Few film experiences are more deeply satisfying than watching a psychotically disturbed villain get what's coming to them. It's one of the key emotional resolutions in all of cinema, so why, then, do so many, many films get this simple, primal act so terribly, terribly wrong?

The crux of achievable desire and incompetent execution certainly come into play, but it's also because some filmmakers understand what it is we're looking for in our beatdowns, and treat the climactic scene -- somewhat understandably -- as over-the-top as possible. Sometimes, too, a film will fall prey to a lousy, recurring Hollywood trope (the hero who won't die until they've said all their summating key lines; the villain who has no survival instinct, et al.) or two.

Whatever the reason, when it goes well it can be the defining moment in a given flick; when it goes badly it can be twice as memorable.

No. 10: Klaus Kinski, 'Asylum Erotica'

Give the killer this much: No matter what happens to him on stage, he doggedly continues his gorgeous, poetic ballet du death, spiraling his arms and gracefully writhing his body in the throes of thrilling agony. No fewer than 14 bullets hit him, yet at the dance's conclusion, he still has the wherewithal to sob meaningfully at the sheer beauty of what he's created. As do we all. We're not surprised the film ends just as his heads slips out of the frame, how could you ever devise a denouement that could capture a better essence of beauty and the timelessness of physical art?

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