Remember George Costanza from Seinfeld? That's him in the baseball jersey with green sleeves. Yeah.Jason Alexander would eventually go on to win a Tony and breathe life into one of the most beloved neurotic sitcom characters in history, but his film debut was 1981's The Burning. Essentially a Friday the 13th rip-off, it stars Alexander as one of several teenage summer camp dwellers stalked by a man seeking bloody revenge on the teenagers whose botched prank left him badly burned and disfigured years earlier. The otherwise forgotten low-budget slasher romp has achieved infamy, beginning with the debut of not only Alexander, but Short Circuit's Fisher Stevens and Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter. However, the most shocking thing about this film, by far, is seeing George Costanza with hair.
Over a decade before he headlined Deadpool, yet only a couple years before Van Wilder, a young Ryan Reynolds landed a role that, in retrospect, could be the breeding ground for the most defining aspects of the actor's career. In the 2000 straight-to-video horror-comedy Boltneck, Reynolds plays Karl O'Reilly, a goth high school junior who suffers a fatal accident, but is soon reanimated after science geek Frank Stein(Matthew Lawrence) inserts a wisecracking serial killer's brain into his body, which leads to "Karl" becoming the most popular guy in school. Despite seeming like the most obscure credit on Reynolds' resume at face value, a closer look suggests that his career borrows a lot from this film. Man starts out as a loser before later gaining popularity (Just Friends). He undergoes a procedure in which the brain of an older man is placed into his body (Self/Less). Said experimental procedure transforms him into a fast-talking, sarcastic menace with a dark sense of humor (BULLSEYE - that would be Deadpool). Speaking of which, the long forgotten film received newfound attention after it was mentioned in a Deadpool 2 ad in which Deadpool tries to convince David Beckham that "Boltneck was a masterpiece!" You be the judge.
One of the most acclaimed actresses working today had only one other credit to her name before starring in Psycho Beach Party, a spoof of 1960s teen surfer movies with a murder mystery twist. Adams plays Marvel Ann, one of several young, attractive Malibu beachgoers whose paradise is interrupted by a killer taking out these youths one by one, and everybody is a suspect. The combination of Adams' perfect impression of a naive, promiscuous surfer girl, the cheesy special effects (several scenes are obviously filmed in front of a green screen), and the laughably outrageous death scenes, this lesser-known 2000 horror-comedy is a perfect representation of the films that inspired it, but bloodier.
The Academy Award-winner first started getting noticed after becoming a series regular on the ABC sitcom, Growing Pains in 1990. That same year he was filming his first ever film, Critters 3, the third in a franchise (including a fourth entry set in space) about small extraterrestrial fur balls that eat just about anything, especially humans. When the creatures invade a Los Angeles apartment building, it is up to Leo and his fellow tenants to save the planet. If you need a better visualization of this, imagine the Gremlins with hair. DiCaprio would get his first Oscar nomination two years later for What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and has not returned to ridiculous horror romps since, unless you count the infamous Don's Plum, but he would probably prefer you did not.
Chloë Grace Moretz
This 21-year-old actress has quite a bit of experience with horror films. Some of her most notable credits include Let Me In (a 2010 American remake of an acclaimed 2008 Swedish vampire film), Carrie (a 2013 updated version of the Stephen King story first adapted to film in 1976), and Suspiria (a 2018 updated American version of Dario Argento's Italian cult hit). In retrospect, Moretz has a lot of experience, in particular, with horror remakes. In fact, her first foray into film was at 8-years-old as the daughter of Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George in the 2005 version of The Amityville Horror. The film is a retelling of the 1979 classic starring Josh Brolin and Margot Kidder and inspired by the true story, or so they say, of a family who moved into a house with a deadly history and found themselves terrorized by vengeful spirits. While the film had healthy box office returns for horror standards, it was a critical misfire. However, it can be remembered now as the beginning of Moretz's long reign as one of Hollywood's most sought-after scream queens.
The Friends star would rather the world forget about her first major film role, but that has not stopped Leprechaun from remaining a favorite among "so bad, it's good" horror classics. Aniston's character Tory and her family square off against the titular figure of Irish folklore, played by Warwick Davis (also famous for playing an Ewok in Return of the Jedi), who gleefully embarks on a killing spree in search of a pot of gold. The aggressively campy 1993 "thriller" spawned six sequels (including a fourth entry set in space) and reportedly has an eighth chapter set to premiere on SyFy in 2019. Aniston, who landed the role of Rachel Green a year after Leprechaun, will most likely not appear, but some would argue she should feel lucky to call this her beginning.
Brad Pitt's name is practically synonymous with "celebrity." Before achieving international stardom, the future Oscar-winner did what any other 26-year-old struggling actor was forced to do in the '80s: play a teenager in a slasher movie. In 1989's Cutting Class, Pitt plays Dwight Ingalls, a high school basketball player with a "bad boy" reputation caught up in a love triangle with his crush Paula (Jill Schoelen) and his competition, former mental patient Brian Woods (Donovan Leitch, Jr.). To make matters worse, someone is going on a murdering spree in their high school and Dwight and Brian are both suspects. Think of it as Twilight meets Scream, minus the vampires and werewolves. The film lives on in obscurity as a deep cut into Pitt's career, but horror obsessives cite it as a fun, campy mystery thriller that is worth a laugh, which may or may not be intentional.
