10 Horror Movie Casting Decisions That Went Horribly Wrong

Now there are casting decisions in horror movie history that are just so obviously right

Jack Nicholson in The Shining, Kathy Bates in Misery, or Kurt Russell in, well, just about anything

And then there are those choices that are clearly doomed to failure. From bad remakes to heartless adaptations, it's depressingly common to read the announcement of a film's cast

and just know from the off that it is going to fail. The less common, though, are the hirings that fall somewhere in between

Horror movies over the years that have taken on board great actors, but it just somehow still hasn't worked out

And that's what we're here to talk about today. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com

and these are 10 horror movie casting choices that should have worked but didn't

Number 10. Harrison Ford – What Lies Beneath Casting one of modern movies' good guy icons as a villain is a pretty neat trick

and in 2000's What Lies Beneath, it very nearly works. Robert Zemeckis' slightly confused supernatural thriller

stars Harrison Ford as sinister professor Norman Spencer, opposite an excellent Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife Claire

For the first half of the movie, Ford's persona is subtly inverted to great effect

On and off screen, the man has always come across as a benign, curmudgeonly sort

with no time for fools but being a decent guy all the same. In What Lies Beneath, Ford brings that unknowability to the fore

There's no real reason to believe that he's guilty of anything, but when a neighbour goes missing and later another woman disappears

Claire can't help but fear that her husband knows something about it all

The film unfortunately goes to pot when Ford's character swings from dark figure to full-on villain

The idea is a good one on paper, but it just doesn't work. He's never believable as a murderous monster

and the more the film dips into spooky ghost action, the further adrift he feels

9. Ellen Burstyn – The Wicker Man Whether The Wicker Man needed remaking is definitely a separate debate

and I can summarize that for you, it didn't, but the 2006 effort is a deliriously enjoyable disaster

and key to this is the lead turn from Nick Cage in prime bad Cage mode as Sheriff Edward Malice

Cage watched the Ed Woodward original, focused only on the final frenzied minute

and worked at that pitch for the whole hilarious duration. Ellen Burstyn then is tasked with stepping into Christopher Lee's shoes as the mysterious

island's leader. She takes a few cues from Lee's warm but sinister Lord Summer's Isle

instead playing her villain with subtlety and reserved frosty menace. In most films, an actor of her caliber taking that approach would actually work fine, but

unfortunately, not here. She just feels out of place in this festival of madness, the one stuffy

note in a film otherwise given over to deranged, broad performances. Now, great actors like Frances

Conroy and Molly Parker go for broke here, aware that this isn't going to end well, but Burstyn

to her detriment keeps things professional The end result is that her relative bity sticks out like a sore thumb She probably embarrasses herself the least but feels the most out of place 8 Anthony Hopkins Bram Stoker Dracula

Francis Ford Coppola's lush, po-faced vampire tale is a star-studded affair. Some of the casting does

make sense here, like Winona Ryder and Richard E. Grant, and some work better than others

like Gary Oldman, and some were just odd. Hello, Keanu Reeves. But the outlier in all of this is

Anthony Hopkins, whose performance as Van Helsing seems somewhat phoned in. As the doctor-cum-vampire

expert, he wears a wispy wig, does a bit of a Dutch accent, and sometimes ups the energy as he

espouses his theories on the creatures of the night, and that's about it. It feels at times as

though the decision was made to let Gary Oldman and Gary Oldman alone have fun for the two hours

plus duration of this film. While he preens, mugs, and plays to the back row, Hopkins languishes in a

role given mostly to exposition and explaining to other characters what to do next. The source

material can definitely be blamed here to a degree. I mean, the film is mostly quite faithful

and it was a while before Van Helsing became the heroic vampire killer that he's often pictured as

but it feels a waste of Hopkins at arguably the peak of his powers. Having stolen Silence of the

Lambs in a quarter of an hour, here he's just a bit dull. 7. Malcolm McDowell Halloween

Malcolm McDowell is one of the movie business's most naturally charismatic actors

From his breakthrough in If, Through a Clockwork Orange, and the maddeningly underrated gangster

No. 1, the silky tone and twinkling eyes of this prolific performer always reassure you

that you're in for a good time. What he's not, though, is a master of subtlety

And while his turn as Dr. Samuel Lunis is most likely the highlight of Rob Zombie's

Halloween, the tone just isn't quite right. In John Carpenter's original, which relies far more on carefully built tension than jumps and gore

Loomis cuts a realistically unimpressive figure. He's the one sane man warning of Michael Myers' escape from the hospital

a striding cool hero he is not. McDowell, by comparison, can't help but ooze charm and machismo

tearing into his lines with theatrical relish. While Donald Pleasence's turn in the original was panicked and pleading

here McDowell is blusterous and aggressive, to the point that Michael's fear factor is actually slightly diminished. He's great fun to watch

as he always is, but Loomis is supposed to be the grounding point of the picture

and that's not something the otherworldly McDowell can offer here. 6. Neil Patrick Harris – Gone Girl

Sometimes there's nothing better than taking a comedian or comic actor and sticking them in a

serious role. Examples include Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers, or the natural dramatic

chops of Adam Sandler when he wants to bust them out from time to time. And in David Finch's domestic

horror thriller Gone Girl, there are also two examples. Tyler Perry plays the flashy lawyer

representing Ben Affleck Nick against accusations that he murdered his wife Amy Now Perry is a great fit for the part showbiz in front of the camera calculating behind it Neil Patrick Harris however plays Desi an old flame of Amy

to whom she flees having framed her husband. Harris unfortunately flounders in the small but

pivotal role, never quite sure how to play the character. Desi is simultaneously a shark and a

shucker, a rich, controlling man to keep Amy in his life, but who will ultimately be played by her

