These one-off ’80s slashers had some big names on the cast list.
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Before big names go on to win Oscars and Emmys (or try to), they have to get their starts. There was a time when television was seen as the launching pad to movies, but these days, the streaming industry has made it so series and miniseries are just as reputable as a studio film (well, shows such as The Sopranos and Breaking Bad deserve credit for that as well). And, like television, horror films used to be as reliable a launching pad as small screen appearances. Oftentimes, this came in the form of playing an ill-fated character in an entry of a major slasher IP, e.g. Kevin Bacon, Crispin Glover, Tony Goldwyn, and Kelly Hu in the Friday the 13th movies.
Other times, however, the big names (before they became big), were in one-off slashers. Those are the big names that follow.
1) Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter in The Burning
Of all the one-off slashers that came out in the wake of Friday the 13th‘s success, The Burning is the most effective. It’s also as chock full of pre-fame stars as an early ’80s slasher could be.
First off, there’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s Holly Hunter and Seinfeld‘s Jason Alexander, who play two of the summer camp “kids” (Alexander was 22 and Hunter was 23). Then there’s Wes Anderson favorite Fisher Stevens, who at 18 was a little more age appropriate to play one of the kids, and actually looks the part (with The Burning, it’s next to impossible to tell who’s a counselor and who is a camper, especially since the campers smuggle in condoms and drugs). Other notable cast members include the late Ned Eisenberg of Law & Order: SVU fame and Brian Backer, who played a similarly sheepish role in the following year’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Not to mention, this was the first film to come from Bob and Harvey Weinstein. All of them make it to the end credits except for Eisenberg and Stevens, who both die in the film’s iconic (and genuinely startling) raft massacre scene.
2) Sam Rockwell in Clownhouse
Like how The Burning came from the incredibly controversial Harvey Weinstein, Clownhouse came from the incredibly controversial Victor Salva. The difference is, Salva’s crime was committed while working on this film. In 1988, he was convicted of sexual misconduct involving a minor. Specifically, Clownhouse‘s lead, Nathan Forrest Winters.
Because of the behind-the-scenes issues, Clownhouse is now next to impossible to watch. On one hand, that’s warranted, but on the other, it does mean that ’80s horror fans are missing out on a tightly constructed little film with a major role for Sam Rockwell, who plays the brother of Winters’ Casey.
3) Michael Wincott in Curtains
Curtains is an underrated little mystery slasher. And, when released, it had a pretty recognizable face among the victims in John Vernon, who viewers would have known as the Mayor in Dirty Harry and Dean Wormer in Animal House. After Curtains, Vernon played Officer Curtis Mooney in Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
But the biggest name on the cast list is Michael Wincott, who had a small role as the ill-fated Matthew. One of the more underappreciated actors of his generation, Wincott is nonetheless a pretty recognizable face and even more recognizable gravel voice, thanks to his work playing villainous figures in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Crow, Along Came a Spider, and Treasure Planet.
4) Brad Pitt in Cutting Class
When looking at the cast list for Cutting Class, one might expect it to be far better than it is. Unfortunately, it’s a black comedy slasher without any smart laughs or inventive kills.
But it’s still one of F Brad Pitt’s first movies, and that lends it a certain degree of importance. Prior to this, he had only had non-bit roles in the entirely forgotten The Dark Side of the Sun, and two years later he got his big break in Thelma & Louise. Cutting Class also features Planet of the Apes veteran Roddy McDowall, The Stepfather‘s Jill Schoelen (who was engaged to Pitt for a few months after meeting him on this film), The Blob‘s Donovan Leitch, and comedy legend Martin Mull.
5) Sharon Stone in Deadly Blessing
It’s not quite one of the late Wes Craven’s best movies, but Deadly Blessing is admirable in a few ways. For one, it has a genuinely surprising twist. Two, it showed that Craven knew how to build tension. And, three, it made Ernest Borgnine terrifying (and he’s not even the villain).
The narrative takes place in a Hittite community, but for the most part, we follow a few young women from the city. One of them lives on a plot of land next to the Hittite community, and her husband is a former member. When he’s killed, her two friends come to console her. One of those friends is played by Sharon Stone, who spent the rest of her 1980s in some truly lowbrow movies such as King Solomon’s Mines, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, and Above the Law before getting her breakthrough in 1990’s Total Recall.
