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Great idea, poor execution.
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00:00Now, there are casting decisions in horror movie history that are just so obviously right.
00:04Jack Nicholson in The Shining, Kathy Bates in Misery, or Kurt Russell in, well, just about
00:09anything. And then there are those choices that are clearly doomed to failure. From bad remakes
00:14to heartless adaptations, it's depressingly common to read the announcement of a film's cast
00:18and just know from the off that it is going to fail. The less common, though, are the hirings
00:23that fall somewhere in between. Horror movies over the years that have taken on board great
00:27actors, but it just somehow still hasn't worked out. And that's what we're here to talk
00:31about today. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 horror movie casting choices
00:35that should have worked, but didn't.
00:3810. Harrison Ford – What Lies Beneath
00:41Casting one of modern movie's good guy icons as a villain is a pretty neat trick, and in 2000's
00:47What Lies Beneath, it very nearly works. Robert Zemeckis' slightly confused supernatural thriller
00:52stars Harrison Ford as sinister professor Norman Spencer, opposite an excellent Michelle
00:57Pfeiffer as his wife Claire. For the first half of the movie, Ford's persona is subtly
01:02inverted to great effect. On and off screen, the man has always come across as a benign,
01:07curmudgeonly sort, with no time for fools but being a decent guy all the same. In What Lies
01:12Beneath, Ford brings that unknowability to the fore. There's no real reason to believe
01:16that he's guilty of anything, but when a neighbour goes missing and later another woman disappears,
01:21Claire can't help but fear that her husband knows something about it all.
01:25The film unfortunately goes to pot when Ford's character swings from dark figure to full-on
01:29villain. The idea is a good one on paper, but it just doesn't work. He's never believable
01:35as a murderous monster, and the more the film dips into spooky ghost action, the further adrift
01:40he feels.
01:419. Ellen Burstyn – The Wicker Man
01:43Whether The Wicker Man needed remaking is definitely a separate debate, and I can summarise
01:48that for you, it didn't, but the 2006 effort is a deliriously enjoyable disaster. Key to
01:55this is the lead turn from Nick Cage, in prime bad Cage mode, as Sheriff Edward Malice. Cage
02:01watched the Ed Woodward original, focused only on the final frenzied minute, and worked at
02:05that pitch for the whole hilarious duration.
02:07Ellen Burstyn, then, is tasked with stepping into Christopher Lee's shoes as the mysterious
02:12island's leader. She takes a few cues from Lee's warm but sinister Lord Summer's
02:17Isle, instead playing her villain with subtlety and reserved frosty menace.
02:21In most films, an actor of her calibre taking that approach would actually work fine, but
02:26unfortunately, not here. She just feels out of place in this festival of madness, the
02:31one stuffy note in a film otherwise given over to deranged, broad performances. Great
02:36actors like Frances Conroy and Molly Parker go for broke here, aware that this isn't going
02:41to end well, but Burstyn, to her detriment, keeps things professional. The end result is
02:46that her relative banality sticks out like a sore thumb. She probably embarrasses herself
02:50the least, but feels the most out of place.
02:538. Anthony Hopkins, Bram Stoker's Dracula
02:57Frances Ford Coppola's lush, po-faced vampire tale is a star-studded affair. Some of the casting
03:03does make sense here, like Winona Ryder and Richard E. Grant, and some work better than others,
03:07like Gary Oldman, and some were just odd. Hello, Keanu Reeves. But the outlier in all of this
03:12is Anthony Hopkins, whose performance as Van Helsing seems somewhat phoned in. As the doctor
03:17cum-vampire expert, he wears a wispy wig, does a bit of a Dutch accent, and sometimes ups the energy
03:24as he espouses his theories on the creatures of the night, and that's about it. It feels at times
03:29as though the decision was made to let Gary Oldman and Gary Oldman alone have fun for the two
03:34hours plus duration of this film. While he preens, mugs, and plays to the back row,
03:39Hopkins languishes in a role given mostly to exposition and explaining to other characters
03:43what to do next. The source material can definitely be blamed here to a degree. I mean,
03:48the film is mostly quite faithful, and it was a while before Van Helsing became the heroic vampire
03:52killer that he's often pictured as, but it feels a waste of Hopkins at arguably the peak of his powers.
