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

Though Quentin Tarantino quickly established himself to be one hell of a writer-director, his early projects also demonstrated the sure limitations of his acting, where he was generally better suited to small cameo roles, such as playing Jimmie in Pulp Fiction.

There was concern, then, when Tarantino was cast to play a lead role in a horror film he wrote for director Robert Rodriguez - From Dusk Till Dawn.

Tarantino ended up playing Richie Gecko, a psychopathic, murderous criminal, and nothing we'd seen from Tarantino prior to the film's release suggested he could capably stand toe-to-toe with a screen partner like George Clooney, who played Richie's more cool-minded brother Seth.

But credit where it's due - Tarantino wrote a part that played quite perfectly to his sensibilities. 

That is to say, Tarantino's a bit of a strange guy, and the role of Richie simply allowed him to crank that weirdness to 1000, letting his freak flag fly in every which way.

Tarantino's so damn good in the film, even, that we'll overlook the fact he blatantly wrote a scene for himself to suck on Salma Hayek's toes. Make of that what you will...