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As far as Harry Potter villains go, Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the most terrifying. Her love and admiration for Voldemort pushes her to places very few Harry Potter villains go to. It's not about power, overtaking Voldemort, it's about doing whatever she thinks will get his attention like a little girl with a big crush. Her actions are chaotic and psychotic, and the performance by Helena Bonham Carter puts Bellatrix Lestrange into a whole new category of Harry Potter villains.
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This is Bellatrix Lestrange
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Despite being introduced in the fourth book and fifth Harry Potter film, she's become one of the most iconic characters from the franchise
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Bellatrix, on the surface, seems to be a purely evil, vindictive character
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who relishes being unrelentingly sadistic. But beneath that, Helena Bottom Carter gives her little moments and quirks
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to show just how cunning she truly is, and how she's so fully dedicated to Voldemort
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she's like a child with a crush, possibly making her an even more dangerous and unhinged villain than he is
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Each movie in the Harry Potter franchise is good at creating villains that have a memorable presence
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from Professor Quirrell to Barty Crotch Jr. to Peter Pettigrew, all of whom are memorable in their own right
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Then, along comes the fifth film, and we see the roster of villains expand greatly
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as Voldemort starts reuniting his old army of Death Eaters. The new member who stands above the rest is Bellatrix
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who is introduced to us as Sirius's deranged cousin. Her first appearance gives you everything you need to know about her
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That dirty, disgusting prison cell she's in and her licking her Dark Mark tattoo
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She's clearly both wildly obsessed with one thing, as well as unbound by common conventions
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After being broken out of Azkaban prison, Bonham Carter sends chills into the audience with her maniacal laugh
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As Bellatrix is finally able to wreak havoc on the world as she is so desperately craved
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It's a fairly chilling opening with Carter imbuing her with a sense of unpredictability
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leaving the audience with no idea what she's capable of, but that whatever she does, we know she'll take pleasure in it
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The next time we see her, we see a fully formed Bellatrix, and she knows exactly what buttons to push to get people to do what she wants. She can read people
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better than almost anyone in the Harry Potter film series, which makes her manipulation that much more
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terrifying The scene starts with Lucius trying to convince Harry to give him what he needs but Harry bites right back at him with his own threats You do anything to us I break it One of the first things Bellatrix does is laugh at Harry trying to bargain
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and ask how Neville's mentally handicapped parents are doing, taunting them like a child picking a fight on a schoolyard
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How's mom and dad? Better now they're about to be avenged. We hear and see her laughing throughout the ensuing battle
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culminating in her effortlessly killing Sirius Black. The smile she gets from killing the only family Harry, and to an extension her, had left, is chilling
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She relishes his anguish, but it's more than that. It's the way Carter starts laughing after that suggests she's doing it for Harry's attention, to get him to act irrationally
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She can read people, probably better than anyone besides Dumbledore, and every moment she spends with someone, she's searching for the best way to get in their heads
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That's her real magic, tearing people apart from the inside more than the outside
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Other Potter villains impose less of a presence on our heroes. From Pettigrew to Crouch to even Lucius Malfoy
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they all seem in a way useless without Voldemort there, almost acting lost when their plans have failed without Voldemort to bail them out
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But Bellatrix is able to think on the fly, not giving up so easily and continuing to read any situation to figure out her best move
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In the Department of Mysteries battle, it isn't Lucius' words that get into Harry's head
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it's Bellatrix's actions and Harry's perception of them that get him to let his guard down
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She uses that perception of insanity to her advantage, undermining both heroes and villains alike wherever she can
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The best example of this is her opening scene in The Half-Blood Prince. She and Draco Malfoy's mother visit Snape's house to persuade him to watch over Draco as he attempts to kill Dumbledore
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Immediately, Bellatrix starts surveying the environment, looking for clues and using the guise of immaturity to explore the space
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Put it down, Bella. We mustn't touch what isn't ours. She then calls into question why Voldemort even trusts Snape
