20 Actors Who Played Totally Against Type In Horror Movies

It's always incredibly fun to see actors playing massively against type in movies

in turn allowing them to showcase some versatility we never knew they had

And this is especially true in the horror genre, which has so often served as a sandbox for performers to experiment

The heightened, surreal nature of most horror movies makes it an especially safe space

for actors to try new things, and often the result can be spectacular enough

to reinvent the actor's entire career. Whether that was true of these performers or not, each nevertheless proved their incredible range by ditching their archetypal casting and doing something totally different

I'm Ellie for WhatCulture and let's take a look at these actors who played totally against type in horror movies

Starting with Sean William Scott Bloodline. Sean William Scott is of course best known for playing vulgar idiot Steve Stifler in the American Pie franchise

and elsewhere his filmography is mostly populated with roles in studio comedy films

So nobody expected to see him cast as the serial killer protagonist of 2018's Bloodline

where he plays Evan Cole, a high school guidance counsellor who murders child abusers in his spare

time. But the film ultimately proved that Scott has far more range than most have ever given him

credit for. Despite his seemingly affable exterior, Scott brings a ferocious intensity to the scenes

where Evan is killing the victims, enough that Stifler basically feels like a distant memory

It was certainly a risky cast, considering Scott's prior body of work, but he absolutely acquitted

himself admirably, taking the assignment seriously and delivering a performance that left everyone

re-evaluating his acting potential. And then a few years later, Scott dipped a toe back into the

horror villain Waters by playing the leader of a right-wing extremist cult in The Wrath of Becky

and once again, he knocked it out of the park. Patrick Stewart, Green Room. Patrick Stewart has

had an incredibly successful and iconic career playing wise, dignified characters, most notably

Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in the

X-Men franchise. Everything about Stewart's presence on screen makes him perfect to play

smart, composed, statesman-like leaders. But this was flipped entirely on its head for his role in

Green Room. Here, Stuart plays Darcy Banker, the merciless leader of a group of neo-Nazis who

couldn't be more polar opposite to the actor's most statuesque prior roles. Darcy is a violent

sadist, yet rather than swing for the rafters with an intensely volcanic performance, Stuart

plays the villain as eerily calm and composed for the most part. With a clinical level of detachment

Darcy decides to kill the punk band who witnessed a murder in his bar. And that's that. The result

is a Stewart performance like he's never given before or since, and it ranks among his finest

work to date. Amy Madigan, Weapons. Amy Madigan was widely acclaimed for her performances in

numerous dramas throughout the 1980s, most notably Love Child and Twice in a Lifetime

for which she received an Oscar nomination. And though her acting profile has dipped considerably

over the years, she's worked steadily for almost half a century. But at this point in her career

just about nobody expected Madigan to star in a horror film as a terrifying witch. But damn it

she just went and did it. Madigan, of course, plays the horrifying Aunt Gladys in Zack Kreger's

mesmerising weapons, the woman or entity responsible for the disappeared children and

all of the bewildering mayhem that follows. Beyond being virtually unrecognisable in the

role under the heavy makeup, Madigan has simply never played a character this menacing and downright

evil before. It's the last thing anyone expected from the 75-year-old actress at this stage of her

life and her career, yet she gives by far the most widely acclaimed performance in the film

enough that some are calling for her to receive another Oscar nomination for her work. We can only

hope. Ethan Hawke, The Black Phone. In his earlier career, Ethan Hawke was regularly cast as the

handsome heartthrob, before graduating into dramatic roles where he was generally a heroic

character with only a few exceptions. By his own admission, Hawke has shied away from portraying

villains for fear of being typecast, but in 2021, he instantly became a genre icon through his

performance in The Black Phone. Hawke stars as a mask-wearing serial killer of children known as

The Grabber, and as such, the character couldn't be further from the sensitive, thoughtful individuals

he's spent decades portraying on screen. The Grabber is conversely a monstrous, terrifying

murderer with Hawke's typically calming on-screen demeanour nowhere to be found. He instead cuts a

pulse-quickening presence every time he appears. In fact, Hawke was electrifying enough in the role

that despite the Grabber dying at the end of the movie, director Scott Derrickson had him resurrected

for the sequel as a Freddy Krueger-esque antagonist who can haunt his victims through

their dreams Sure why not Paul Reiser Aliens Younger audiences might not be aware that prior to appearing in James Cameron Aliens Paul Reiser was a stand comedian best known for his roles in films such as Dinah and Beverly Hills Cop But in 1986

