TORONTO — Kristy Swanson may have been the star of 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer but true fans know the cast also included future Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Ben Affleck as well as actors like Seth Green and Ricki Lake.
Indeed, some of the biggest names in Hollywood spent their early careers battling vampires, aliens, serial killers and supernatural forces.
Now-famous females with horror films on their resumes include Angela Bassett in 1991’s Critters 4, Jennifer Connelly in 1985’s Creepers, Isla Fisher in 2001’s The Pool, Mila Kunis in 1995’s Piranha, Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 1986’s Troll and Naomi Watts in 1996’s Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering.
Before Grease was the word for John Travolta he had roles in scary movies like 1975’s The Devil’s Rain and 1976’s Carrie.
Among the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it performances in scary movies are Jack Black, who played a drug dealer in 1998’s I Still Know What You Did Last Summer; Patrick Dempsey, who had a tiny part in 1985’s The Stuff; and Dana Carvey who appears in 1981’s Halloween II.
A number of Canadians who went on to become stars also had roots in the horror genre. Jason Priestley shows up in the 1988 Corey Haim flick Watchers as “boy on bike” and Ryan Reynolds appears in the 2000 Frankenstein parody Boltneck.
Here are some of the big-name actors who had early roles in horror films and low-budget scary movies:
– Kevin Bacon is stabbed in the throat in Friday the 13th (1980) while in his bed.
– Leonardo DiCaprio is among those fighting off furry killer aliens in Critters 3 (1991).
– George Clooney‘s impressive body of work includes Return to Horror High (1987) and Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988).
– Clint Eastwood pops up as a lab technician in Revenge of the Creature (1955).
– Harrison Ford appears in The Possessed (1977), a film about an exorcist battling demonic forces threatening a girls school. Ford starred in another movie that same year — a little flick called Star Wars.
– Johnny Depp has a memorable death scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
– Hugh Grant charmed the women as Lord James D’Ampton in The Lair of the White Worm (1988).
– Tom Hanks made his acting debut with a small role in He Knows You’re Alone (1980), a thriller about a bride-to-be who is stalked by a serial killer.
– Brad Pitt was a high school student trying to escape from a killer in Cutting Class (1989).
– Gerard Butler appears in the fantasy horror flick Tale of the Mummy (1998).
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