This Article Originally Ran On Blumhouse.com
I must confess to you all, I have a minor role in a straight to video horror film called MOSQUITO MAN. In it, I play a mugger who gets killed by the Mosquito Man. When we filmed the scene, I had lines. After one take, they cut my lines because I am, to be totally honest, a terrible actor.
All the same, having my lines cut before take two hurt a little. I mean, I told my mom about it! Now I had to go back and tell her, “I’m no good, ma. I’m a washout!” I drowned my sorrows in some McDonalds that night. It was delicious.
Still, the whole experience made me wonder about other actors, one who actually have talent, that started in horror. We all know George Clooney and Johnny Depp’s stories, but who are some of the people we whose pasts we don’t know as well?
Sit back, grab a drink, and join me in praising these five actors who found a home in horror…
Peter Capaldi
Before he was The Doctor, before he introduced the phrase “fuckity-bye” to the world, Peter Capaldi spent years, decades as a working actor who was real good, but wasn’t getting that big role that would propel him to international stardom. LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM, released in 1988, was only his fourth movie. Is it a good movie? Some people think so, some people think not. I’m not here to tell you one way or the other, but I will tell you that I watched it a lot when I was a kid, but I can’t remember a single scene today.
In the movie, Capaldi plays Angus Flint, which is the most Scottish name that you could ever find in a dime store pulp novel, an archeology student who finds a giant snake skull. He shares his finding with James d’Ampton and together, they fight demon snake people.
Lisa Kudrow
She sang about a smelly cat and stole our smelly hearts. Lisa Kudrow showed up on pretty much every TV show, from CHEERS to Dr. KATZ, PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST. One thing she was in that the world seems to have forgotten existed is THE UNBORN, a movie all about the horrors of having a child.
I’ll be straight with you, I haven’t seen this movie, but now that I’ve seen the trailer, I really want to. It looks positively nuts! It is also the first film from Rodman Flender, director of IDLE HANDS. There’s another pretty famous face in the trailer who wasn’t well known when THE UNBORN was released. Did you see them? Cause I ain’t telling!
The header image for this article is from THE UNBORN, by the by, and was the only “good” shot of Kudrow in the movie I could find. The pic of her above is from her appearance on CHEERS. How can you not want to see a movie with a baby that freaky looking!
Tessa Thompson
Tessa Thompson isn’t a household name yet, but with DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, SELMA, and CREED under her belt, it's only a matter of time. Thompson got her first big break in the 2006 horror film WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
The movie, a remake of the first twenty minutes of the 1979 cult classic of the same name, was a box office success, but critics didn’t dig it and audiences seemed to have forgotten it. This isn’t one that you hear getting mentioned very often.
Tom Hardy
Tom Hardy is well on his way to becoming a classic actor. The guy has talent coming out of his nose, and I don’t know if he’ll ever give a bad performance. That includes his work in LD50:LETHAL DOSE where he plays second fiddle to Melanie Brown, aka Scary Spice.
The movie follows a group of animal rights activists, along with a stoner and a marine, go to an abandoned clinic to save a friend, only to find themselves being hunted by a strange electrical force. I won’t tell you if baby Tom Hardy makes it out alive, only that he looks like a baby.
Julianne Moore
There was a time in this world when Christian Slater and Buster Poindexter got billing over Julianne Moore. Not to take away from their acting skills (I’m personally a fan of Slater) but that makes so little sense in my mind. Julianne Moore is one of the best actresses working today, but when she showed up in TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, she was best known for a small stint on AS THE WORLD TURNS, and even there, she showed up in nineteen episodes over two years.
If you’ve never seen TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, you are really missing out. It is one of the best horror anthology movies ever made. The final story in the movie is honestly heartbreaking to me. When I first saw this movie as a kid, it stuck with me for ages. When I finally saw it again just a few years ago, I was so happy to see that the stories stand the test of time.