Villains (film)
2019 film directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen

Villains is a 2019 American dark comedy horror film written and directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. It stars Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Blake Baumgartner, Jeffrey Donovan, and Kyra Sedgwick.
The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 9, 2019. It was released in the United States on September 20, 2019, by Gunpowder & Sky.
Plot
Lovers Mickey and Jules clumsily rob a gas station and take off, celebrating their last score before moving to Florida. While driving through the woods, their car runs out of gas. The couple discover a large, isolated house, with no sign of the owners. Seeing a vehicle in the garage, they break down the front door to look for a gas can. In the basement they discover a young girl, dirty and mute, chained to a column.
Returning upstairs to find a way to release the girl, the two meet the surprised homeowners George, Gloria, and their infant son Ethan.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Villains (film)” is 2019 film directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Villains, film and directed, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “2019 film directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55637127. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2019.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Villains (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Villains (film) primary sources, Villains (film) archive and Villains research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Villains (film)”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Villains (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.