by the club's other patrons led by Victor.
  • In Chicago, All that Jazz, The Cell Block Tango, When you're good to Mama and All I care about for Velma Kelly, the murderesses of Cook County Jail, Matron Mama Morton and Billy Flynn respectively.
  • I Bite Back from Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire
Back to Villain Song
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Villain_Song/Film?oldid=1972501"