The first horror movie Mia Goth ever saw: “Just terrifying”
The list of actors to have made early appearances in horror movies is as exhaustive as it gets, but Mia Goth has been bitten by the bug to such an extent that she’s virtually made the genre her home.
Some of the biggest names in Hollywood popped up in bargain basement terrors during their earliest days, but very few of them went on to become staples of scary stories. Goth’s first feature may have been one of the most haunting in recent memories, but ironically given her current trajectory, it wasn’t a horror.
The star’s first credit came in Lars von Trier’s controversial Nymphomaniac, so she was exposed to shocking content very early on. Since then, Goth has become one of the industry’s most popular and in-demand scream queens, to the point she’s already virtually synonymous with horror.
In the last decade alone, she’s headlined Ti West’s Pearl, X, and MaXXXine trilogy, played a major part in David Cronenberg’s body horror return Infinity Pool, partnered up with Luca Guadagnino for his Suspiria remake, worked with Anya Taylor-Joy on psychological nightmare Marrowbone, and collaborated with Gore Verbinski on The Cure for Wellness.
Even her upcoming projects reflect her love of all things spooky, with Goth playing the Bride in Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein, while she remains in line to make her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut opposite two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali in Blade. It’s not quite a horror flick, but it does revolve around vampires, so it technically counts.
There most have been something that spurred Goth into making her bed in the genre, and it might have been the first one she ever saw. Watching scary movies doesn’t come recommended for young children – which is why age restrictions are supposed to be in place – not that such rules applied to her household.
“The first horror movie I ever saw Chucky,” the actor told A24. “Just terrifying. I was about four or five. The knife? It’s terrifying, Chucky.” Understandably, anyone that young who witnesses a murderous doll cleaving multiple victims is going to be affected, but instead of putting Goth off horror completely, it only seems to have fostered her love for it.
That’s not to say she exclusively makes spine-chilling films and nothing else, but it’s become the biggest weapon in her on-screen arsenal as the rising star continues to clamber her way up the ladder. That being said, it’s been over four years since she appeared in a non-horror production, which came under the complete opposite circumstances when she embodied Harriet Smith in Autumn de Wilde’s Jane Austen drama Emma.
She’ll have to leave it behind eventually to broaden her horizons, but for the time being, Goth and horror are a perfect match.
