Editorials
Everyone’s Favorite Movie Monster: Doug Jones’ 10 Most Memorable Roles!
Actor and contortionist Doug Jones is currently generating Oscar buzz for his performance as Amphibian Man in Guillermo del Toro’s latest, The Shape of Water. Like most of his roles, Jones is unrecognizable as the otherworldly creature bearing resemblance to the titular character from Creature of the Black Lagoon. Through heavy makeup and prosthetics, Jones is able to convey a depth of emotion with his movement and body language alone. His uncanny knack for physical acting is something very few actors can even hold a candle to, which is why the actor has a long history of bringing unique characters to life on screen, both big and small. His tall, lean frame lends a striking silhouette and presence, but his use of his expressive hands demonstrates why he’s not just a perennial favorite of del Toro’s, but a go-to actor for extraordinary character work.
With decades of work under his belt, Jones has stood out in small parts like one of the Rippers in Tank Girl or the hair-raising Ice Cream man in Legion, to major roles like heroic alien Cochise in TV’s Falling Skies. He submerses so fully into his characters that sometimes you don’t even realize it’s him beneath the makeup. From empathy to terror, innocence to evil, Jones delivers all by intricate movement alone. In celebration of his latest high-accolade earning performance in The Shape of Water and his amazing work thus far, we look back at 10 of Doug Jones most memorable roles.
Hocus Pocus – Billy Butcherson
Jones’ first major role in a studio film wasn’t initially meant to be a big role. In the original script, Billy Butcherson only had one line, but Jones’ interpretation of a zombie waking up after being 300 years dead at the audition had director Kenny Ortega and the assistance casting director laughing so hard that the role was his before he even got home from the audition. And as for that one line in the original script, well, it was really only a single word. Billy was to initially call Bette Middler’s Winifred a bitch in the script. Jones wasn’t so comfortable with that, being a Disney movie and all, so he changed it. Billy’s big moment of confrontation toward his ex-lover Winifred has Jones to thank. Hocus Pocus was a Halloween release dumped in the middle of summer, so its failure left Jones feeling like his career ended before it really began. But just like the film’s slow simmer into full-blown cult status, Jones career took a similar path.
Mimic – Long John #2
It was del Toro’s first American studio film that would begin a long-lasting, fateful relationship between Jones and the auteur. Like most things, it was a small beginning, with Jones being requested to step in as the shapeshifting Judas breed cockroach during reshoots. Jones needed the work, and his reputation for wearing monster suits preceded him, though it was Jones and del Toro’s bond over monsters that would keep Jones in del Toro’s memory for future roles.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (“Hush”) – Gentleman
Joss Whedon took issue with a critique of his popular show that the dialogue was the most successful aspect, so he wrote an episode almost completely devoid of dialogue. The result is the widely beloved tenth episode in the fourth season. The Grimm fairytale-like episode sees a group of ghoulish Gentlemen that come to town, stealing everyone’s voices so that the victims are unable to scream when their hearts are cut out. The tallest and most memorable ghoul was played by Doug Jones, who injected his character with an elegance that made the ghoul all the more terrifying. The episode was the only one to have earned the series an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and I think Jones work had a large contribution to the success of that episode.
Pan’s Labyrinth –The Faun
The only non-native Spanish speaker on set, Jones was del Toro’s one and only choice to play the Faun, a fairy tale trickster and sort of guide to lead heroine Ofelia. His voice was dubbed by a native Spanish speaker, which troubled the actor, but this was overridden by Jones unintentionally becoming the face of the U.S. press tour due to being the only American actor. It was a move that finally earned him recognition for his work, allowing him more freedom and work in future endeavors, because it allowed press and audiences to finally connect with the face behind the stellar creature work. And Jones performance as the Faun nailed the tricky balance of menace and innocence of the trickster. Always the overachiever, Jones also delivered a memorable performance as the scene-stealing Pale Man, the blind, monstrous eater of children.
