10 Horror Movie Casting Choices That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)

When a remake of William Lustig's classic 1980 slasher film Maniac was announced, many took umbrage with the casting of Elijah Wood in the role of serial killer Frank Zito.

Even accepting that Wood had quite brilliantly played mute murderer Kevin in Sin City back in 2005, he simply seemed like a total far cry from Joe Spinell's decidedly sleazier, less baby-faced original iteration of Frank.

And indeed, this was absolutely true - while Spinell's Frank is sweaty and visually repulsive, Wood's version is more cherubic and harmless-looking. 

But that's very much the point of the remake - Wood's soft-spoken take allows him to more believably earn the trust of his future victims, and provides a sharp contrast with his horrifying acts of murder.

Sure, purists of the original Maniac are always going to prefer Spinell's work, but Wood did a phenomenal job in the remake, bringing a chilling yet wildly different energy to his interpretation, aided by the film's discomfortingly intimate first-person POV.