In what ways can we have positive responses to evil characters in film?

Abstract

This essay aims at investigating how evil characters could win the favour of audiences. The previous studies have focused mostly on deconstructing the audiences’ favour towards rough hero and antihero in an effort to find a balance in their personalities. They believe that the reason why people admire villains is because they can see the traits outweigh the drawbacks and make villains the good people essentially. Based on the debate between Eaton and Carroll, unlike the rough heroes and antiheros who are essentially morally good figures, evil characters are morally and legally unforgivable. However, through this essay’s research on Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947), I believe films could make the evil characters more acceptable and even approvable through the cinematographic techniques and emotional manipulations. This essay is tries to parse out and analyse a flexible formula which could guide the audiences have the positive responses towards evil characters.