Quarantine – Thin Infected Man
The almost identical remake of Jaume Balagueró’s REC saw Jones playing the terrifying emaciated character that poor Angela Vidal has to contend with in the film’s final moments, a role played by equally memorable character actor Javier Botet in the original. It’s a small role, but easily one of the most intense, and memorable scenes. What makes this one notable in Jones’ long history of character work, though, is that, save for Botet, there’s no other actor who can nail what he does in terms of physicality. Botet left extremely large shoes to fill with one of the most terrifying characters in modern horror, and Jones filled them with utter ease.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Abe Sapien
Why Hellboy II and not Hellboy, despite Jones portraying Abe Sapien in both films? Because Jones actually got to voice the character the character this time. In the first film, Jones handled the physicality of the amphibious B.P.R.D. member, but the studio wanted a more recognizable name and hired David Hyde Pierce to voice the role. Not only was Jones allowed to fully become Abe Sapien in the sequel, proving there was no reason to have not let him handle the character in the first film, but he also portrayed the unnerving Angel of Death and the 8 foot tall Chamberlain, a creature that served as the doorkeeper for the king of Elfland.
Fear Itself (“Skin and Bones”) – Grady Edlund
This short-lived, underrated horror anthology series was derailed by the 2008 Summer Olympics, which is a shame, because Doug Jones’ work in the episode Skin and Bones was pure nightmare fuel. The episode is directed by Larry Fessenden, a director with a history of exploring Wendigo folklore, and between his execution of building suspense and Jones’ alternating between sympathy and downright ominous cruelty, Skin and Bones is one of the best hours of television ever. As the emaciated Grady, who returns after disappearing into the mountains with a group of men days ago, Jones delivers some of the most nail-biting scenes ever, like the chilling scene where he likes his wife Helen’s arm while she’s trying to feed him back to health. Jones may look like a frail skeleton in this role, but he exudes evil power.
Absentia – Walter Lambert
Jones plays a pivotal role in Mike Flanagan’s first feature, made in response to rejections over directing a feature-length adaptation of his Oculus short film. It’s also a rare appearance by the actor on screen where he’s not buried under prosthetics and creature makeup, playing a character that has gone missing in the neighborhood’s tunnels. As Walter, Jones delivers a frantic, tragic character that’s also responsible for conveying exposition on the film’s mythology and monster. Jones also offers weight to the cast of unknowns, proving how important he’s become as an actor.
The Strain – The Ancient
Once again working with del Toro, Jones memorable turn as the Ancient wasn’t the first choice of del Toro’s when pursuing the actor. It turns out he wanted Jones to be a more permanent fixture of the show, starting with the pilot. Commitments to sci-fi show Falling Skies meant Jones couldn’t take the role, but that didn’t stop him from playing the memorable leader of the Ancients, the seven original vampires created by del Toro’s unique vampire mythology books co-written with Chuck Hogan. Jones also pulls double duty in a key role as The Master, the youngest ancient that serves as the series antagonist in direct war with the rest of the Ancients and humanity. Jones may not be a series regular, but his work as the most powerful strigoi elevates the characters into something you don’t even want to cross paths with.
Star Trek: Discovery – Saru
The latest iteration of this long-running sci-fi mainstay sees Jones as a main character named Saru, a polarizing character for viewers. As written, Saru is a Kelpian, a species hunted as prey on their home planet and thus very awkward and cowardly. Because Jones is Jones, he imbues Saru with much more charm, making the loner character a perfect foil for the outgoing lead Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and just frankly adorable. What makes this exciting for Jones is that the Kelpians are a brand new species to the Star Trek universe, giving Jones a lot of leeway in creating the character. He got to work with creature effects designers and the writers in creating Saru’s look and backstory, bringing decades of his experience to the mix, making for a much more likable character than originally existed on paper. In short, the role of Saru is a culmination of Jones’ masterful work so far.