Reiser went totally against this by playing Aliens' human villain Carter Burke, the infuriatingly

self-serving scumbag rep for Corporation Wayland Yatani, who serves as a major obstacle to heroine

Ripley throughout the film. At the time, Reiser was best associated with funny, self-deprecating

characters who are generally likeable. So to see him playing a sleazy suit with basically no

redeeming traits marked a total 180 from expectations. And of course, it goes without

saying that Reiser knocked it out of the park. Burke remains his most iconic and recognizable

performance 40 years later for good reason. While other comedians might have been tempted

to play Burke as a broader caricature, there's a clinical quality to his bureaucratic villainy

here that feels nauseatingly realistic. Kathy Bates and James Caan, Misery. And now for a film

that pulled off two against typecastings at once, Rob Reiner's incredible adaptation of Stephen King's

Misery. First and foremost, Kathy Bates was best known for playing warm, maternal supporting

characters at the time of the film's release, her southern charm making her perfect for

approachable, welcoming roles. But here, Bates plays murderously deranged superfan Annie Wilkes

and gives a performance so astonishingly brilliantly unhinged that the Academy handed

her a Best Actress Oscar despite their historic bias against horror films. And then there's James

Khan, who was well known for playing tough guys in the likes of The Godfather, Rollerball and Thief

But as imperiled author Paul Sheldon, he plays a totally vulnerable, understandably terrified man

who not a single person would describe as macho. Both actors played bold reversals on their acting

archetypes, and the result is pure magic. Bates may have ended up with a well-deserved Oscar

but Khan's performance is quite fantastic in its own right as well. Chris Rock, Spiral. Now

nothing said that the casting against type in this list had to be good. Saw fans were shocked

when it was announced that the ninth film in the series, a soft reboot called Spiral

had a story conceived by comedian Chris Rock, and moreover, Rock would also be starring in the movie

Rock ultimately played Spiral's protagonist, Detective Zeke Banks, who spends the movie tracking down a jigsaw copycat

To say that Rock's casting was a surprise is quite the understatement, given that the bulk of his filmography is populated with broad comedy films

and this marked his first ever foray into the horror genre. While there was pre-release hope that Rock would surprise everyone with an unexpectedly intense performance

ultimately Rock received wildly mixed notices for his turn. Many felt that he failed to leave his popular comedic persona at the door

ensuring that his star profile just saddled the movie with unnecessary baggage

Bill Skarsgård, Barbarian Bill Skarsgård gave such a brilliantly chilling performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the recent It duology

that it basically immediately typecast him as a very creepy guy whenever he showed up in a horror film

And this was weaponised quite ingeniously by director Zack Kreger in his terrific debut

Barbarian, where Skarsgård plays Keith, a man who has apparently been double booked into the same

Airbnb as the film's protagonist Tess. Barbarian's marketing leaned into the unease surrounding

Skarsgård, ensuring that when he showed up in the movie, many viewers assumed him to be the

antagonist, most likely a not-so-secret serial killer. But this isn't the case at all. Keith is

ultimately revealed to be a nice, regular guy who was indeed genuinely double-butt with Tess

and who meets a shockingly brutal end at the conclusion of the film's first act

This was an incredibly clever misdirect which perfectly exploited the audience's existing

association with Skarsgård, only to then pull the rug out and have him die at the hands of the real

threat, a mutant woman residing in the Airbnb's basement. Emma Roberts' Scream 4. When it was

announced that Emma Roberts had been cast as Sidney Prescott's teenage cousin Jill in Scream 4

it was assumed by most fans that she was effectively being drafted in to become the new

Sidney, and that the film would largely function as a soft reboot of the franchise. And it makes

total sense. At the time, Roberts was best known for playing entirely wholesome, girl-next-door

types in a bevy of films and TV shows. But in Scream 4's third act, Jill is actually revealed to be

the main ghost face, driven to kill and frame herself as a survivor out of jealousy of Sydney's

own fame as a survivor. It's a brilliant turn that works so well precisely because nobody expected

the actress who played Nancy Drew a few years prior to now be playing a deranged psychopath

The casting quite shrewdly took full advantage of Robert's unassuming public profile

as well as the expectation that she was being cynically presented as a younger replacement

for Neve Campbell. Roberts did well enough in the role that it basically helped redefine

her entire career, with subsequent roles in horror TV shows American Horror Story and

Scream Queens. Harrison Ford what lies beneath What the first word that springs to mind when you think of Harrison Ford There a good chance it something like Hero considering that the legendary star has spent decades playing rugged heroes in the Star Wars

Indiana Jones, Blade Runner and Jack Ryan franchises, not to mention films such as The

