10 Actors You Didn't Expect To Be Cast As Serial Killers

6. Matthew McConaughey as Fenton Meiks in 'Frailty'

I've got a suspicion that in the next couple of years Matthew McConaughey could surprise us with his acting talent. The recent 'Killer Joe' saw him step out of his rom-com shoes and his forthcoming film 'The Dallas Buyers Club" has seen him drop down to an emaciated state to play an aids sufferer and is generating buzz as I type. 'Frailty' actually came before most of the light-hearted films we automatically associate with McConaughey and, on his cinema timeline, was followed by 'Reign of Fire' in which he didn't exactly play rom-com material either. 'Frailty', Bill Paxton's first directorial effort, saw McConaughey play (spoiler) a religiously motivated killer named Fenton Meiks.

The premise of the film is that Meiks pretends to be helping an FBI agent track his brother, Adam Meiks, who has committed the ''god's-hand" murders. I won't spoil the pay off but there's twists and turns and even some supernatural weirdness to boot. The consensus seems to be that McConaughey did well in the role and that generally the film was worth watching due to the efforts from it's lead, script-writer Brent Hanley and Director Bill Paxton. McConaughey seems a strange choice for a serial killer purely because of his recent career trajectory which has seen him play a pretty-boy who inevitably takes his shirt off in movies. However he proved in 'Frailty' and later with 'Killer Joe' that the physicality he possesses can translate into violence and his charm can be turned in upon itself to present a more frightening character.