Villain Visuals and Mannequin: On the Move (1991)

There are a few types of conflict that can be used to build a story. The main character could be battling society. They could be fighting their own demons. The protagonist could be up against some sort of force of nature. Or, when things are boiled down to the simplest form of conflict, there could be a basic character versus character struggle. Each type of conflict could bring a different struggle for the main character or characters, but some conflicts are easier than others.

The easiest, and most common, type of conflict is a character versus character conflict. It gives the villain of the story a face. They are personified in an evil person or group of people who can be beat, maimed, killed, or defeated in any number of ways at the end of the story. A society could be brought down, but it feels better to have a person in charge of that society. They will feel the pain of their society failing and dying. They may die along with it. It’s always nice to have a face to go along with the villainy.

It is within this character versus character conflict that film has had so many of its memorable villains. When the villain is one person and possibly their henchman, things can be done to make them more recognizable. They can be given distinct personalities that set them apart from other film villains. There could be a theme within the score that goes along with the character. Or there could be some sort of visual aesthetic that sets them apart from the many other villains out there.

Mannequin: On the Move was a 1991 romantic comedy that gave its villain a distinct look. Jason Williamson (William Ragsdale) was a new employee at a department store. He was paired with visual artist Hollywood Montrose (Meshach Taylor) to create a show that would highlight the new clothing line. One of the special features was a mannequin that was actually a frozen-in-time peasant girl named Jessie (Kristy Swanson). When she was brought back to life, 1000 years after being frozen, an evil sorcerer named Count Spretzle (Terry Kiser) tried to take control of her. Only, she was in love with Jason, the reincarnated version of her true love, Prince William. Hijinks ensued.

There was one simple physical trait that gave a unique look to Count Spretzle. He had a wart on the side of his face. That wasn’t it, though. A single wart wouldn’t be that big of a deal. There are a bunch of villains that have had warts. For whatever reason, a wart is a symbol of evil in movies. Evil witches have warts on their noses. That principal from Uncle Buck had a wart that Buck told her to get chewed off. The difference with Count Spretzle’s wart was that there was an extremely long hair hanging from it. The hair was like a flowing lock of hair but coming from a wart instead of the top of his head. There aren’t too many villains with a long-haired wart on the side of their face.

That’s only a minor physical trait for a villain to have. It could be part of the reason that Count Spretzle didn’t become a classic villain that people have remembered in the decades since the film was released. Perhaps that was because of how dull Mannequin: On the Move was. It’s a mostly forgotten sequel to a semi-forgotten original film. Most iconic movie villains come from movies that are either more well-remembered or just of a better quality.

Consider the Star Wars films for a minute. There have been five distinct villains, among a few others, within just the nine films in the Skywalker saga. The original trilogy brought Darth Vader with his memorable suit and breathing. Those three films also introduced audiences to the Emperor, with his shadowy, pale, wrinkled face. The Phantom Menace brought the red and black, horned head of Darth Maul, with his dual light sabre. The sequel trilogy came to theatres with Kylo Ren, who looked like a newer age Darth Vader, and Supreme Leader Snoke, who looked like his head was caving in on itself. The franchise has thrived on memorable villains.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was another franchise that excelled with giving their villains some interesting visual elements. Part of that could be that the movies were based on comic books, which are a wholly visual medium. The other way that the characters got their interesting looks were from the toy line. In order to sell more toys to kids, new characters needed to be created. They needed to be visually appealing so that they would catch kids’ eyes.

Shredder was the main villain of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. He had a metal helmet and face guard. He had metal blades on his hands. He had metal armor and metal spikes on his shoulders. He was basically an evil samurai knight, if you were to put western knights together with eastern samurai. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze has Super Shredder, who was basically Shredder on steroids. That film also introduced Tokka, a mutated snapping turtle, and Rahzar, a mutated wolf, as villains. They were clear riffs on Bebop and Rocksteady, two humans that were mutated into a warthog and a rhino, respectively. Those characters would appear in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows in 2016. And one final villain, who appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, was Krang, a weird looking alien inside a robot body, poking his face out where a belt would normally be.

Each villain that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise featured had a unique look. For a samurai knight to large, mutated animals to an alien in a humanoid robot, they each had a look that set them apart from the angry white men that so many mainstream movies featured as villains. They presented a look that would forever be associated with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When the 2014 and 2016 films were being made, audiences wanted Bebop and Rocksteady to make their film debut because they remembered those characters from the toys and old cartoons. The visuals were locked in their minds and they wanted them translated to the big screen.