03:58Having stolen Silence of the Lambs in a quarter of an hour, here he's just a bit dull.
04:027. Malcolm McDowell Halloween
04:05Malcolm McDowell is one of the movie business's most naturally charismatic actors. From his
04:10breakthrough in If, Through a Clockwork Orange, and the maddeningly underrated Gangster No. 1,
04:15the silky tone and twinkling eyes of this prolific performer always reassure you that
04:20you're in for a good time. What he's not, though, is a master of subtlety, and while his turn as
04:25Dr.
04:26Samuel Lunis is most likely the highlight of Rob Zombie's Halloween, the tone just isn't quite right.
04:31In John Carpenter's original, which relies far more on carefully built tension than jumps and gore,
04:36Loomis cuts a realistically unimpressive figure. He's the one sane man warning of Michael Myers'
04:42escape from the hospital, a striding cool hero. He is not. McDowell, by comparison,
04:47can't help but ooze charm and machismo, tearing into his lines with theatrical relish. While Donald
04:53Pleasence's turn in the original was panicked and pleading, here McDowell is blusterous and aggressive,
04:58to the point that Michael's fear factor is actually slightly diminished. He's great fun to watch,
05:03as he always is, but Loomis is supposed to be the grounding point of the picture,
05:07and that's not something the otherworldly McDowell can offer here.
05:116. Neil Patrick Harris – Gone Girl
05:14Sometimes there's nothing better than taking a comedian or comic actor and sticking them in a
05:19serious role. Examples include Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers, or the natural dramatic
05:24chops of Adam Sandler when he wants to bust them out from time to time.
05:27And in David Finch's domestic horror thriller Gone Girl, there are also two examples.
05:31Tyler Perry plays the flashy lawyer representing Ben Affleck's Nick against accusations that he's
05:36murdered his wife Amy. Perry is a great fit for the part, showbiz in front of the camera,
05:41calculating behind it. Neil Patrick Harris, however, plays Desi, an old flame of Amy,
05:47to whom she flees having framed her husband. Harris unfortunately flounders in the small but
05:51pivotal role, never quite sure how to play the character. Desi is simultaneously a shark
05:57and a shucker, a rich, controlling man to keep Amy in his life, but who will ultimately be played
06:02by her. The immensely likeable actor can't quite tap into the darkness that the script demands here.
06:07We're meant to get the idea that Amy might have finally tripped up, returning to a man who's
06:11sinister, if not downright dangerous. But instead, he's a slightly toned-down version of his sitcom
06:16persona.
06:175. Anne Hathaway – The Witches
06:19Of all of the old-school horrors that one could choose to remake, The Witches actually isn't a bad
06:24shout. The original bristles with genuine menace, but a modern spin on Roald Dahl's gleefully cruel
06:30fairy tale could actually be worthwhile. Unfortunately, Robert Zemeckis' 2020 effort
06:34really wasn't it. While Anne Hathaway tries gamely in the role of the Grand High Witch,
06:39and is by no means the film's biggest problem, she's stranded in a role that doesn't really fit
06:43in a film that's never really going to work. The original film felt claustrophobic and tense,
06:48and by contrast, Zemeckis' work is almost a psychedelic affair, colourful and zany. Now,
06:53that would be fine, I mean, it's a kid's film after all, but some of the special effects are
06:57genuinely horrible, most notably Hathaway's stretched, haunting mouth. His star to this
07:02end doesn't know whether to stick or twist, and while Angelica Huston's sorceress purred with
07:07casual vitriol, Hathaway is forced to go for broke, delivering a performance in turn too jolly
07:12that it's almost rabid.
