20 Great Horror Roles Ruined By Terrible Acting
Carrie White got done dirty.
When it comes to any horror movie character, arguably the most vital person in the equation is the actor. No matter how good the character might be on paper, without a convincing performer in the saddle the chances are they're going to fall absolutely flat once they arrive on-screen.
Alfred Hitchcock, who helped to create modern horror with his 1960 classic Psycho, once quipped that "actors should be treated like cattle" and he's absolutely wrong there. The actors are essential and these following twenty movies all serve as a powerful reminder of this.
While these movies vary heavily in terms of quality, tone and subject matter, what they all have in common is that they've got at least one potentially fantastic character that was ruined due to an underwhelming performance. Many of these characters were undone by miscasting, while others were unfortunately saddled with a generally weak actor. Regardless, all were held back from reaching their full potential and man, do you hate to see it.
Kicking off with one of A24's flagship horror films...
20. Hereditary - Peter Graham
There aren't many characters in a recent horror film who went through more than Peter Graham (Alex Wolff) did. A satanic cult caused the deaths of his entire family and traumatized him beyond measure in order to leave him psychologically vulnerable enough to be possessed by a demon, which he ultimately was - poor kid.
Aside from protagonist Annie Graham (Toni Collette), Peter's the most important character in the movie and it was vital to get him right. Unfortunately, while Toni Collette gave an Oscar-worthy performance, Alex Wolff's work in Hereditary is rather inconsistent.
Wolff is a very talented actor and he does do really well in a lot of scenes, such as when Peter catatonically re-enters his house after his sister dies. However, in other moments, his performance veers dangerously close to unintentional comedy, especially when he keeps doing this weird crying noise during moments of severe distress.
Again, it's a strangely uneven performance with many great highs and lows, and this prevents this character from working as well as he might've done.