Superior beard growing skills played a large factor.

Everyone loves a villain – more fun to play, watch and steal quotes from than any floppy-haired namby-pamby good guy, and usually prettier to boot. It’s such a shame they always seem to end up getting shot/stabbed/thrown off buildings/drowned/burnt by hot doorknobs (damn you, Kevin McCallister), so we thought we’d round up some of our favourites for a Who’s Who of all the bad guys that really should have won.

Master of horror John Carpenter has his first film for years arriving in January with supernatural chiller The Ward. We take a look back at the legendary director’s finest moments, to celebrate a career including some genre icons, a few cult classics and more than a few scares.