Horror : The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Many reviewers will cite the bad (or worse) acting in these movies, but I'm watching "Madman" right now and while some of the acting is a bit amateurish, some of the acting is really just fine. And looking back, I always thought that Amy Steele did a good job in "Ft13th, Part 2" as Ginny and the girl who played Vera in part 3 did a good job. Corey Feldman did a good in Part 4 and so on. Most slashers usually have a couple pretty good performances in them. I recently watched "The Final Terror" and I think everybody in that movie did a good job. Hart Bochner did a good job playing a selfish, immature jerk in "Terror Train". And most of the kids in the first "Friday the 13th" did just fine. If anything, I thought Adrienne King's two female peers did a better acting job than she did.

Just wanted to stick up for the sometimes unfairly maligned genre.

"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Hear ya and there can be some very personable characters in slasher films.


Pleased that you liked The Final Terror and it is one that tends to fly under the radar and it is worth a plug as it is one of the better woodsy thrillers.

Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

I finished "Madman". It was pretty entertaining, par for the course. I do wish the one girl had lived.

But for me the highlight was when the particularly dumb character hid in the refrigerator. That made me chuckle.

"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

I will make me a double feature of Madman plus The Final Terror.

Madman has the graphic violence that Final Terror only really implies, yet it still delivers the goods in a cheesy fun way, but isn't as scary effective as Final Terror which I see as more of a mood piece.

Have you seen Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes Part 2? If you liked both Final and Madman, you should like this one too. Peter Frechette is in it too.

@I love hutch So have just finished Madman, been yonks since I have seen it. Quite well edited and shot and the cheap electronic score was funky. Somewhat cheesy and perhaps a good reason why it tends to fly under the radar as a slasher, and while some of the kills are quite nasty, and some even original, they are almost cartoonish as well.

The acting was decent enough and the actors did ok with what they were working with. Gaylen Ross from Romero's Dawn Of The Dead is a very competent actress, though she only starred in 3 films. Her Betsy character was a bit of a drip through her actions. She had a pseudonym for this one.

The males were cute and I liked the cocky TP, even got to see his buns, and he had the best death scene too I thought.

Will do The Final Terror tomorrow all being well.

Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Yeah, probably only about 90% of the time.



😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 Let's go, Brandon! 🤨 Try that in a small town.

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

I'd say it's bad maybe 25% of the time, good 10% of the time and okay/acceptable the rest of the time.

I'm thinking back on Friday the 13th, Part 2 and none of the camp counselors give any really bad performances in it. I think amateurish, probably, like the girl with the frizzy hair who was 16 or 17 when the movie was made and the girl who wanted to have sex with the guy in the wheelchair wasn't necessarily very good, but all the other performers did just fine with the material they were given.

Though the girl who played Chili in Part 3D was laughably bad at trying to sound scared when Jason impaled with a hot fireplace poker. That was really bad. Though I liked her character a lot. "Let's give Butterball a taste of his own medicine!" Ha!

I thought the guy who played Shelly was very good, ditto Vera. And Brenda and Marcie and Ned from the 1st installment all did good with their acting. Alice and Kevin Bacon were okay. Harry Crosby underacted a little bit, but wasn't awful. The girl who played Annie was likable, but her acting wasn't very good. Corey Feldman was very good in Part 4 and so was Crispin Glover. Lawrence Monoson wasn't bad, even if his character was super annoying. The final girl did a fine job and the actress who played her mother was actually quite convincing. Peter Barton was okay, and the rest were, imo, mediocre. The slob at the morgue was kind of funny and I will always have a soft sport for this early victim. Though you can't tell if her acting is any good.

Taking a break from F13th movies for a bit, all the young people in "Happy Birthday to Me" do a good job, better, in fact, than MSA's psychiatrist, Glenn Ford was never a good actor. Most of the acting in "My Bloody Valentine" was quite good, ditto "Terror Train" and I don't think there was one performance in "Black Christmas" that was not better than average.

"The Final Terror" (1983) boasted several decent-to-good performances. And, of course, the original "Halloween", where Donald Pleasance delivered a classic performance as the spooked doctor. The three babysitters are cute and funny and likable and I would venture to say the three performances were all on a par with each other.

If there is any sub-genre where there are uniformly/mostly bad performances it's the giallis made in the 60s-80s. I don't know if its the dubbing or what, but some of these performances are embarassingly bad.

Alida Valli as the terrifying and spooky ballet teacher in "Suspiria" was very effective. And Jennifer Connely and Donald Pleasance formed a cute and believable friendship in "Phenomena" and so that the movie was fun.



It's no worse and once in a while a whole lot better than the acting from the young people in "Jaws 2". The actor who played Mike Brody was the worst of the worst.

Cute enough, but a terrible actor and kind of a snotty character. Mike Brody was a lot more appealing in the 1st and 3rd movies.



"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

I don't like the kids that much in FT13th The Final Chapter. With the exception of Tommy and his sister Trish, and Rob the Jason Hunter, they are mean-spirited, shallow and even nasty to each other. Part 5 and 6 gave us a more entertaining slew of characters and of course Part 2 and 3 had cool characters too.

I find Rob's death disturbing and that was all off screen, just his screams and exclamations did the trick.

Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Reggie the Reckless was my favorit3 character in Part V.



Also, Ethel was a hoot!



"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.



Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

I liked his character. Too bad he wasn't on screen a little bit longer.

"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

There are many things to like about Part 5. The first time I saw it, I was disappointed with all the quick and random kills and wanted a little more juiciness in the gore department. As the film moved towards its climax, it actually started to become exciting. I love the barn climax in this film and how it was handled.

On repeat viewings, I accepted the MPAA cuts and started to enjoy the atmospheric presentation and characters more. Part VI was similar and was my fav for a while, but in hindsight, I gravitate more towards A New Beginning.

Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Okay then.



😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 Let's go, Brandon! 🤨 Try that in a small town.

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

And have you seen Jenna Ortega in Scream? She is not only so talented for someone so young; her scream alone is so amazing, no wonder why she was also in Studio 666 and X this year as well.

We don't talk about Bruno! No, no, no!

Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Not always bad, but mostly. The Hitcher is an exception.

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Re: The acting in horror/slasher movies isn't always bad.

Some of the acting in the horror/slasher movies Tubi has could be cheesy though.

Especially when every other minute/scene is the female always screaming. It makes me wanna yell to the TV "Girl, shut up! I'm trying to like this movie!"

R.I.P. Brittany Murphy (November 10, 1977-December 20, 2009)
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