Contributions to Horror: Elijah Wood

November 17, 2020

COME TO DADDY elijah wood — 'Come to Daddy' (2019) | Saban Films

I know, when thinking about Elijah Wood, it’s tough not to see his big blue eyes as he stands alone in his hobbit house in the Shire, telling us “There is no going back” after trying to return to a life, post-saving Middle-Earth. It’s tough for me, too. However, Elijah Wood has been involved in the horror genre for most of his acting career, and because of how massive the Lord of the Rings films were, his recognition has gotten buried under the weight. Let’s check out the contributions to horror that Wood has made throughout his career, which range from when he was a child, all the way up to this year and the future.

Elijah Wood’s career in horror started when he was just nine years old, acting in a made-for-TV movie called Child in the Night (1990). He portrayed a young boy who witnessed his father’s murder and had mentally blocked out details during a police investigation. The film probably hinges a little more on true crime than actual horror, but was a great gateway into The Good Son (1993), where he played opposite of Macaulay Culkin’s surprisingly psychopathic role. The Good Son is a downright disturbing film. Wood plays Mark, whose mother dies, and he is sent to live with cousin, Henry. Over the next few weeks, Henry starts displaying insane psychopathy, by habitually lying, killing animals, and getting people hurt. The film gets darker and darker, and I don’t want to spoil it, so if you haven’t seen it, I totally recommend it. Just be warned that it is not a feel-good film. The only feel-good thing that came out of this film was that Wood and Culkin became great friends and remain so today.

Wood took a few years off to do some family films, but returned to horror in 1998 with Robert Rodriguez’s alien invasion film, The Faculty, which has become a fan-favorite out the ’90s. It was on the set of The Faculty where Wood got wind of Peter Jackson needing to cast Frodo for LOTR and was urged to go after it. Wood also later teamed up with Rodriguez for Sin City (2005), and although the film isn’t technically a horror film, Wood’s clawed serial killing character that beheads people and mounts their heads on his walls, belongs directly in the horror genre.

It was around this time that Elijah Wood mostly broke away from acting to extend his career into voice acting. He didn’t return to horror until 2012, when he took on the lead role in Maniac, a remake of the 1980 psychological slasher film by William Lustig. Maniac follows a psychotic serial killer that murders young women and attaches their body parts to mannequins in his home, often having conversations with them. This was the first time I’d ever seen Elijah Wood in a film and was genuinely creeped out by him. His role in Sin City was creepy, but he didn’t really have the lines to back it up. He was excellent in Maniac, and it’s one of the better horror remakes out there.

The next year, Elijah Wood joined Rainn Wilson and Alison Pill to star in Cooties, a horror-comedy about a viral outbreak hitting a school, and the band of teachers defending themselves against a hoard of zombie students. Wood would also produce the film, kicking off a pattern of producing underrated horror flicks over the next 8 years and beyond. He went on to produce films like the beautiful Iranian American vampire film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), as well as extremely popular Shudder exclusives, Mandy (2018), Daniel Isn’t Real (2019) and Color Out of Space (2019). Wood is also producing an upcoming horror film titled It Was Cruel, which will depict the spiritual corruption Jews faced during the times of World War II.

Wood’s most recent acting contribution to horror was the incredibly strange and chaotic Come to Daddy, where he plays Norval Greenwood, a man who is summoned by his estranged father, and finds there may be a darker motive than perceived. This film is smack down in the dark comedy-horror genre, and although there is a lot of insane and intense moments that keep you on the edge of your seat, it still gives you a couple moments to breathe and laugh. I recommend checking that one out.

Unlike some of my past contribution pieces, Elijah Wood never really had that huge mainstream horror moment like Drew Barrymore in Scream or Anthony Perkins in Psycho. Instead, he’s been involved in a lot of lesser known, extremely well-done indie films that have built up into a solid representation of the horror genre. I’m excited to see what comes next from his career, and I implore you to check out the films he’s acted in as well as the films he’s produced. What’s your favorite Elijah Wood horror movie?