Yes! From Grendel by John Gardner to The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen and multiple Columbo episodes, the villain can definitely take center stage.
The second question: Should writers and filmmakers make the villain the one we readers root for? ("Should" as in "is it worth doing?" "Should" as a moral question is not something I'm going to tackle here.) That is, Do readers and viewers want to invest in a morally vacuous character?
Regarding the examples mentioned above, though book writers often keep the ambiguity of a semi-villainous character, the entire point is to make the character more appealing and understandable: less corrupt.
But in the Columbo episodes, the villains are still villains, and Columbo is still going to catch them and put them in jail. And sometimes, the villains are completely self-justifying, horrible people.
I suggest: this approach works with movies, NOT with books.
From A-Z List 2 (I use books from the list to decide what movies to watch), I rewatched A Kiss Before Dying (1956) based on the book by Ira Levin, and I determined that the parts of the movie with Wagner and Woodward are far superior to the rest of the film.
*Spoilers*
Like the book, the movie changes focuses after the first death to the victim's sister. The book actually switches to two sisters, Ellen and then Marion. The change in focus heightens the surprise of discovering that Bud, the villain, is pursuing each sister in turn. The cynical dark tone is unrelenting, and I don't much care for it. I often skim the second half of the book.
But it is the kind of thing I can tolerate for 90 minutes. And I suggest it would have been far more interesting to watch Bud change his focus to the next sister as part of his obsessive "I will achieve my goal by entering into this wealthy family" self-destructive character flaw--especially since Wagner does an excellent job conveying the nice college boy in appearance who nevertheless appears to have no close friends and is always looking for an angle.
He's evil! But he is interesting evil. He is faced with an innocent in Woodward's Dorrie but she is innocence with a core of toughness. Unless he destroys his own self-image (as nice, pleasant, good guy), he won't be able to manipulate her into compliance. He kills her because he sees no way out. It's wrong! But his mindset as a narcissistic sociopath is in keeping with modern appraisals of serial killers and provides enough interest to sustain the movie's first half and potentially the second half (just enough interest--I've watched episodes of Criminal Minds but I've given up on every four-part miniseries about serial killers long before the series found its legs).
I always watch all of A Kiss Before Dying. The problem is gripping enough. But the so-called heroes are, in this case, far less captivating than the villain. And none of them are worth investing in for more than the movie's length.
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