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6) Jennifer Jason Leigh in Eyes of a Stranger
Eyes of a Stranger was one of the early 1980s’ worst slasher films, but it wasn’t for a lack of ambition. The plot follows a newscaster who takes care of her teenage sister, who is blind and deaf in relation to a functional neurological disorder, which was the result of her being kidnapped and sexually assaulted as a kid. The newscaster was reporting on a serial killer in the area, and now she believes that serial killer is her neighbor, and, given her reporting on him, she feels he’s his next target. It’s heavy stuff, but the film never tackles it particularly well.
However, Jennifer Jason Leigh is excellent as the aforementioned teenage sister. It’s the type of performance that clearly indicated she was going places. And she was, starting the next year. Eyes of a Stranger was her first film, and the following year she got her big break in the classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She returned to horror in 1986 with The Hitcher but has made a name for herself in superb smaller movies like Rush, cult classics like Single White Female, and higher-profile releases like Backdraft and The Hateful Eight.
7) Mickey Rourke in Fade to Black
The Wrestler and Iron Man 2 star Mickey Rourke’s career has experienced some sharp ups and some long downs. He’s dedicated to his craft, but sometimes he can butt heads with cast and crew.
Fade to Black was only Rourke’s third film. The first two were bit parts in Steven Spielberg’s financially successful but not particularly well-liked 1941 (a strong contender for the legendary director’s worst film) and The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino’s legendary financial failure Heaven’s Gate. The next year, 1981, Rourke got his breakthrough in Lawrence Kasdan’s fantastic Body Heat, though many might argue his true breakthrough was in Barry Levinson’s similarly fantastic Diner (1982).
Tom Hanks in He Knows You’re Alone
Of all the entries on this list, Tom Hanks’ role in He Knows You’re Alone is by far the strangest. There are a few basic types in slasher movies. There are the killers, there are the victims, and there are those who seem like killer who really end up being either victims or plain old MacGuffins that don’t go much of anywhere.
Then there’s Tom Hanks’ Elliot in He Knows You’re Alone (his first role in a movie), who is none of those things. He’s just a guy the protagonists meet on a jog who they spend the day with at an amusement park … and then he just flat-out disappears from the narrative. He’s just a nice guy. We don’t think he’s the killer, they don’t think he’s the killer, and he isn’t the killer. He has a lot of dialogue for about 25 minutes and is then just gone. It’s really bizarre, but there’s a reason for it. Initially, his character was supposed to get killed off, but the filmmakers thought he was so lovable they just couldn’t do it. Without a doubt, his presence (and, again, he is in a decent chunk of the movie) gives the film a certain pop cultural novelty. But it wasn’t the project that made him a big name. The small screen’s Bosom Buddies (which debuted the same year as He Knows You’re Alone, 1980) put him on the map, then his second movie, 1984’s Splash, made him a star.
9) Daryl Hannah and Joe Pantoliano in The Final Terror
Remember how we just talked about the types of characters in slasher movies in the He Knows You’re Alone entry? Backwoods slasher movie The Final Terror contains two pretty great examples.
In it, Daryl Hannah plays one of the prospective victims (she lives). Joe Pantoliano, however, plays a MacGuffin character, one we think is the killer (he isn’t, and does not live). The Final Terror is very much skippable. If you want a really good backwoods slasher film from the ’80s to go along with the more modern Wrong Turn, check out Just Before Dawn.
10) George Clooney in Return to Horror High
Fun fact: George Clooney starred in two different shows called E/R. One was a sitcom that lasted just one season (1984-1985). The other was, well, ER, which started in 1994 and made Clooney a huge star. It kicked off his movie career.
But Clooney had been in movies prior to ER, too. Unfortunately, those movies were Grizzly II: Revenge (which wasn’t released until 2020, anyway), Return to Horror High, and Return of the Killer Tomatoes. Of the three, Return to Horror High is the best, but his role in Killer Tomatoes is by far the largest (i.e. he dies after just a single scene in the other two).
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