Film villains all the time have essentially the most enjoyable — look no additional than Austin Butler’s flip as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune: Half Two to see what I imply.

Whereas Dune protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) is tortured by visions of an oncoming holy struggle in his identify, Feyd-Rautha is busy getting his freak on. Murdering folks in rigged gladiatorial fights, kissing his uncle the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård), and usually slinking across the planet of Giedi Prime like a high-fashion struggle felony — that is only a day within the lifetime of the Na-Baron.

Fairly a little bit of Feyd’s attraction in Dune: Half Two comes on account of Butler’s electrical efficiency. He is fearless, commanding, and prepared to get down and soiled in a manner that differs wildly from his efficiency in different status initiatives like Elvis. However he isn’t the one actor to make Feyd-Rautha pop on the film display.

In David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Dune, The Police frontman Sting took on the position of the Baron’s psychotic nephew and inheritor obvious. Whereas the movie failed commercially and critically, Sting’s work in it’s a bizarro delight. If I ever have to really feel Dune-adjacent pleasure, all I have to do is consider his very impassioned supply of “I’ll kill him!” through the movie’s ultimate battle scene. Does the trick each time.

Whereas Butler and Sting’s portrayals of Feyd differ, together with director Denis Villeneuve’s and Lynch’s interpretations of the character, there isn’t any doubt that Feyd is essentially the most enjoyable a part of each Dune movie diversifications. Sure, he and his household are nasty as may be — however is not that a part of the attraction?

Feyd-Rautha and the Harkonnens are good foils for Paul and the Atreides.

Sting in “Dune.”
Credit score: Common/Kobal/Shutterstock

The Home Atreides we meet in any model of Dune is targeted on being honorable and going about its enterprise the “proper” manner — even when which means strolling into the lure planet that’s Arrakis. Home Harkonnen, however, revels in underhand offers with the Bene Gesserit, the Emperor (Christopher Walken), and his Sardaukar, in addition to common debauchery.

In Lynch’s Dune, stated debauchery takes the type of the Baron (Kenneth McMillan) whirring round in his suspensors, dousing himself in oil, and ripping coronary heart plugs (a Lynch addition) out of younger slaves. (Oh, and milking cats.) Villeneuve’s Harkonnens’ taste of depravity skews extra in direction of monstrous human-spider hybrids, retinues of cannibalistic “pets,” and the deadliest office surroundings potential. Significantly, what number of Harkonnen cronies do Feyd or his older brother Rabban (Dave Bautista) kill over the course of Dune: Half Two?

Even the commercial Giedi Prime feels filthy when in comparison with the Atreides’ water-rich house planet of Caladan, or to the gorgeous, largely untouched deep desert of Arrakis. Lynch paints Giedi Prime in metal, plastic, and sickly shades of inexperienced, with a wholesome dose of S&M vibes for good measure. Villeneuve’s model of the planet is strikingly rendered in black and white due to its darkish solar. Ink blot fireworks and buildings that might look proper at house in an H.R. Giger art work add additional villainous aptitude. Each takes on the planet are celebrations of simply how bizarre Dune can get — and Feyd feels just like the truest embodiment of all this debauchery and chaos.

If the Harkonnens are the antithesis of the Atreides, and Giedi Prime is the antithesis of Caladan and Arrakis, then Feyd is particularly the antithesis of Paul. As Frank Herbert’s Dune factors out repeatedly, Feyd is Paul’s darkish mirror. He is the inheritor to a Nice Home, and he is additionally a key prospect within the Bene Gesserit eugenics venture to create the Kwisatz Haderach. He is additionally psychotic, sadistic, and weirdly sexual in a manner Paul is decidedly not. (Paul clearly has his personal points.) In brief, Feyd brings the freak to Dune — and in case you’re bringing that freakiness to life, you’d higher commit.

It is pure enjoyable to observe heartthrobs like Sting and Austin Butler unleash their internal freak.

Austin Butler in “Dune: Half Two.”
Credit score: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Footage

Each Butler and Sting convey their all to their takes on Feyd — I am speaking loopy eyes, licking knives, and a few impressed line deliveries. But I had my hesitations about each of them earlier than watching every model of Dune. The Feyd we meet in Herbert’s novel is a calculated brat, a tyrant-in-training, with a few of the most vicious, over-the-top evil internal monologues of the e book. You are telling me the lead singer of The Police can do justice to that stage of creepy villainy? Or the love curiosity from The Carrie Diaries, for that matter?

Fortunately, my worries shortly fell away inside every actor’s opening seconds onscreen. Sting brings a type of petulant swagger to the position, whereas Butler oozes unhinged menace proper from the get-go. It helps that every actor actually appears to be having as a lot enjoyable enjoying Feyd because the viewers has watching them. Suppose again to Sting’s cries of “I’ll kill him!” or his feral chomping on Paul’s (Kyle MacLachlan) fingers throughout their battle. Or what about Butler’s playful wink or perfectly-timed drooling throughout his demise match in opposition to the final troopers of Home Atreides? (Do not even get me began on his taunting, “could thy knife chip and shatter” to Paul!) None of that is the type of habits we might count on from a heartthrob — particularly not when rocking blackened enamel and a completely bald, pale face like Butler — which makes these portrayals of Feyd all of the extra shocking.

Nonetheless, there are nonetheless calculated moments in every Dune the place the movie weaponizes Sting and Butler’s heartthrob statuses. An notorious Lynch Dune scene sees Feyd sporting nothing however a metallic blue codpiece, the image of a intercourse image from outer area. The Lynchian twist? We’re seeing Feyd right here by way of the eyes of his lusting uncle.

In the meantime, Feyd’s very first moments on display in Dune: Half Two contain him shirtless, abs on full show. Later, he’ll interact in what needs to be the horniest Gom Jabbar check ever, courtesy of Girl Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux). In every case, Dune invitations you to ogle Feyd — however there is a transgressive factor to it, both as a result of nature of the observer (hey, Baron!) or to the final proven fact that Feyd is a daunting psychopath. The casting of two intercourse symbols elevates that transgression additional.

The strain between desirability and repulsion retains us transfixed on Feyd, however there are such a lot of different components contributing to his attraction, from the sheer quantity of Large Decisions made by Sting and Butler to seeing simply how at-home he’s within the foulness of Giedi Prime. Just like the Bene Gesserits’ centuries-long plan to good the Kwisatz Haderach, every factor of Lynch and Villeneuve’s Dunes falls into place to create the scariest, most menacing little freak area has ever seen.

You may’t tear your eyes away, however then once more, why would you?

Dune: Half Two is now in theaters.