Fugitive, Air Force One and so on. Ford is exceptionally good at portraying the put-upon

hero and so his casting in Robert Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath seemed entirely by the book at first

As Dr. Norman Spencer, Ford appears to initially be a charming, trustworthy guy who we assume will help his wife Claire resolve the whole haunted house conflict by film's end

But Norman is actually revealed to be the film's surprise villain, as the ghost haunting the Spencer's home is a woman Norman had an affair with and murdered after she threatened to expose said affair

He's a real piece of work, all right. Ensuring a fun subversion of expectations for audiences

and a rare opportunity for Ford to play a genuinely awful human being. A challenge he

rises to with sure aplomb. Ryan Reynolds, The Voices Over the last 25 years, Ryan Reynolds' reliable brand has been that of the quippy, somewhat

annoying motormouth who just doesn't know when to shut up. The final form of which is obviously

his magnificent portrayal of Deadpool. But Reynolds entirely upended this for 2014's The Voices

where he plays protagonist Jerry Hickfang, a downtrodden schizophrenic whose hallucinations compel him to become a serial killer. There's absolutely nothing even superficially charming

about Jerry. He's an unhinged, disturbed man who isn't gregarious or appealingly chatty at all

On paper, it might not sound like the sort of part Reynolds could ever pull off, and yet he did, and it remains one of his finest performances to date

It's just a shame that the voices flopped at the box office and is rarely discussed today

despite Reynolds receiving high acclaim and himself insisting in 2020 that it remains one of his favourite films he's ever been involved with

Octavia Spencer, Ma. If you need to cast a likeable female character who won't take any crap

there are few better choices than hiring Octavia Spencer, who has enjoyed an incredibly fruitful career playing just such characters

even winning an Oscar for it in 2011's The Help. Spencer can instantly bring integrity and gravitas

to just about any part she plays, but that certainly wasn't the assignment in 2019's

Blumhouse horror flick Ma. Here, Spencer plays Sue Ann Ellington, a lonely middle-aged woman who

is befriended by a group of teenagers who have little idea that this apparently harmless woman

is actually murderously obsessive. Spencer's typical casting makes it easy to appreciate

why nobody would assume Sue Ann to be capable of murder, and also makes it that much more fun

to see Spencer letting loose with a role this hilariously demented. Powered by Spencer's

terrifically twisted performance, Ma was a box office hit, enough that a sequel was recently

confirmed to be in development. Vince Vaughn, Psycho. Vince Vaughn's career breakthrough came

with 1996's Swingers, which swiftly established him as a go-to for any casting director who needed

someone to play a cocksure, superficially charming motormouth in a comedy. It didn't really suggest

that Vaughn would be a natural fit to play Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's rather puzzling remake of

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho then. Because of course, spoiler I guess, Norman is actually the film's

villain. Anthony Perkins was cast against type as Norman in the original film, his boy-next-door-like

qualities ensuring few would have suspected him to be the real killer. Though the twist was widely

known by the time of the remake's release, Vaughn's casting was no less against type

because the timid motel owner with a brutal secret seemed so far outside of his wheelhouse

To this very day, the jury remains out on Vaughn's performance as Norman, many feeling that Vaughn

exudes a more obvious natural creepiness which makes him a little too easy to finger as the

potential killer. Love it or hate it, it was definitely a bold casting swing

George Clooney from Dusk Till Dawn. In the mid-1990s, George Clooney became a megastar

thanks to his breakthrough role as Dr. Doug Ross on hit medical drama series ER. Clooney's good

looks and suave charm made him an instant swoon-worthy hit with audiences, enough that

many likely expected him to stay in this deeply affable lane for the considerable future. But

Clooney did something bold by immediately pivoting for his first major movie role

Robert Rodriguez's 1996 vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn. No, Clooney doesn't quite play the action hero here

Rather, his Seth Gekko is a fugitive bank robber who just happens to be somewhat less terrible

than the vampires trying to kill him. Some of Clooney's charm certainly still shines through

enough that he's decidedly more likeable than his degenerate brother, Richie. But in the wake of ER, it was immensely jarring to see him taking hostages and killing vampires

while rocking a neck tattoo. He nailed it, though, and smartly proved early on that he

was more than a mere dreamboat. Betty White, Lake Placid Betty White is one of the most iconic actresses of all time, and undeniably best known for her

roles on sitcoms, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and of course, The Golden Girls

White had a rep for playing sweet nurturing characters like The Golden Girls Rose Nyland But she turned that entirely on its head when she appeared in the first and only horror film of her storied career 1999 Lake Placid White plays Dolores