Here’s what we know about Longlegs so far. It’s coming in July of 2024, it’s directed by Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter), and it features Maika Monroe (It Follows) as an FBI agent who discovers a personal connection between her and a serial killer who has ties to the occult. We know that the serial killer is going to be played by none other than Nicolas Cage and that the marketing has been nothing short of cryptic excellence up to this point.
At the very least, we can assume NEON’s upcoming film is going to be a dark, horror-fueled hunt for a serial killer. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five disturbing serial killers-versus-law-enforcement stories to get us even more jacked up for Longlegs.
MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003)
This South Korean film directed by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) is a wild ride. The film features a handful of cops who seem like total goofs investigating a serial killer who brutally murders women who are out and wearing red on rainy evenings. The cops are tired, unorganized, and border on stoner comedy levels of idiocy. The movie at first seems to have a strange level of forgiveness for these characters as they try to pin the murders on a mentally handicapped person at one point, beating him and trying to coerce him into a confession for crimes he didn’t commit. A serious cop from the big city comes down to help with the case and is able to instill order.
But still, the killer evades and provokes not only the police but an entire country as everyone becomes more unstable and paranoid with each grizzly murder and sex crime.
I’ve never seen a film with a stranger tone than Memories of Murder. A movie that deals with such serious issues but has such fallible, seemingly nonserious people at its core. As the film rolls on and more women are murdered, you realize that a lot of these faults come from men who are hopeless and desperate to catch a killer in a country that – much like in another great serial killer story, Citizen X – is doing more harm to their plight than good.
Major spoiler warning: What makes Memories of Murder somehow more haunting is that it’s loosely based on a true story. It is a story where the real-life killer hadn’t been caught at the time of the film’s release. It ends with our main character Detective Park (Song Kang-ho), now a salesman, looking hopelessly at the audience (or judgingly) as the credits roll. Over sixteen years later the killer, Lee Choon Jae, was found using DNA evidence. He was already serving a life sentence for another murder. Choon Jae even admitted to watching the film during his court case saying, “I just watched it as a movie, I had no feeling or emotion towards the movie.”
In the end, Memories of Murder is a must-see for fans of the subgenre. The film juggles an almost slapstick tone with that of a dark murder mystery and yet, in the end, works like a charm.
CURE (1997)
If you watched 2023’s Hypnotic and thought to yourself, “A killer who hypnotizes his victims to get them to do his bidding is a pretty cool idea. I only wish it were a better movie!” Boy, do I have great news for you.
In Cure (spoilers ahead), a detective (Koji Yakusho) and forensic psychologist (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) team up to find a serial killer who’s brutally marking their victims by cutting a large “X” into their throats and chests. Not just a little “X” mind you but a big, gross, flappy one.
At each crime scene, the murderer is there and is coherent and willing to cooperate. They can remember committing the crimes but can’t remember why. Each of these murders is creepy on a cellular level because we watch the killers act out these crimes with zero emotion. They feel different than your average movie murder. Colder….meaner.
What’s going on here is that a man named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) is walking around and somehow manipulating people’s minds using the flame of a lighter and a strange conversational cadence to hypnotize them and convince them to murder. The detectives eventually catch him but are unable to understand the scope of what’s happening before it’s too late.
If you thought dealing with a psychopathic murderer was hard, imagine dealing with one who could convince you to go home and murder your wife. Not only is Cure amazingly filmed and edited but it has more horror elements than your average serial killer film.
MANHUNTER (1986)
In the first-ever Hannibal Lecter story brought in front of the cameras, Detective Will Graham (William Petersen) finds his serial killers by stepping into their headspace. This is how he caught Hannibal Lecter (played here by Brian Cox), but not without paying a price. Graham became so obsessed with his cases that he ended up having a mental breakdown.
In Manhunter, Graham not only has to deal with Lecter playing psychological games with him from behind bars but a new serial killer in Francis Dolarhyde (in a legendary performance by Tom Noonan). One who likes to wear pantyhose on his head and murder entire families so that he can feel “seen” and “accepted” in their dead eyes. At one point Lecter even finds a way to gift Graham’s home address to the new killer via personal ads in a newspaper.