Slasher films are a subgenre of movies where the look of a villain can have a great impact over the audience. In many cases, the villain goes on to become the face of the franchise. Everyone else ends up dead, but the villain remains to cause death and destruction for the next group of victims. The audience becomes invested in how the villains look. They dress up as the villains for conventions and Halloween parties. The villains become more famous than the actors that roll through the films.

The Friday the 13^th franchise had a few different killers, but the villain was usually Jason Voorhees. He had a few different looks throughout the franchise, but the one that people associated with him was the hockey mask and the machete. When someone else was killing people during the events of Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning, they were using the hockey mask look of Jason. People thought that, maybe, Jason had come back to life. He hadn’t. His look had become a legacy. During Jason X, Jason was transformed into Uber Jason, and that version still had a hockey mask, albeit a revamped Uber Mask.

Going beyond the Friday the 13^th franchise, there was Michael Myers in Halloween. He wore a mechanics’ outfit and a William Shatner mask (or some other mask made to look like the original Shatner mask). Freddy Krueger, of A Nightmare on Elm Street, had a hat, a knife glove, a striped shirt, and a face covered with burn scars. Leprechaun had a leprechaun. Scream featured Ghostface, with a stretched, white ghost face mask and black robe. Child’s Play had the Good Guy doll. Hellraiser had Pinhead. They each looked unique to their franchise of films and became the characters most associated with those franchises. Much of that had to do with the looks of the characters. They imprinted themselves on the minds of the audiences and haunted their nightmares.

A good villain must be many things. They must be a threat to the heroes. They could either be smarter, sneakier, stronger, or more resilient. It should take all the hero’s capabilities to stop the villain. The villain should feel like a real threat. Worlds will be changed based on what they do. If the main characters can’t stop the villain, something very bad will happen. Depending on the stakes of the movie, that something could threaten the entire world, or just the community of the characters. The villain should also have a look that sets them apart from the other villains that people know. This way, they stick in the audience’s minds.

The easiest type of conflict to insert into a story is a character-versus-character conflict. The entire battle that the main character is fighting can be personified through one person and possibly some henchmen. That’s not the only conflict a movie can have. There could be a person-versus-nature, or versus-society, or even versus-themselves. But it’s these person-versus-person conflicts that create most of the memorable villains that we know from film history. And television history. And book history. These are the villains we remember.

We may or may not remember these notes:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was mentioned in this post. I’ve covered three movies in that franchise. They were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (week 184), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (week 310), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (week 310).
• The Friday the 13^th films were also mentioned. I’ve covered Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning (week 46), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (week 85), and Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (week 294).
• Star Wars got a quick mention. Two Star Wars movies have been featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies, though they weren’t part of the nine film Skywalker saga. The first was The Ewok Adventure (week 287) and the other was Star Wars: The Clone Wars (week 377).
• I also brought up the Halloween movies. I once covered Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (week 48).
• Mannequin: On the Move was directed by Stewart Raffill, who directed Mac and Me (week 125) and The Ice Pirates (week 128).
• Michael J. Anderson made an appearance in Mannequin: On the Move. He had previously shown up in Tiptoes (week 28) and Warriors of Virtue (week 88).
• John Casino returned from Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (week 32) to appear in Mannequin: On the Move.
• Mannequin: On the Move starred William Ragsdale, who was in Road House 2: Last Call (week 200).
• You might have recognized Stuart Pankin, the voice of Earl in Dinosaurs, in Mannequin: On the Move. He showed up in Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls (week 208).
• Finally, Mannequin: On the Move featured Kurt Leitner from Movie 43 (week 243).
• Have you seen Mannequin: On the Move? Do you think the villain was memorable at all? What other villains did I miss? I didn’t even mention the Bond movies with people like the diamond face guy from Die Another Day (week 153), or Sinbad’s character in Jingle All the Way (week 160). Tell me what I missed on Twitter or in the comments.
• If there’s a movie that you want to suggest for me to watch for a future Sunday “Bad” Movies post, let me know in the comments or on Twitter. I’m open to any suggestions, and I’m always looking for more movies that would fit into the overall feel of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
• Take a look at Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram for pictures and videos related to the blog and the movies within.
• Things are going to get religious over the next week with the Sunday “Bad” Movies. Fresh of the heels (two months later) of Last Ounce of Freedom (week 369), I’m diving into the world of religious films once again. This time, I’m going back to David A.R. White and checking out his 2012 flick, Brother White. I’ve already seen it as I’m finishing this post and it is wild. I’ll tell you what I thought next week. See you then.