Queen-Off

This spring, when two high-profile reboots of Snow White vie for your box-office dollars, don't expect the films' ingenues--Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman (which opens today) and and Lily CollinsMirror Mirror (which you may have already forgotten about)--to be major selling points. Instead, the masses will likely be making their film selection based on the A-list evil queen-off between Huntsman's Charlize Theron (pictured above in all her milky glory) and Mirror's Julia Roberts (who you've probably already forgotten about). To truly suss out where our fealties lie, we turn back to our favorite sinister sovereigns and assess their best, or worst, qualities. (Oh and also don't forget that Huntsman has hunky Chris Hemsworth!)

Queen of Hearts
To this day, Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland remains the best screen version of the Lewis Carroll classic, thanks in no small part to the grumpy, dumpy Queen of Hearts, voiced by cartoon veteran Verna Felton. The Queen's anger-management issues and cries of "Off with their heads!" make her an iconically malicious monarch. EVIL QUOTIENT: 2 SCEPTORS

Lady Macbeth (Judi Dench)
Poor ole' Macbeth--he getteth a bad rap. Shakespeare's Scottish antihero did some pretty nasty deeds, but it was really his ambitious better half who prodded him on. Lady Macbeth, who was a queen only briefly, is a juicy role, and who better to squeeze every nuance out of it than Dame Judi Dench? No one, that's who--which is why the 1979 version, also starring Sir Ian McKellen, is worth a viewing. EVIL QUOTIENT: 3 SCEPTORS

Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent (Anjelica Huston)
Sure, the villainess in 1998's Cinderella remake Ever After is a baroness, not a queen, but she's more than wicked enough to make up for it. In fact, watching the brilliant, terrifying Huston, who screams and beats her way through this movie, play evil might be scarier than anything the Brothers Grimm ever came up with. EVIL QUOTIENT: 3 SCEPTORS

Akasha, Vampire Queen (Aaliyah)

The late R&B singer, outfitted in chunky Egyptian jewels and headdresses, slithers and slinks bewitchingly through the Korn frontman-scored netherworld of 2002's Queen of the Damned. Do not fall prey to her seduction, though: The queen desires nothing more than the hearts of young men, preferably ripped straight from their chests after a final kiss. EVIL QUOTIENT: 3 SCEPTORS

Bloody Mary

Queen Mary I only reigned over England for five years, from 1553-1558, but in that time, the monarch, the first woman to take the throne, developed a reputation for being a bloodthirsty villainess. Though rarely portrayed in film as the monster she was, her anti-Protestant policies meant curtains for hundreds of subjects--some of whom were burned at the stake, while others were left to starve. EVIL QUOTIENT: 4 SCEPTORS

Babs Johnson (Divine)

With her nasty wit, evil-clown makeup, and bitchy, insectile eyebrows, Babs Johnson, in John Waters's 1972 dark comedy, Pink Flamingos, is the dirtiest, sleaziest queen of all. Engaged in a war of raunchy one-upmanship, the camptress on high will stop at nothing--eating-steaming-dog-shit-right-off-the-sidewalk nothing--to retain her title as the "Filthiest Person Alive." EVIL QUOTIENT: 4 SCEPTORS