The horror movie genre is more popular than ever, with its influence felt right across popular culture like a blood spatter from a slashed artery. Audiences are happy to suspend disbelief and strap themselves in for a good old frightfest, a sensory rollercoaster ride that'll make eyes pop out of sockets and bathrooms get frequently used. However, sometimes there's an element that just doesn't sit right amongst the mayhem. More often than not, that factor is the lead actor or actress! Does it matter if there are plenty of heads flying around, or if you're stuffing a cushion into your face every thirty seconds? Well, yes. Even if the film is really delivering the gory goods, that mismatched central figure can really start to bug you. What were the producers thinking? Give it some time and the true terror may turn out to be the maniac in the casting department... Get ready to be entertained yet baffled by ten key examples of unlikely horror movie leads - implausible for various intriguing reasons. Either due to a lack of acting ability, being too recognizable from a totally unrelated field, or simply because they're too damned good looking...!
10. Robert De Niro - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
There's a certain simplicity to the classic movie monsters. Take Dracula for example. Sure, he's an ageless, sensual romantic with an appetite for the red stuff, but he's also mysterious. The less you know, the more powerful he becomes. Bram Stoker's Dracula, worked to death and beyond by Francis Ford Coppola and Gary Oldman, put so many whistles and bells on the basic idea viewers didn't know where they were. For Frankenstein, heavyweight thesp and director Kenneth Branagh was selected to give proceedings a bit of class. That's all well and good. After all, Boris Karloff gave a widely-respected turn as the Creature in the definitive Universal entry. But when Branagh went to the master of method acting Robert De Niro to bring Mary Shelley's creation to life, it was like sending a nuclear scientist to repair an egg whisk. It takes a brave contributor to say the great actor gave a bad performance, and no-one could claim he did that. However, did audiences really need someone who agonized over what the beast had for breakfast, what shoes he'd wear, whether he could blow his nose without it shooting out his ear...? The sight of Branagh stripped to the waist with a poodle perm was odd enough. Same goes for De Niro's scene with British sitcom stalwart Richard Briers! The central attraction became more of a distraction in a film overloaded with worthiness.
I am a journalist and comedian who enjoys American movies of the 70s, Amicus horror compendiums, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Naomi Watts and sitting down. My short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books.
