RAYMOND LEMORNE (The Vanishing)
The Vanishing has the dubious honor of being one of the most intelligent but least influential serial killer films ever made (The Silence of the Lambs was released only three years later, forever dooming nearly all villains to speak with that condescending intelligentsia tone). To quote Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation, “On top of that, you explore the notion that cop and criminal are really two aspects of the same person. See every cop movie ever made for other examples of this.” Truer words were never spoken, Charlie, but even with all of the cliches, there’s little to no denying (in my opinion) that The Vanishing presents the strongest example of the cop/criminal dynamic that has ever been put on screen(and that includes Heat). The fact that it makes this cliché so incredibly effective is due in great degree to its two lead actors, but especially Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu in the role of the sociopathic killer.
Why does he belong on this list? Unlike a lot of the great villains, Raymond Lemorne doesn’t really care whether he scares you or not, and that’s what’s so scary about him. During the fantastic climax when he’s discussing at length how he feels absolutely nothing, even when saving small children from drowing in rivers or dooming innocent women to lonely deaths (it's all the same to him, really), you realize that his dialogue could be concerned with the most effective way to combine bread and meat into a sandwich and the inflection would not change. This man simply does not care about anything or anybody, and that his motivation is virtually nonexistent. Similarly attempts have been made at psychotic disaffection (Michael Rooker in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer comes to mind), but absolutely none as chilling or effective.
Why isn’t he more popular? The sad truth is that this movie is Dutch, and very few foreign films get the recognition that they deserve on this side of the ocean. It didn’t help that when this film was released, the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises were running at a rate of about a film per year, effectively crushing the market for a film like this.