The immensely likable actor can't quite tap into the darkness that the script demands here

We're meant to get the idea that Amy might have finally tripped up, returning to a man who's sinister, if not downright dangerous

but instead he's a slightly toned-down version of his sitcom persona. 5. Anne Hathaway, The Witches

Of all of the old-school horrors that one could choose to remake, The Witches actually isn't a bad shout

The original bristles with genuine menace, but a modern spin on Roald Dahl's gleefully cruel fairy tale could actually be worthwhile

Unfortunately, Robert Zemeckis' 2020 effort really wasn't it. While Anne Hathaway tries gamely in the role of the Grand High Witch

and is by no means the film's biggest problem, she's stranded in a role that doesn't really fit in a film that's never really going to work

The original film felt claustrophobic and tense, and by contrast, Zemeckis' work is almost a psychedelic affair, colourful and zany

Now that would be fine, I mean it's a kid's film after all, but some of the special effects are genuinely horrible

most notably Hathaway's stretched haunting mouth. His star to this end doesn't know whether to stick or twist, and while Angelica Huston's

sorceress purred with casual vitriol, Hathaway is forced to go for broke

delivering a performance in turn too jolly that it's almost rabid. 4. Morgan Freeman, Dreamcatcher

It takes a lot to make an actor of Morgan Freeman's calibre look undignified

but Lawrence Kostan's ultimately doomed adaptation of one of Stephen King's messiest and most sprawling

novels certainly manages it. Dreamcatchers is the story of four friends with

telepathic powers. On a hunting trip, they managed to stumble into a military-controlled zone

with the forest on lockdown following an alien appearance. Into all of this confusion stomps

Morgan Freeman as Colonel Curtis. The viewer might breathe a sigh of relief. The grown-ups

have arrived finally. Surely good old Morgan Freeman will make all of this add up. But unfortunately

no such luck. Freeman is strangely miscast as a zealous anti-alien wildman

complete with truly bizarre eyebrows. He tries to cruise through on star power alone

but his heart's just not in it by any means, and it's hard to blame him. Dreamcatchers slowly

transforms from something singularly weird to a more run-of-the-mill aliens versus human fare

and all Freeman can do is just sit back and watch. 3. Vince Vaughn – Psycho

Gus Van Sant is a proper director's actor, capable of getting career-best performances

out of the likes of Keanu Reeves, Matt Damon, and many, many more. Casting the rising Vince

Vaughn in the pivotal role of his experimental Psycho remake seemed like it could actually be a winner for all concerned For reasons of presumably sheer curiosity Van Sant decided to reproduce Hitchcock masterpiece shot by shot The cast had some

ringers, from William H. Macy to Julianne Moore, but the key part of all of this was of course

Norman Bates. With his lanky, all-American frame and cheery face, Vaughn could have excelled as

the unassuming hotelier with the core of darkness. But alas, it wasn't to be. While Anthony Perkins

Bates slowly exhibits his inner turmoil through ticks and subtle line readings

Vaughn seems to flip a switch between nice boy and axe murderer modes. He's stilted and quite

nervous here, as though he's not quite sure what he's doing, which really is a question worth asking

of one of the most intriguing but ultimately pointless movies in Hollywood history

2. Bill Paxton – Frailty This taut tale of religious fervour turned to violence was the sole feature directorial effort

of the late Bill Paxton, and behind the lens the actor does little wrong. He delivers a pacey tale

on a small budget with a terrific twist that reshapes everything the viewer has just seen

His misstep, unfortunately, is the role that he gave himself. Here, Paxton plays Mr. Meeks

a single father who suffers a mental breakdown, leading him to believe that he's the hand of God

sent to rid the world of demons, demons who happen to look and act like, and purport to be

regular humans. At his best, just the aliens and one false move, Paxton is a force of nature actor

With varying degrees of likability, he'd found a niche playing blabbermouth characters who tended to come to a rather sticky end

And here he's tasked with a lot of brooding, a lot of religious chat, some killing, and not much else

It doesn't help that the script is remarkably functional, moving from plot point to plot point without putting much meat on the character's bones

By no means is Paxton bad in the role, it just doesn't really suit him

And with his dual jobs, there's no one to steer him in the right direction. 1. Jackie Earl Haley

A Nightmare on Elm Street Now, horror loves a remake, but there are few franchises more difficult to tackle than A Nightmare on Elm Street

That comes down to one thing, the Freddy Krueger factor. Robert Englund's winking, nodding performance as the dream-stalking monster carried any number of rather duff films

and that is a big red and green jumper to fill. Jackie Earl Haley was, in theory, a fantastic choice

His stock had never been higher off the back of Little Children and especially Watchmen

wherein he stole the show as Rorschach, a character few performances could have even

brought to life to begin with. He seemed a great fit for the razor-fingered murderer

and would perhaps take the film in a more serious direction, but Hayley was unable to

escape the shadow of his predecessor, and ultimately the less quip Heavy Kruger only

helped to sink a film that was actually doomed from the start. What's more, the CGI-enhanced

Freddy just kind of looks off. The aim was to make him look more like a burn victim

and that definitely succeeded, but Kruger is supposed to be a boogeyman, a creature of nightmares

Binding him to reality inevitably reduced the fun that Hayley could have had in this role

or that we could have had watching this movie