6. The Child Catcher in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (portrayed by Robert Helpmann)
Hmm. The fact that there is a character named The Child Catcher in a children’s film is weird enough, but it’s how he looks and what he does that’s truly the creepy part. He prances around, dancing and laughing, with his colorful horse-and-cart, and he rings a couple bells and honks a couple horns, and offers all sorts of wonderful goodies for all the little children he can find! And then the children come, and he sticks them in the cart, which is actually a cage, and rides away, keeping the children forever. Did I mention this was a children’s film?
5. Norman Bates in “Psycho” (portrayed by Anthony Perkins)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know. It’s a pretty generic pick. Whatever. But if I’m going to talk about the weirdest film characters and leave out a guy who dresses like his dead mother and goes around killing people in her clothes, I think there’d be something off about that. Norman Bates is WEIRD, and that’s no secret. Under Hitchcock’s masterful direction, Perkins gives the performance of a lifetime, and of a generation.