Over the last few years, Bill Skarsgård has become a name heavily associated with horror. Skarsgård has starred in horrifying thrillers including Hemlock Grove and Castle Rock, which are both television series adapted from horror novels. With these television series, Skarsgård has found success in his performance as Pennywise in the 2017 remake of Stephen King's It, as well as the film's 2019 sequel, It Chapter Two.

While Skarsgård has also starred in other thrillers (including Netflix's The Devil All the Time), he has been featured in a number of projects that are not associated with the horror genre. Among them is Skarsgård's role as Zeitgeist in Deadpool 2. In 2019, Skarsgård shined in a dark comedy that proves he's capable of doing more than scaring an audience.

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Villains is a dark comedy that stars Skarsgård and Maika Monroe (who broke through in horror movie It Follows), as the leads. Joining them are Kyra Sedgwick, Jeffrey Donovan, and Blake Baumgartner. The film begins with a short montage of beach images from a film reel. The images are layered with the voices of Monroe and Skarsgård as they talk to one another in a manner that sets Villains up as a quirky film right off the bat. This is further proven once the beach images fade and are replaced by a real-time robbery. Two masked individuals (wearing horse and pigeon masks) attempt to rob a convenience store but struggle to figure out the new digital software that the cash register uses. After comedic bickering and the realization that they must buy something to open the cash register (not just anything, but a king-sized candy bar), the two exit the store with a newfound adrenaline rush.

Jules and Mickey in Villains

Even though Villains starts off with a couple knocking off a convenience store, it is far from another rendition of Bonnie and Clyde. Mickey (Skarsgård) and Jules (Monroe) make their plans clear. They have aspirations of making it to Florida and starting a shell-selling business. Within the first five minutes of Villains, it's evident that Mickey is the one that keeps the pair grounded, while Jules may respond to things in a more erratic and impulsive manner. That's not to say that Jules is reckless, as her choices are driven by her heart (which is praised for its good intentions throughout the film), but that between the two of them, Jules is more likely to divert from the original plan.

As Mickey and Jules drive down the road, their car breaks down, leaving them with limited options. After robbing the convenience store, Mickey and Jules realize that in order to get away with their crime, they have to get further away from the crime scene than they currently are. With nowhere to turn, Mickey begins to panic, only calmed by his and Jules' strange carwash ritual. The action gives them a new sense of clarity, where they are able to identify a mailbox not far off. Agreeing to raid the house for anything they can use to solve their current problem, Mickey and Jules travel toward the extravagant home. Following a disagreement on how to break in without being barbarians, they are eventually able to successfully enter the home.

Inside, Mickey and Jules' quick raid becomes much more complicated. In their attempt to locate something to assist with siphoning gas out of the car parked in the garage, the pair come across a young girl chained in the house's basement. Mickey's initial instinct is to flee while Jules insists that they have to help her. Giving in, the two try to search for something to cut the ankle chain so they can leave. Their plans are once again ruined once the homeowners George (Donovan) and Gloria (Sedgwick) return. Understanding that neither is in the position to report the other to the authorities for the crimes that have obviously been committed, the two couples are forced to try to find a compromise.

Villains continues with a cat-and-mouse chase, where each couple is trying to get the upper hand on the other. At the center of all of the drama is Sweetiepie (Baumgartner), the young girl who remains silent in the basement as everything continues to unfold. The dark comedic styling of Villains is part of what makes the film so enjoyable to watch. Villains is filled with obscenely outlandish scenes that will constantly have viewers wondering what these strange characters could possibly do next. Its use of over-the-top action and double entendres delivered by the cast are golden and as one of the leads, Skarsgård nails his comedic timing and delivery. On top of the comedic aspect of Villains, Skarsgård and Monroe are able to deliver a convincing performance of a couple that is madly in love. Pitted against George and Gloria who are seemingly just as devoted to one another, Villains becomes an examination of who the true villains are.

With the many genres Villains blends in its runtime, some have felt that the film took on too much. Mixing comedy, crime, drama, thriller, and even horror, Villains may sound like a recipe for disaster. What keeps Villains from falling flat is the steady pace of the plot's development. The initial robbery sets the light-hearted, comedic tone, while the sudden discovery of Sweetiepie in the basement allows Villains to begin to adopt thriller and horror-like qualities. While Villains does end on an entirely different note than it begins with, it's the course that has been mapped out for the beginning. Villains is successful in this regard because it doesn't try to be one genre profoundly more than the other and finds a nice balance between them all. This is a testament to not only writers Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, but to the cast's delivery as well. In their respective roles, the cast is able to blur the very fine line between comedy and horror without taking away from the scenes meant to favor one genre over the other.

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