George Clooney
George Clooney, Oscar-winner, humanitarian, and just overall walking embodiment of cool actually has a number of horror films from early in his career noted for their extreme campiness. He appeared as a security guard in 1987's Return to Horror High and had a starring role in Return of the Killer Tomatoes! the following year. But before he landed those classic sequels, he appeared as an ill-fated camper, alongside a young Charlie Sheen and Laura Dern (WHAT?!), in 1983's Grizzly II: The Concert. Supposedly the film was intended to be a sequel only in name to the 1976 thriller Grizzly, Grizzly II took place mostly at a concert that was terrorized by a predatory bear. Filmed in 1983 in Hungary, this beauty was sadly never officially released. But if you wanted to see Clooney eaten by a bear, followed by eyebrow-raising live performances of cheesy '80s pop, the footage exists somewhere on the Web.
Adam Scott
Adam Scott has earned a reputation for playing average, likable dudes in comedies (except for Step Brothers), especially his role as Leslie Knope's husband Ben Wyatt in Parks and Recreation. But in 1996, as he was just starting out, he appeared in Clive Barker's most iconic franchise. Hellraiser: Bloodline _(the fourth entry that is set in space) explains the origin of the puzzle box that unleashes grotesque villains Pinhead and his Cenobites from Oblivion. Through flashbacks, it reveals to have been built in the 18th century. Scott appears in the flashbacks as Jacques, the assistant to the creator of the box. He may be known best for comedy now, but Scott still puts his name on horror, such as recently in the Netflix original _Little Evil.
Seth Rogen
He is best known for crass, yet often heartwarming comedies like Pineapple Express and Superbad, and his first TV gig, Freaks and Geeks, very much falls under that category in some respects as well. However, the Canadian actor and filmmaker's first movie was the 2001 pitch-black, surrealist, high school-set sci-fi thriller Donnie Darko. Rogen plays Ricky Danforth, who appears to be nothing but another immature bully at Donnie's (Jake Gyllenhaal) school, but turns out to be a partner in genuine crime with fellow degenerate sociopath Seth Devin (Alex Greenwald). Rogen's career never really took over until Judd Apatow put his face on the poster for Knocked Up in 2007, but Rogen would eventually revisit dark subject matter with his own unique twist co-directing the apocalyptic Hollywood satire This Is The End in 2013 and now executive producing AMC's horror-centric drama series Preacher since 2016.
Demi Moore
Demi Moore is known as one of the most acclaimed actresses of the last few decades, not to mention one of the most attractive, if you ask a few people. But in one of her first film roles, she attracted the likes of a monster that feeds off of human hosts. Parasite is a futuristic creature feature, taking place in 1992 (it was made in 1982) about a scientist (Robert Glaudini) and his companion (Moore) who must stop a parasitic organism that grows larger each time it feeds. It is up to the scientist to prevent any further damage from the creature because he created it himself. To make matters worse, it has attached itself to his stomach. If this does not sound gross enough for you, imagine watching it as it was originally release: in 3D. Moore did not fully abandon the genre in years to come, however, with roles in thrillers The Seventh Sign and Ghost (we think that should count), but considering the forgotten history of this film, it might be safe to say that she is happy to have shaken Parasite off of her.
Clint Eastwood
It is hard to imagine the 88-year-old actor anything less than a gruff, raspy-voiced dissident, but before Eastwood was The Man With No Name, he was a man without a credit. Eastwood's first onscreen role was a brief, uncredited appearance in Revenge of the Creature, the 1955 sequel to Creature from the Back Lagoon. As a dim-witted scientist named Jennings, it is obvious that at 25, Eastwood had plenty of learning to do in the acting territory, delivering dialogue faker than the movie villain's costume. For a real deep cut into the actor's horror origins, that same year he took an uncredited role as a military pilot in the creature feature, Tarantula. I smell a great opportunity for a double feature.
Jack Nicholson
There are actually a number of films from Nicholson's early career that we could have chosen from to represent his foray into horror cinema, including the original The Little Shop of Horrors or the Boris Karloff-starring The Terror, but then we thought we would take this as an opportunity to embarrass him a little bit and talk about his role in 1963's The Raven. Inspired by the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, the film is about a widower visited by a talking raven (Vincent Price), which turns out to be a friend of his named Adolphus Bedlo (Peter Lorre), who has been put under a spell by the evil sorcerer Dr. Scarabus (Karloff, to be exact). Nicholson plays the son of the talking raven. As one could tell, the film, written by I Am Legend author Richard Matheson, has very little to do with the Poe poem and fills the gaps with tongue-in-cheek comedy and cartoonish sorcery battles, not to mention Nicholson's talent is quite wasted in it. Fortunately, he would later make up for it gloriously in the epic 1980 horror masterpiece, The Shining.
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon can be linked to almost any other film star through roles they have played in only six steps, according to a parlor game that was a craze in the '90s. But before he started working with virtually "everyone" in Hollywood, one of the Philadelphia-born actor's first roles was Camp Crystal Lake counselor Jack in Friday the 13th. Bacon's screen time, and character development, are limited, but falling victim to one of the most shocking and visually striking death scenes in the film (an arrow through the neck from under the bed he lays on) is a pretty good consolation. Four years later, the hit musical, Footloose, would make him a household name, but he would return to horror occasionally with Flatliners and Tremors in the early '90s and, later, Stir of Echoes and Hollow Man.
Johnny Depp
Wes Craven's 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is the first and most widely beloved chapter of one of the most celebrated horror franchises of all time, thanks to Robert Englund's grotesque, unhinged, and unpredictable antagonist, Freddy Krueger. However, most people seem to forget that the film was also the beginning of another very prolific career. Future Academy Award-nominee Johnny Depp played Glen Lantz, the boyfriend of Nancy Thompson (Heather Lengenkamp), a high school student terrorized in her dreams by the aforementioned boogeyman. Depp's performance may not be particularly memorable as history has proved, but to Nightmare fans, his explosive death scene is unforgettable.
