10 MORE Actors You Totally Forgot Starred In Horror Movies
Okay, who had Roseanne Barr and Betty White on their horror movie bingo card?
More than every once in a while, the world of horror movies throws a curveball, taking us from the familiar to the unexpected in the blink of a gouged-out eye. And while we're almost used to seeing the unexpected in terms of genre shifts, narrative experimentation, otherworldly aesthetics, and plot twists, surprise cast and characters can still send us reeling like nothing else.
Indeed, the thrill of spotting an actor not known for horror in a horror film is its own unique delight; doubly so if we've seen the movie before and either never realised or, y'know, just kind of forgot. Would you recall, for example, that Ben Affleck was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristen Wiig in mother!, or Octavia Spencer in Drag Me to Hell? Whether in their early career or even once they were well established, many non-horror actors have tried their hand at the darker stuff, with varying results… (looking at you, Affleck!)
If time has caused us to forget, the part was so small we missed it, the actor just wasn't that big the first time we saw it, or they just sank seamlessly into the part, now is as good a chance as ever to take a look back and recall the following 10 more actors you totally forgot starred in horror movies.
10. Roseanne Barr - Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise took the 1980s by storm, becoming one of the cornerstone slashers of horror cinema and making icons of creator Wes Craven and star Robert Englund. But by the '90s, things were beginning to sour. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, the sixth film in the franchise, sees Freddy Krueger (Englund) hitch a ride outta the now childless Springwood and, uhh, head right back in again…
New Line was scraping the creative barrel by the time this instalment arrived, and it was kind of a case of throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. Enter, a whole host of famous faces, including a returning Johnny Depp, rock icon Alice Cooper, and, yes, Roseanne Barr.
Known for her comedy work, especially in sitcom Roseanne, which went for nine seasons in its original run, Barr is about as far from a horror actor as you can get. And yet, there she is slap bang in the middle of Final Nightmare, with her then-husband Tom Arnold, as a childless Springwood couple who at first want to take the young main cast home, and then back away, fearful that this will draw Freddy’s attention.
It's Roseanne Barr’s only horror role to date, and one that easily gets lost in our memories of this muddled and messy film.