As Epps, the half-mad, drunken sadist, Michael Fassbender (in his third role for McQueen) is terrifying, not just violent and unpredictable but actually demonic, tormented by lust for one of his slaves, the beautiful Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o, very affecting), to the rage of his no less vicious wife Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson).