Psychiatrists studied 400 movies to find the most realistic psychopath in film

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Most realistic psychopaths

1. Anton Chigurh, "No Country for Old Men"

Javier Bardem's character in "No Country for Old Men" is a classic psychopath, Leistedt and his colleagues conclude in their report. He approaches murder with an uncanny sense of normalcy, perfectly happy to empty his trademark bolt pistol without so much as a wince.

"He seems to be effectively invulnerable and resistant to any form of emotion or humanity," Leistedt writes.

2. Hans Beckert, "M"

Peter Lorre's child-killing character in the 1931 German film "M" embodies many of the traits that would now be thought of belonging to a child predator, Leistedt and his colleagues observe.

"Lorre portrays Beckert as an outwardly unremarkable man tormented by a compulsion to murder children ritualistically," they write. The character would most likely be diagnosed as a "pseudopsychopath," which many would more commonly refer to as a sociopath. His brutality also hints at psychosis.

3. Henry Lee Lucas, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"

Loosely based on the true story of Henry Lee Lucas, a Texas man who confessed to hundreds of murders throughout the country, the 1990 film chronicles the unstable life of a grisly serial killer.

Leistedt argues the character's inability to plan ahead, coupled with his turbulent personal life and poor family relationships, make him a textbook idiopathic psychopath.

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