10 Actors Who Saved Their Careers By Starring In Horror Movies

But Drew Barrymore isn't the only E.T. star whose career has been boosted by a stint in a horror movie.

Henry Thomas played the movie's young human protagonist Elliott, yet despite the film's enormous success and the acclaim for his performance, he's had a relatively modest career in the three-plus decades that followed, generally taking small supporting roles in low-key movies.

But everything changed for Thomas in 2016 when he played the role of Father Tom Hogan in Mike Flanagan's surprisingly solid horror prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil.

Since then, he's re-teamed with Flanagan on most of his subsequent projects, including Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep, TV series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, and also his upcoming show Midnight Mass.

Though Thomas hasn't been the front-and-center star in any of these outings, he has nevertheless been given substantial, well-drawn characters to sink his teeth into, bringing him back into the cultural conversation in a way he hasn't in almost four decades.