Editorials
The Top 16 Oscar-Worthy Horror Performances
It’s a sad, sad fact, but we all know it. The Academy has no love for genre films. When it comes to the Oscars, you’re far more likely to win an acting award for playing a blind dude with no feet, or a lesbian Holocaust survivor, then you are for even the finest dramatic performance in a horror movie. Sure, there have been a few notable exceptions over the years–Fredrich March in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs–but for the most part, the greatest actors in the history of fright flicks have gone largely unrewarded by Oscar. And so, we take a look this time at 16 of the greatest dramatic performances ever seen in horror. The ones who deserved an Oscar (or at least a nomination), but didn’t get one…
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A classic B-movie leading man, McCarthy was a cut above the usual fare when he starred in the original Invasion. No one who’s seen this movie will likely ever forget the sense of genuine urgency and panic he brought to the role. His final scenes in particular are unforgettable.
In what world does Mork nab an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, and gets not so much as a peep for this completely daring, out-of-character performance? Yeah, we all know he was great in Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, etc., but come on! He took a chance playing this psychopathic part, and man did it pay off.
As an extremely hatable religious zealot, this fine actress should’ve been a shoe-in for a Supporting nod. And we wager she would’ve been given a nom for this part, had it not been in a Stephen King movie… The Academy needs to get over this bias–a great actor is a great actor, period.
Another mainstream actress who has gotten much recognition for her straight dramatic parts, but just because this flick had to do with ghosts, it gets shuffled under the rug. Kidman is really great here as a protective mother who doesn’t realize that she and her children are already dead…
This is the kind of role an actor drools for, and Goldblum certainly did a lot of drooling–acid, to be precise. In Cronenberg’s classic horror remake, he plays a man who is literally falling apart–and does so with the utmost pathos and believability.
Sure to be the most controversial choice on the list. There are many who feel that Oldman was an overbearing ham in the role of the Count. Nevertheless, despite the detractors, Oldman in the opinion of many others gave a stunning, nuanced performance that brought new life to one of the genre’s oldest parts.
Although this was only one of the segments in the Twilight Zone movie, it’s also the one that everyone still talks about to this day. Lithgow, a fine actor in both dramatic and comedic roles, is perfect here as the harried, desperate passenger who suffers a nightmare at 20,000 feet. The kind of role Supporting Actor was created for.
A man who achieved great recognition outside the genre, Peck was one of the finest actors of the 1950s-1970s. No wonder he brought so much power and credibility to the role of Damien Thorn’s adoptive father. This belongs right up there with the likes of Gentleman’s Agreement, To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby Dick and Cape Fear as one of Peck’s finest performances.
Yes, he was that good. If you haven’t checked this movie out yet, you need to–pronto. I’ll be waiting come February to see if the Academy does the right thing and nominates Rockwell for his eye-opening work in this deeply enjoyable piece of horror/science fiction.
Quite possibly the finest lead female performance in the history of horror films. Sigourney came out of nowhere and rocketed to superstardom thanks to her genre-challenging action/horror turn as Ripley, the desperate survivor of the Nostromo who must do battle with an unstoppable killing machine.
One of the greatest character actors of his era, Frye literally stole the show as Renfield in Universal’s Dracula. His early scenes with Bela Lugosi are the best parts of the movie. He is mesmerizing whenever he’s on screen, and takes to his part with a gusto that is rarely matched.
“Farewell and adieu to ye fair Spanish ladies…” Jaws got a Best Picture nomination, but none of the actors were similarly recognized. And although Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss are excellent as well, let’s be honest–this is Shaw’s movie. With Quint, Shaw gives us one of film’s most charismatic icons.
Without saying a single word, Karloff pulls off one of the most emotional charged and intense performances you’ll ever see. This should be required viewing for acting students everywhere. And what a difference from the stone-like, lumbering behemoth the Monster would become in later installments!
A director dreams of getting out of child actors what Tomas Alfredson got out of these two for his coming-of-age instant vampire classic. These two are absolute magic on-screen, delivering nuanced performances most actors four times their age can’t pull off.
Alfred Hitchcock had a reputation for inspiring great work from his actors. He certainly did that with Perkins, whose ultra-nervous, calculating, yet sympathetic Norman Bates is one of film’s more unforgettable characters. Perkins is a revelation here, yet inexplicably, only Janet Leigh was nominated in the acting categories.
And finally, the most Oscar-worthy horror performance of all….
Nominated 12 times for his acting, and winning three times, Jack is one of the most celebrated thespians of the past 40 years. And yet, what is perhaps his most identifiable and indelible performance of all went completely ignored. Robert DeNiro nabbed the award this year for Raging Bull, and I can’t argue with that one–but not even a nomination for Nicholson? Unforgivable.
For more news and opinions on the world of horror, including an exclusive interview with ROTLD’s Jewel Shepard, a review of the original House on Haunted Hill, and the Top 10 Horror Movie Posters of All Time, check out Brian’s daily blog, The Vault of Horror, at thevaultofhorror.net.