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Still, he holds firm. She on edge looking for a way to make sure Dumbledore dies Then as Snape says he might be able to help Draco and she spots her opportunity If he truly committed why not bet his life on it
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This clearly unnerves Snape, as he cannot blow his cover as a spy for Dumbledore, and
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Bellatrix sees it. She starts wrapping herself around him like a snake trying to get him to promise something
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he's hesitant to. And Snape knows if he doesn't do it, he'll look weak in front of the two Death Eaters
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Word will spread, and his loyalty will be in question from Voldemort himself
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So he takes the unbreakable vow. And in the very last moment of the scene, Snape draws a sigh
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and Bellatrix has the subtlest of smiles, knowing she's won and Snape is lost
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It's some classic manipulation techniques, both moving the goalposts of what is acceptable for Snape
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and playing on fear and insecurities to force him into an action he doesn't want to do
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Her lack of restraint and manipulation comes partially from her sense of entitlement
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She's fully committed to the cause of Voldemort's grasp for power, scolding the likes of Harry for even mentioning his name with impure blood
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You filthy are black! She even places herself above his followers. Carter said in an interview
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Bellatrix thinks she's better than everyone, and that she's the most faithful because she went to prison for 14 years
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whereas someone like Snape is a coward trying to keep both sides happy. She is essentially controlled by her deification of Voldemort
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Just watch the way she recoils every time Voldemort speaks. She's extremely apologetic every time she suggests something Voldemort says no to
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She wants to do anything to stand out above the rest of the followers because, in her mind, none of them are as devoted to Voldemort as she is
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and she just has to make him see that. There is literally no limit to the things she'll do to get the Dark Lord's bidding done
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In the Malfoy Manor in Deathly Hallows Part 1, we see her desperately trying to get Draco to confirm Harry is in fact Harry
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She's not as controlled as in previous scenes. Now that Voldemort has essentially been back in power for a year
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she's no longer special to him. Her whole identity as Voldemort's most loyal follower
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the one he cares for and trusts the most, is dissipated. Without it she feels like she has no identity nothing to live for She wants so badly to do something to impress him she willing to do whatever to get that position back For almost the entirety of her scenes in The Deathly Hallows Part 2
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she is resigned to cowering behind Voldemort, asking if he's alright and laughing only when he laughs
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And who might you be, young man? Never Longbottom. she's starstruck and heaps praise at everything he's doing but he consistently keeps tossing her
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aside like she's nothing she's unraveling more and more as the series progresses
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so desperate for Voldemort's attention even during his speech after Harry dies
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she gets on a platform right next to him basically saying look at me I'm just like you
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She's dealing with so much rejection from the man she loves most, and deep down, she knows there is no way she can get him to love her the way she loves him
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causing her to need to inflict pain and torture on as many others as she can
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It's all she knows how to do, and she just has to hope for that sooner or later
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Voldemort will notice and appreciate her for it. In her desperate bid for his attention, she eventually loses that which made her the most villainous
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leading to her inevitable downfall. Bellatrix really is like a selfish, cruel child in a lot of ways
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with the sole desire to impress a boy she likes with little comprehension of the consequences of her actions
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She's acutely aware of the vulnerabilities of everyone around her, yet is able to willfully untether herself from a moral code
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in order to get what she wants, and finds a perverse sense of enjoyment in the suffering of those she deems lesser
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No matter what she does to them, it's justified by the desired outcome
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Voldemort is everything she grew up idolizing, and that led her to never really growing out of a child's mindset
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It's not as much that she doesn't understand her actions are wrong
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it's that she doesn't care. She's very similar to someone like Homelander in The Boys
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feeling completely vindicated from guilt as those she comes across are less than she is
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They're just in her way. While she enjoys her actions, she feels they are not without purpose
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There is a method to her madness, making her all the more unpredictable
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