10 Horror Movie Actors Who HATED Their Own Performances

"I did not talk, I just cried."

by Andrew Pollard
The Witch
A24

Everyone's a critic, right?

The horror genre is a corner of cinema that often opens itself up to criticism more than any other. Given the sheer scope of what horror and its ever-expanding subgenres encompass, coupled with the relatively low cost of making a horror movie (hey, found-footage!), and the fact that so many budding actors and green rookies get their first breaks in horror, it means that the end result is not always necessarily the highest of quality.

It's one thing to see a paid-up film critic lambast a movie or a performance, and likewise for a paying audience member or home viewer to air their own personal gripes, but it's somewhat rare for an actor themselves to go public with their disdain for their own performance or for a project they've been involved in.

While it is rare, it's not unheard of, though.

With that in mind, then, here are ten such examples of times where a horror movie role caused an actor embarrassment, trauma or, in some cases, the need to publicly apologise for a performance and a picture.

10. Jamie Lee Curtis - Virus

The Witch
Universal Pictures

Few actors are as synonymous with the horror genre as Jamie Lee Curtis.

Sure, Curtis has gone on to have major success outside of horror, but it's hard not to be forever tied to this creepy corner of cinema when you have five Halloween movies (soon to be six, then likely to be seven), The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train and Roadgames under your belt.

While those films clearly vary in quality, one picture that Jamie Lee has particular disdain for is her appearance in 1999's Virus.

Based on Chuck Pfarrer's comic book of the same name, Virus is a sci-fi horror offering based around an alien entity on a mission to turn mankind into a race of cyborg slaves. Despite having an impressive headline cast of Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland and Billy Baldwin, John Bruno's movie was so horrendous that it didn't even make back half of its $75 million budget.

As for Curtis' thoughts on Virus, back in 2010 she told WENN (via the Express):

"That's a piece of sh*t movie. It's an unbelievably bad movie. Just bad from the bottom."

Continuing on, the famed Scream Queen would add:

"It was maybe the only time I've known something was just bad and there was nothing I could do about it."
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.