And for a unique look at the feminine side of fear, including a sound ridiculing of Twilight fans, and “How to Survive a Zombie Attack” from daycare kids’ point of view, check Brittney-Jade’s blog, Day of the Woman, at dayofwoman.com.
A new breed of creature-features was unleashed in the 1990s and continued well into the next decade. Shaking off the ecological messaging of the past, these monsters existed for the sake of pure mayhem. Just to name a few: Tremors, The Relic, Anaconda, Godzilla, Deep Rising and Lake Placid all showcased this trend of irreverent creature chaos. Reptiles and other scaly beasts proved to be a popular source of inspiration for these films, but for that extra crawly experience, bugs were the best and quickest route. Spiders, in particular, led some of the worst infestations on screen in the early 2000s. And on the underbelly of this creeping new wave — specifically the direct-to-video sector — hangs an overlooked offering of spider horror: Arachnid.
In 2000, Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernández launched the Spanish production company Fantastic Factory. The Filmax banner’s objective was to create modestly budgeted genre films for international distribution. And while they achieved their goal — a total of nine English-language films were produced and shipped all across the globe — Fantastic Factory ultimately closed up shop after only five years. Arachnid, directed by Jack Sholder (Alone in the Dark, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, The Hidden) and based on a script by Mark Sevi, was the second project from the short-lived genre house. Yuzna was drawn to the concept largely because of its universal appeal; a monster was marketable in any region, regardless of cultural preferences or restrictions. There was also the fact that spiders give everyone a case of the heebie-jeebies.
By having extraterrestrial forces be the cause of the spiders’ mutism and immensity as well as other urgent problems within the story, Arachnid incidentally pays respect to Hollywood’s golden age of schlock filmmaking. The opening sequence indeed shows a stealth plane’s pilot (Jesús Cabrero) trailing a UFO and its translucent passenger to an island in the South Pacific, but the alien business is kept to a minimum going forward. There is no time to process this seismic revelation of life beyond Earth before moving on to the film’s central plot.
Pictured: Alex Reid, Chris Potter and Neus Asensi’s characters get trapped in the spider’s web in Arachnid.
Several months since the E.T. was last sighted — and after being snuffed out by one of its own accidental creations — a medical team from Guam heads to Celebes (better known as Sulawesi nowadays), in search of whatever is behind a new illness. The doctors (played by José Sancho and Neus Asensi) already suspected a spider bite, although they failed to consider the biter could be the size of a tank. With The Descent’s Alex Reid as the snarky pilot of this doomed expedition, one who has ulterior motives for accepting the job, the film’s core characters go off in search of a spider and, hopefully, a cure.
The title makes it seem as if there is only the one arachnid in the story, but once Chris Potter and Reid’s characters plus their team step foot on the island, they encounter other altered arthropods. Yuzna felt Sevi’s script needed more creatures along the way, especially before the spider showed up in full view. The bug horror commences as one gunsman succumbs to a burrowing breed of crab-sized ticks, and random characters fend off a horrific centipede with reptilian qualities. These are just the appetizers before the greatest arachnid of them all arrives. The late Ravil Isyanov, here playing a zealous but sympathetic arachnologist, becomes a human Lunchable for the spider’s eggs. And one of the doctors gets a face full of corrosive spider spew. So, there is no shortage of grisly predation in the film, with a few bits of the monsters’ handiwork possessing a haunting quality to them.
Shot quickly and cheaply, Arachnid is fast-food horror. It’s convenient and designed for immediate consumption, and will likely not linger on the palate. Usually there is not a lot worth remembering with these slapdash genre productions, however, this is one case of spider horror where the extra effort made a difference. Apart from the egregious use of digital imagery in the outset, Jack Sholder’s film primarily employs practical effects. And these are not rubber spiders dangling from strings or being flung at the actors, either. Fantastic Factory aimed much higher by securing DDTSFX (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army) and creature designer and makeup artist Steve Johnson (Species, Blade II).
Pictured: One of the spider’s web-covered victims in Arachnid.
Arachnid, while far from flawless, somewhat redeems itself by having chosen practical effects and animatronics over CGI, which had become the new normal in these kinds of films. And this class of creature-feature was definitely not getting the sort of advanced VFX found in the likes of Eight Legged Freaks. Steve Johnson’s spider was not the easiest prop to work with, and it lacks the movement and versatility of a digital depiction. However, there is no beating that sense of weight and occupation of space that makes a tangible monster more intimidating. Viewers will have trouble recalling the human characters long after watching Arachnid, yet the humongous headliner remains the stuff of nightmares.
Over the years, the director has spoken critically of the film. He originally held off on agreeing to the offer to direct in hopes that another project, a Steven Seagal picture, would finally manifest. No such luck, and Sholder accepted Arachnid only on account of his needing the work. He said of the film: “I thought I could […] make it halfway decent, but I discovered there wasn’t a whole lot I could do.” Nevertheless, Sholder’s experience as a director of not exactly high-brow yet still rather entertaining horror is evident in what he has since called a “dud.” While there is no denying the reality and outcome of Arachnid, even the most mediocre films have their strokes of brilliance, small as they may be.
Pictured: The poster for Arachnid.
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