Bickerman, an elderly widow who isn't quite the wholesome sort you'd reasonably expect

Rather, she's a sarcastic, foul-mouthed woman who has actually been feeding the giant crocodile

that's terrorising the town. Adrian Brody, Predators When a third Predator film was first announced, many wondered which badass on-the-rise actor

would be hired to play a new protagonist who could possibly live up to the hyper-masculinity

of Arnie and Danny Glover from the first two films. So, jaws collectively dropped then when the lead of 2010's Predators was revealed to be

Adrian Brody. Though Brody's acting chops were never in doubt, the man has always had a wiry frame

hardly the sort of physique you'd expect to see for the hero of a Predator movie

Brody had never been cast in the gruff action hero role before

but to the man's credit, he clearly took the assignment seriously. Sure, he was never going to match the might of Arnie

but he packed muscle on top of his lean build and ultimately convinced as the film's cunning mercenary protagonist, Royce

He didn't match the iconic heights of Arnie or Glover, but Brody absolutely acquitted himself ably in the sort of role nobody ever imagined him playing

Kristen Wiig, Mother Kristen Wiig is one of the most recognisable comedians on the planet

having come to major prominence through her work on Saturday Night Live

before fully breaking into the Hollywood mainstream with 2011's rom-com Bridesmaids. Wiig swiftly became a bankable comedy talent

so it was hugely unexpected to see her cast in Darren Aronofsky's 2017 horror film Mother

Despite Wiig clearly excelling at playing perky and neurotic characters in comedies

here she was cast as one of the film's villains, the intense publicist of him who eventually orders her fellow cultists to start executing

hostages while even offing a few herself. Though the character initially appears to be more in step

with Wig's traditional casting, once the veil drops is by far the most surprising and unexpected

performance of Wig's career. While Mother remains a fiercely polarizing film for many reasons

Wig proved beyond any doubt that she could be a genuinely chilling antagonist with the right

material. Jeff Bridges, The Vanishing. Jeff Bridges is generally cast as likeable heroic

characters, because that's just the vibe he so effortlessly gives off. His laid-back charisma

has been his popular brand for decades. But Bridges did opt to play a rare villain role in

1993's remake of the legendary horror film The Vanishing. Here, Bridges plays Barney Cousins

a sociopathic professor who is responsible for the disappearance of protagonist Jeff's girlfriend

Diane. There's absolutely nothing charming or alluring about Barney. Both his superficial

veneer of normality and the disturbing truth beneath couldn't be much further from the easy

going characters Bridges has spent most of his career playing. To his credit, Bridges acquitted

himself just fine in the role, though this remake was a pale shadow of its 1988 predecessor

largely due to the decision to replace the original's bleaker than bleak ending

with a happier, very, very Hollywood one where Barney is foiled and Jeff is saved

Anna Lynn McCord, Excision. Prior to 2012's Excision, Anna Lynn McCord was almost always

cast as confident, badass characters where her good looks were placed front and centre

But in Richard Bates Jr.'s aforementioned horror film, McCord plays Pauline, a deeply disturbed teen who has bad skin, weathered hair and poor posture to boot

Despite McCord being depicted as conventionally beautiful in just about every prior role

here she was given a firm dressing down to be as plain as possible

Yet it's really McCord's performance which truly sells Pauline as a twisted outcast

stripping away all the vivacity she's displayed elsewhere, trading it in for a more introverted, anxious, mousy type of character

Few casting directors would take a look at McCord's headshot and consider her a natural fit to play the weirdo pariah

But this only makes McCord's performance that much more startlingly impressive. Though Excision is something of a cult gem among horror fans

McCord's stellar performance desperately deserves more eyes on it. And finally, Leslie Nielsen, Creepshow

The late, great Leslie Nielsen had such a storied career that he managed to be cast against type in both directions

As a younger actor, Nielsen was known for his dramatic performances in films such as Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure, before being cast against

hype in the comedy Airplane, after which he firmly established himself as an all-time comedic

performer in the Naked Gun franchise. Yet in 1982, just as Nielsen had cemented himself in

the world of comedy with the TV series Police Squad, which was the precursor to The Naked Gun

he played a ruthless villain in the Stephen King-written horror anthology film Creepshow

In the story Something to Tide You Over, Nilsen plays a psychopathic millionaire who plots one hell of a nasty revenge plan on his wife and the man she's having an affair with

Nilsen is brilliantly ice cold in the role without a fleck of wink wink comedy, in turn demonstrating his underrated range as an actor