Contributions to Horror: Clint Howard

January 29, 2021

ice cream man clint howard — Ice Cream Man (1995) | A-Pix Entertainment

When Clint Howard started his career as Leon on The Andy Griffith Show, and voicing various characters in Disney classics like The Jungle Book or Winnie The Pooh, it’s hard to believe he would go on to become such a regular and recognizable face in the horror genre. As his brother Ron Howard went on to direct massive films like Apollo 13 (1995) and A Beautiful Mind (2001), Clint made a name for himself by appearing more than 35 horror films and counting in his long and busy career. From lead roles of psychotic killers to small roles of helpless victims, let’s celebrate Clint Howard’s contributions to horror.

Clint Howard broke into the horror scene with a major role when he was just 22 years old. He portrayed Stanley Coopersmith in Eric Weston’s 1981 film Evilspeak. Howard portrays a frequently bullied cadet at his military school, and after finding a book of black mass, decides to go full maniac, conjure up Satan, and get revenge on his tormentors using demons and spells. This film is absolute bonkers horror fun and insanity, and got itself landed on the UK’s famous banned “video nasty” list in the ’80s. It even got high praise from Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, for its extremely Satanic content.

After a five-year gap in horror, Howard returned in Mike Marvin’s The Wraith (1986), another revenge flick and a huge guilty pleasure film of mine. Charlie Sheen’s character is murdered by bullies and comes back to life with a badass car for that sweet, sweet payback. Howard plays “Rughead” (a nod to David Lynch’s Eraserhead) and is part of the bully gang that he doesn’t quite seem like he belongs in.

After a couple smaller roles in several serial killer-style horror films Freeway (1988), B.O.R.N (1989), and Disturbed (1990), Howard returned as a major character in the weirdly goopy and well-received Brian Yuzna sequel, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990) and a followed it up with a small appearance of the same character in Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991).

The ’90s felt like the most fun decade for Clint Howard’s horror films. He took on supporting roles in still the best horror-themed dinosaur movie made, Carnosaur (1993), fun body-horror creature feature Ticks (1993) and the much-anticipated Leprechaun 2 (1994). The next year, Howard would take the lead in probably his most fun and recognized role, Ice Cream Man (1995), where he played released mental patient Gregory Tudor, who snapped and starts turning kids and adults alike into his flavor of the day. Howard still has the prop of David Naughton’s head on a giant waffle cone, and reprised the character for Halloween in 2020.

After Ice Cream Man, Clint Howard turned back to smaller supporting roles in made-for-TV horror films and shows, like Sawbones (1995) and The Outer Limits (1996). Although acting in many more low-budget and lesser-distributed films in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Howard wasn’t really seen in a bigger-budget horror film until Uwe Boll’s massively hated video game film adaptation of House of the Dead (2003). Howard’s taste for bad horror video game films wasn’t fulfilled, as he would join Uwe Boll again years later in BloodRayne: The Third Reich (2011).

Howard got even more exposure from modern horror director Rob Zombie, who chose him for small, but memorable roles in Halloween (2007), Lords of Salem (2012), and in his most recent film, 3 From Hell (2019). Weaved between these bigger films was a slew of ten direct-to-DVD horror films, including getting a chance as the star again in The Church (2018), and doing a couple indie horror shorts, Hell Camino (2015) and Puppets (2017).

I think the most impressive thing is that Clint Howard is still doing this for us. He already has three upcoming horror films in pre/post-production. I won’t go through every single horror role Clint Howard has portrayed, but pointing out the constant hard work and fun he’s brought to the genre brings an appreciation to someone that you may have only noticed before as a recognizable face. He continues to serve an active role in the horror community, posting fun content to his social media accounts, appearing at horror conventions, and doing interviews for horror podcasts. Over four decades, he’s more than proven to love the genre and it’s fans. What is your favorite Clint Howard horror role?