07:144. Morgan Freeman – Dreamcatcher
07:16It takes a lot to make an actor of Morgan Freeman's calibre look undignified, but Lawrence
07:22Kostan's ultimately doomed adaptation of one of Stephen King's messiest and most sprawling novels
07:26certainly manages it. Dreamcatchers is the story of four friends with telepathic powers. On a hunting
07:32trip, they manage to stumble into a military-controlled zone, with the forest on lockdown following an
07:37alien appearance. Into all of this confusion stomps Morgan Freeman as Colonel Curtis. Now,
07:42the viewer might breathe a sigh of relief. The grown-ups have arrived finally. Surely good old
07:46Morgan Freeman will make all of this add up. But unfortunately, no such luck. Freeman is strangely
07:51miscast as a zealous anti-alien wildman, complete with truly bizarre eyebrows. He tries to cruise through
07:58on star power alone, but his heart's just not in it by any means, and it's hard to blame him.
08:02Dreamcatcher slowly transforms from something singularly weird to a more run-of-the-mill
08:07aliens-versus-human fare. And all Freeman can do is just sit back and watch.
08:113. Vince Vaughn – Psycho
08:14Gus Van Sant is a proper director's actor, capable of getting career-best performances out
08:19of the likes of Keanu Reeves, Matt Damon, and many, many more. Casting the rising Vince
08:24Vaughn in the pivotal role of his experimental Psycho remake seemed like it could actually be a
08:28winner for all concerned. For reasons of presumably sheer curiosity, Van Sant decided to reproduce
08:33Hitchcock's masterpiece shot by shot. The cast had some ringers, from William H. Macy to Julianne
08:39Moore, but the key part of all of this was of course Norman Bates. With his lanky, all-American
08:43frame and cheery face, Vaughn could have excelled as the unassuming hotelier with the core of darkness.
08:49But alas, it wasn't to be. While Anthony Perkins' Bates slowly exhibits his inner turmoil through
08:55tics and subtle line readings, Vaughn seems to flip a switch between nice boy and axe murderer
09:00modes. He's stilted and quite nervous here, as though he's not quite sure what he's doing,
09:05which really is a question worth asking of one of the most intriguing but ultimately
09:08pointless movies in Hollywood history. 2. Bill Paxton – Frailty
09:13This taut tale of religious fervor turned to violence was the sole feature directorial effort
09:18of the late Bill Paxton, and behind the lens the actor does little wrong. He delivers a pacey tale
09:23on a small budget with a terrific twist that reshapes everything the viewer has just seen.
09:28His misstep, unfortunately, is the role that he gave himself. Here Paxton plays Mr. Meeks,
09:33a single father who suffers a mental breakdown, leading him to believe that he's the hand of God
09:38sent to rid the world of demons, demons who happen to look and act like, and purport to be,
09:43regular humans. At his best, just the aliens and one false move, Paxton is a force-of-nature actor.
09:49With varying degrees of likeability, he'd found a niche playing blabbermouth characters who tended
09:54to come to a rather sticky end. And here he's tasked with a lot of brooding, a lot of religious
09:59chat, some killing, and not much else. It doesn't help that the script is remarkably functional,
10:05moving from plot point to plot point without putting much meat on the character's bones.
10:09By no means is Paxton bad in the role, it just doesn't really suit him. And with his dual jobs,
10:14there's no one to steer him in the right direction. 1. Jackie Earl Haley – A Nightmare on Elm Street
10:20Horror loves a remake, but there are few franchises more difficult to tackle than
10:25A Nightmare on Elm Street. That comes down to one thing, the Freddy Krueger factor.
10:29Robert Englund's winking, nodding performance as the dream-stalking monster carried any number
10:34of rather duff films, and that is a big red and green jumper to fill. Jackie Earl Haley was,
10:39in theory, a fantastic choice. His stock had never been higher off the back of Little Children
10:44and especially Watchmen, wherein he stole the show as Rorschach, a character few performances
10:49could have even brought to life to begin with. He seemed a great fit for the razor-fingered murderer,
10:54and would perhaps take the film in a more serious direction. But Haley was unable to escape the shadow
10:59of his predecessor, and ultimately the less quip Heavy Krueger only helped to sink a film that was
11:04actually doomed from the start. What's more, the CGI-enhanced Freddy just kind of looks off.
11:09The aim was to make him look more like a burn victim, and that definitely succeeded,
11:13but Krueger is supposed to be a boogeyman, a creature of nightmares. Binding him to reality
11:17inevitably reduced the fun that Haley could have had in this role, or that we could have had watching
11:22this movie.
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