The five greatest horror movies ever made, according to Walton Goggins: “I’m old school”
You’re most likely to find Walton Goggins in an action film or something a little gritty, perhaps post-apocalyptic, and it seems like he enjoys putting himself in the shoes of a character whose life is anything but normal, such that they might not even have a nose.
Of course, he has lent himself to more than just movies with plenty of bloodshed, showing his comedic chops with roles on The Righteous Gemstones and The White Lotus, but his early film roles are baffling, because it seems like he was taking on any part he could get, from the Mel Gibson fantasy romance Forever Young to The Next Karate Kid and even Shanghai Noon.
By the 2000s, Goggins seemed to have a clearer idea of where he wanted his career to head, landing a role in The Bourne Identity in 2002, but still, he made time for a horror film courtesy of Rob Zombie, starring in House of 1000 Corpses, and while it’s not a genre he finds himself in often, the actor really likes horror.
“I’m old school,” he told Ain’t It Cool News, revealing the horror movies that have stuck with him since he was young, “The first Halloween, I loved Danny [McBride] and David’s [Gordon Green] interpretation of it, too,” referring to the classic franchise which significantly thrust the slasher genre into the spotlight and led to its insane popularity during the 1980s.
Halloween emerged in 1978 to acclaim, taking John Carpenter from being a relatively unknown indie filmmaker to becoming an icon of the horror genre, which saw him take the concept of a masked killer and put it in a familiar suburban setting that left audiences terrified, and scary movies were never the same again.
Speaking of slashers, Goggins also selected Friday the 13th, which came just a few years after Halloween, emerging as one of the many horror movies that took inspiration from Carpenter’s film, and stands out as one of the most enduring, with a shocking killer reveal and a young Kevin Bacon to boot.
Going back in time to some earlier fright features, the actor also highlighted his love for The Exorcist, which remains one of the few horror movies to receive Academy Award buzz and is one of the most recognisable in the canon, with young Regan contorting her body and twisting her head as she reacts violently to her possession. Anyone who watched the film at a young age was surely scarred for life, Regan’s face seared into the brain forever.
He also admitted that Night of the Living Dead “scared the shit out of” him, and I’m not surprised, for there are few things scarier than imagining your peace invaded by zombies who refuse to let up, walking slowly yet menacingly towards your home and threatening to turn you into a member of the undead. Released in 1968, George A Romero’s cult film is a terrific exploration of humanity in crisis, with poignant themes regarding race and masculinity emerging as a result.
Goggins loves Jaws, too, which certainly counts as a horror movie when you consider how many people were too scared to go to the beach after its release in 1975, admitting, “Fucking Jaws scared me man! I’m pretty sure it scared everybody else too. What does it mean to experience horror? Like what is that? It’s a horrific feeling I get every time I go swimming. It’s one of the reasons I became a scuba diver. So I could be down in it and see what’s going on. It’s the only place I still feel at peace while out in the ocean.”
Walton Goggins’ five favourite horror movies:
- Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
- Friday the 13th (Sean S Cunningham, 1980)
- The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
- Night of the Living Dead (George A Romero, 1968)
- Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
