Tuesday
Oct232018
Top Ten Quickie - Best Horror Performances?
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 8:00PM Eeek! We have planned absolutely nothing for Halloween on the blog just yet so in case we don't here is an impromptu list (mostly off the top of my head) for discussion fun. Since horror is not my preferred genre, it was actually quite hard to come up with the male actors list but the female list was easy but for the difficulty of narrowing it down. Can you believe I had to leave the Exorcist women off the list?
10 Best Lead Actresses in a Horror Film
- Isabelle Adjani - Possession
- Toni Colette - Hereditary
- Bette Davis - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
- Shelley Duvall - The Shining
- Mia Farrow - Rosemary's Baby
- Jodie Foster - Silence of the Lambs
- Nicole Kidman - The Others
- Vanessa Redgrave - The Devils
- Sissy Spacek - Carrie
- Sigourney Weaver - Alien
More after the jump...
I had to leave so many great performances off this list. Sorry especially to Essie Davis in The Babadook and Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist. Actresses have excelled so often in this genre
10 Best Leading Actors in a Horror Film
- Antonio Banderas - The Skin I Live In
- Jeff Goldblum - The Fly
- Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs
- Jeremy Irons -Dead Ringers
- Daniel Kaluyya - Get Out
- Robert Mitchum - The Night of the Hunter
- Jack Nicholson - The Shining
- Haley Joel Osment - The Sixth Sense
- Anthony Perkins - Psycho
- Oliver Reed - The Devils
I showed you mine, now you show me yours. Boo!
Reader Comments (60)
I have worshipped at your alter since the 2002 Nicole/Julianne Face/Off, Nathaniel, and this is my very favorite thread in sixteen years!
IMHO (as we defensively say):
1) Kathy Bates, MISERY (PIG SNORT! I have two pugs and think of that genius moment in that genius performance at least once a day!)
2) Jodie Foster, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (Although I would’ve voted for Geena Davis as THELMA for Oscar)
3) Sissy Spacek, CARRIE (“They’re called breasts, Mama, and everyone has them...”
4) Isabelle Huppert, THE PIANO TEACHER (I will argue this is psychological horror until the day I die!)
5) Mia Farrow, ROSEMARY’S BABY (“NOBODY LIKES AN ALBATROSS.”)
6) Jamie Lee Curtis, HALLOWEEN (1978)
6) Toni Collette, HEREDITARY (Give her a damn nom! Give Glenn the trophy!)
7) Betsy Palmer, FRIDAY THE 13th (GENIUS! I cannot believe she was Razzie nominated!)
8) Pamela Springsteen, SLEEPAWAY CAMP 2 & 3 (I AM COMPLETELY SERIOUS!)
9) Naomi Watts, MULHOLLAND DRIVE
10) Jamie Lee Curtis, HALLOWEEN: H20 (I was severely disappointed by the new one, although she is characteristically great.)
Correction: “altAr”(!) 😬🤓
Are we counting Throne of Blood as a horror movie? It gave me the chills. If we are then Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada have to be in consideration for Best Actor and Actress.
3/artful, I am well aware the Kubrick was, to put it mildly, a titanic asshole to Duvall on the set of The Shining. But does that make what's onscreen any less effective? Or make Duvall's obvious commitment to the film and the character any less apparent? I don't think so.
And people need to stop speaking for Duvall. She had plenty of good things to say about Kubrick as well and at no point in all the recent news surrounding her did she mention Kubrick or The Shining. Bloggers did after the fact.
Not sure I'd put him on a Ten Best list but of all the killers in the slasher genre of horror films, Robert Englund gave Freddy much more personality than we ever got from Michael or Jason.
ACTOR
Lou Castel - Fists in the Pocket
Lon Chaney - The Unknown
Divine - Multiple Maniacs
Gary Oldman - Dracula
Anthony Perkins - Psycho
Max Schreck - Nosferatu
Victor Sjostrom - The Phantom Carriage
Terence Stamp - Toby Dammit
Max von Sydow - Hour of the Wolf
Itay Tiran - Demon
ACTRESS (sorry, I can’t make it shorter)
Isabelle Adjani - Possession
Julie Christie - Don’t Look Now
Catherine Deneuve - Repulsion
Laura Dern - Inland Empire
Heather Donahue - The Blair Witch Project
Shelley Duvall - The Shining
Mia Farrow - Rosemary’s Baby
Anjelica Huston - The Witches
Scarlett Johansson - Under the Skin
Deborah Kerr - The Innocents
Janet Leigh - Psycho
Nobuko Otowa - Onibaba
Sissy Spacek - Carrie
I also want to give a shoutout to Jennifer Tilly in Bride of Chucky, who is iconic af.
Ashley Judd- Bug! Hands down
Special shout outs to Terry O'Quinn in The Stepfather and Tony Todd in Candyman.
A HUGE YES to Antonio Banderas in The Skin I live in. IF that performance was not in spanish, he probably would have swept the end-of-the-year noms and wins. I'm not a fan of his acting skills, but he was beyond terrific in that underrated Almodovar masterpiece. Almodovar always gets the best from Antonio...