Most media portrays Nazi’s as evil fascists with a deep, seething hatred towards Jews and other persecuted minorities. However, Hans Landa is so unsettling because he doesn’t hate the Jews. We aren’t watching someone driven by emotion or even personal ambition. No, this man does his job for the simple reason that he’s good at it. He’s precise; clinical. He orders the deaths of the people in hiding as casually and as detached as someone tidying up their desk space.

And that’s what makes it all the more terrifying. It’s seeing man incredibly skilled at his craft, who takes pleasure in the simple act of a job well done; it just happens that the job is hunting human beings. Not only is he not blinded by hatred, but he uses that lack of hatred as a tool to become even more efficient at exterminating them.

That kind of cold detachment sends hardwired signals of danger to the audience. By the end of that scene, you know you are watching a true monster. One that would just as easily shake a man’s hand as he would slit their throat, and never lose a minute of sleep over it.