Michael Mann (Heat, Thief) directed a film that was far too stylish for its time but that fans and critics both would have loved today in the same way we appreciate movies like Nightcrawler or Drive. From the soundtrack to the visuals to the in-depth psychoanalysis of an insanely disturbed protagonist and the man trying to catch him. We watch Graham completely lose his shit and unravel as he takes us through the psyche of our killer. Which is as fascinating as it is fucked.
Manhunter is a classic case of a serial killer-versus-detective story where each side of the coin is tarnished in their own way when it’s all said and done. As Detective Park put it in Memories of Murder, “What kind of detective sleeps at night?”
INSOMNIA (2002)
Maybe it’s because of the foggy atmosphere. Maybe it’s because it’s the only film in Christopher Nolan’s filmography he didn’t write as well as direct. But for some reason, Insomnia always feels forgotten about whenever we give Nolan his flowers for whatever his latest cinematic achievement is.
Whatever the case, I know it’s no fault of the quality of the film, because Insomnia is a certified serial killer classic that adds several unique layers to the detective/killer dynamic. One way to create an extreme sense of unease with a movie villain is to cast someone you’d never expect in the role, which is exactly what Nolan did by casting the hilarious and sweet Robin Williams as a manipulative child murderer. He capped that off by casting Al Pacino as the embattled detective hunting him down.
This dynamic was fascinating as Williams was creepy and clever in the role. He was subdued in a way that was never boring but believable. On the other side of it, Al Pacino felt as if he’d walked straight off the set of 1995’s Heat and onto this one. A broken and imperfect man trying to stop a far worse one.
Aside from the stellar acting, Insomnia stands out because of its unique setting and plot. Both working against the detective. The investigation is taking place in a part of Alaska where the sun never goes down. This creates a beautiful, nightmare atmosphere where by the end of it, Pacino’s character is like a Freddy Krueger victim in the leadup to their eventual, exhausted death as he runs around town trying to catch a serial killer while dealing with the debilitating effects of insomnia. Meanwhile, he’s under an internal affairs investigation for planting evidence to catch another child killer and accidentally shoots his partner who he just found out is about to testify against him. The kicker here is that the killer knows what happened that fateful day and is using it to blackmail Pacino’s character into letting him get away with his own crimes.
If this is the kind of “what would you do?” intrigue we get with the story from Longlegs? We’ll be in for a treat. Hoo-ah.
FALLEN (1998)
Fallen may not be nearly as obscure as Memories of Murder or Cure. Hell, it boasts an all-star cast of Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, and Elias Koteas. But when you bring it up around anyone who has seen it, their ears perk up, and the word “underrated” usually follows. And when it comes to the occult tie-ins that Longlegs will allegedly have? Fallen may be the most appropriate film on this entire list.
In the movie, Detective Hobbs (Washington) catches vicious serial killer Edgar Reese (Koteas) who seems to place some sort of curse on him during Hobbs’ victory lap. After Reese is put to death via electric chair, dead bodies start popping up all over town with his M.O., eventually pointing towards Hobbs as the culprit. After all, Reese is dead. As Hobbs investigates he realizes that a fallen angel named Azazel is possessing human body after human body and using them to commit occult murders. It has its eyes fixated on him, his co-workers, and family members; wrecking their lives or flat-out murdering them one by one until the whole world is damned.
Mixing a demonic entity into a detective/serial killer story is fascinating because it puts our detective in the unsettling position of being the one who is hunted. How the hell do you stop a demon who can inhabit anyone they want with a mere touch?!
Fallen is a great mix of detective story and supernatural horror tale. Not only are we treated to Denzel Washington as the lead in a grim noir (complete with narration) as he uncovers this occult storyline, but we’re left with a pretty great “what would you do?” situation in a movie that isn’t afraid to take the story to some dark places. Especially when it comes to the way the film ends. It’s a great horror thriller in the same vein as Frailty but with a little more detective work mixed in.
Look for Longlegs in theaters on July 12, 2024.
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