12 “Good Guy” Actors Who Shined as Baddies in Horror Films

Sometime between when action star Tom Cruise was sweat-soaked and slapping volleyballs in Top Gun and infiltrating laser rooms in Mission Impossible, he took on the role of the vampire Lestat in the Neil Jordan adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic novel. Cruise played the bloodsucker as calm and collected, with erratic moments weaved throughout his performance. He played the part so well that even though he was technically the antagonist of the film, we never really find ourselves rooting for the protagonist of the story (Brad Pitt’s Louis). Clinging on to life by drinking alligator and rat blood, Lestat survives the film to get us excited for the follow-up film that would never come. Damn you, Jerry McGuire!

What’s the fastest way to turn the jolly, everyman husband from King of Queens into someone you hate? That’s right, make him a Nazi! In Becky, a new home invasion horror flick from Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, Kevin James gets his feet wet as a villain by playing a bald, bearded white supremacist, sporting a massive swastika tattoo on his head. His character is like the grimy, relentless, hardcore racist opposition to Paul Blart. The film is decent, and Kevin James plays the part well. Honestly, it could open the door to a new spectrum of acting past the Happy Madison-era of his career we’re all so used to.

Sam Neill was one of my favorites growing up, for the obvious reason of him being the cool, gruff dinosaur nerd in Jurassic Park. I wanted to be somewhere between Alan Grant and Indiana Jones when I got older, so when I saw Event Horizon at an extremely young age, I had to do a double take at the possessed, eyeless, scarred and burning Dr. William Weir. After seeing one of my fictional heroes crawling around a hell-filled spaceship, hanging people upside-down, letting their insides fall out, and uttering lines like, “Where we’re going, you won’t need eyes to see,” I was 100% terrified – and 100% sold on Neill as a great actor.

Speaking of Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford made a career out of playing protagonists that young boys would grow up to love, quote, and pretend to be throughout their entire lives. Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Rick Deckard – it was his thing to play the hero, even in less fantasy-genre films like The Fugitive, Air Force One, and Witness (his only Academy Award nomination – robbery!). Ford sent us all for a ride 20 years ago when, for most of What Lies Beneath, he plays the loving husband of Michelle Pfeiffer as she deciphers a ghost story, only to blindside us with a psychopathic, murderous rage we have never seen from him. It was an excellent surprise and one we haven’t really seen since.

Like Harrison Ford, Kurt Russell has made a career off playing the hero (he auditioned for Han Solo, too!), or at the very least, the cool guy character you would want to hang out with. Unlike Ford, Russell has already given us many films in the horror/sci-fi genres. From roles like MacReady in John Carpenter’s The Thing and all-around DGAF badass Snake Plissken in Escape from New York/Los Angeles, we were used to seeing Russell save the day. Quentin Tarantino decided to use Russell to bring Stuntman Mike to screen in Death Proof, his homage to grindhouse flicks. Russell played a laid-back and sadistic serial killer, sporting a sick ride that he uses to annihilate his victims. Tarantino’s stellar-written dialogue has us yearning for more roles like this from Russell.

I don’t think a lot of people truly knew or appreciated Toni Collette’s acting chops until Hereditary. I had an idea of what she could do from watching her excellent portrayal of multiple personalities in The United States of Tara, but I was completely blown away by Ari Aster’s debut film. Although Collette doesn’t really play the antagonist of the film, her character becomes possessed toward the finale and lends to some of the craziest and downright scariest moments. She completely switches gears from a caring, grieving mother to a cold, calculated, evil entity. It’s truly one of the most memorable recent performances in horror. Ari Aster does a phenomenal job tapping into the raw emotion of his actors and Toni Collette simply does not get enough praise.

Let’s just be honest, Nazis suck and we love to hate them. Much like Kevin James, Patrick Stewart has spent decades making us trust him as the good guy in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the X-Men films. He flips the switch in Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room, showing up as the neo-Nazi skinhead bar owner hellbent on using his crew to slaughter our punk-music protagonists. It’s weird, but it’s a weird I wished I had a seen a long time ago in Stewart’s career because he plays it magnificently. Side note: if you haven’t seen Saulnier’s other films, Blue Ruin and Hold the Dark, you’re in for a treat!

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When this film came out, I was 16. My experiences with Robin Williams were films like Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, Aladdin, and Dead Poet’s Society. In fact, I know my parents’ experiences were similar, because my parents and I went and saw One Hour Photo on a whim as a family, and all left the theater completely speechless. Williams took a break from his normal family films to play a creepy, obsessive stalker that worked at the photo counter in your typical Wal-Mart style store. He would develop photos and live vicariously through them, creating relationships in his mind. The film is brilliantly directed and extremely intense. It’s such a shame we didn’t get to see more stuff like this before Williams tragically passed away in 2014.

This is one of those occurrences where a film ends up being THE film the actor is known for. Kathy Bates stars as Annie Wilkes in this fan-favorite Stephen King story. She plays this role so sadistically that it is one of the extremely rare instances where an actor was nominated and won an Academy Award for Best Actress/Actor for a horror film. Typically, Bates has been regulated to side-character roles throughout her career, and I never understood why this film (along with Fried Green Tomatoes) didn’t put her over the top permanent lead stardom. Her role in Misery is truly one of the greatest acting performances ever, not just in horror.

Okay, let’s gloss over Goldblum’s first feature film role as the rapey Freak #1 in the original Death Wish. Most of his career, Goldblum has played either integral supporting characters like Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park or David Levinson from Independence Day, or goofy side characters in a slew of Wes Anderson films. He does occasionally dabble in horror, as evident with the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake and Hideaway, but his most notable horror role would have to be as Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly. Goldblum plays this character flawlessly, transforming (get it…) Seth from a normal genius to a mad scientist, little by little. It doesn’t hurt that the film boasts some of the best practical effects in horror, giving an edge to the character we may have not gotten otherwise. Goldblum is unbelievable in the role, and our love transforms to hate right along with him. Goldblum also apparently takes the villain reigns in the 1990 hard-to-find horror film Frost. I haven’t seen this, but would love to hear from readers who have.

Is this one cheating? It might be, but who cares! Bette Midler was probably known more for her beautiful and powerful voice than her acting chops, but she pulled out the stops to become one of those most iconic Halloween movie villains ever as Winifred Sanderson. She was a perfect blend of goofy charm and sinister motives. Her creepy luring smiles and bulbous hair made her one of the most recognizable characters of all time. She put a spell on us all, and that was more than enough to cash in on that Disney money and to belong on this list.

After the family-friendly Mr. Mom, but before he was everyone’s favorite bat-suited superhero, Michael Keaton was the “ghost with the most” in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. Often toeing the line between horror and comedy, Keaton stepped outside of his acting comfort zone to deliver a raunchy, dirty, manipulative ghoul focused on taking advantage of the living. Much like with The Fly, costume design and effects helped transform Keaton into a character recognizable by simply seeing black and white stripes. Beetlejuice remains one of the strongest roles of Keaton’s career, and staple on horror lovers’ top-movie lists everywhere.

I’m sure there are many more performances I’ve missed that I haven’t seen or have just forgotten about. I’d love to hear your opinions about these picks and others that come to mind for you. I’m always looking for more horror to watch, so send them our way!

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