Editorials
Mr. Nice Guy: ‘My Dead Ones’ and 8 Killers with Deceiving Smiles
Many of horror’s most memorable villains have an uncanny ability to charm. Their winsome smiles or sympathetic nature creates a deceptive mask that effectively hides the ruthless killer within, catching unsuspecting victims entirely off guard. In the Brazilian horror film My Dead Ones, David (Nicolas Prattes) seems like your definitive nice guy. A shy film student with an unassuming appearance, David enjoys people watching through his camera lens. Of course, he hides a dark secret from his past. Once he encounters a lonely neighbor next door, he transforms into a serial killer with a mission. It threatens to expose his even darker secret.
Directed by Diego Freitas, who co-wrote the script with Gustavo Rosseb, My Dead Ones is now on various VOD platforms and expanding through Halloween. In celebration of the release, we look back at eight of horror’s most deceiving Nice Guys.
Peeping Tom – Mark Lewis
Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm) seems like your average next-door type, albeit very shy. His clean-cut style and timid persona make him seem harmless, and his obsession with film engenders sympathy. His victims don’t learn until far too late that he’s a perverse killer that loves to use his camera to capture their final expressions of terror as they die. Like most Nice Guy killers, Mark has severe daddy issues, giving compassionate insight into why he turned out this way.
Candyman – The Candyman / Daniel Robitaille
This supernatural boogeyman with a hook for a hand haunts the residents of Cabrini-Green. Per the local legends, if you dare say his name into a mirror five times, he’ll come to collect your life. Yet the Candyman exudes a romantic, soothing calm while he torments. Just the mention of his name strikes fear, but his tragic past is heartbreaking. Few horror killers have a way of wooing you while scaring you silly, and Tony Todd’s portrayal makes it seem effortless.
Red Eye – Jackson Rippner
Never mind that his name is a dead giveaway, Jackson is the type of charmer you don’t see coming. His good looks, wit, and human decency immediately win over the protagonist Lisa at the airport, where they await their red-eye flight. He even steps in to handle an angry customer. It’s not until she’s firmly trapped in her window seat on the plane that he drops the Nice Guy act, switching from Jekyll to Mr. Hyde with disturbing swiftness.
The Silence of the Lambs – Hannibal Lecter
There’s no mistaking the threat and imposing danger of cannibal Hannibal Lecter when we first meet him in his maximum-security cell. Played by Anthony Hopkins, there’s a level of class and intelligence on display that’s atypical of horror villains. This type of killer loves classical music, meticulously prepared dinner parties, and high education. He also has a deep affinity for manners and etiquette. He’s the precise type of Nice Guy that mom and dad would love, except for the bit about eating people.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon – Leslie Vernon
Leslie Vernon aspires to be the next great horror icon, like Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger. In his attempt, he allows a documentary crew to detail his plans for a night of slasher horror style murder. Leslie’s so disarming as the Nice Guy, though, that none of them realize how serious he is about the serial killing until far too late. The mounting romantic tensions between Leslie and his chosen final girl, Taylor, only further proves how likable he is, to the point where you almost root for him to succeed. Almost.
Scream – Billy Loomis
One of the ultimate Nice Guy killers, Billy Loomis manages to repeatedly earn his girlfriend’s trust before finally revealing his killer instinct. For much of Wes Craven’s seminal slasher, Billy presents a steadfast front as the doting, understandable boyfriend that’s there to offer a shoulder to girlfriend Sidney Prescott. Even when she initially suspects him of being the Ghostface killer, he forgives her almost immediately. Too bad, her initial hunch was right. Billy goes from dream boyfriend to worst nightmare in a blink.
American Psycho – Patrick Bateman
Wealthy New York investment banker seems to have it all. He dines at all the coveted hotspots, easily maintains his excessive lifestyle, and has a way of getting whatever his hedonistic heart desires. What his heart desires most is committing murder, often in the grisliest ways. Thanks to his good looks and status, no one even suspects this American psychopath. It also helps that Patrick has a darkly dry sense of humor to defuse suspicion among those closest to him.
Psycho – Norman Bates
Horror’s ultimate Nice Guy is none other than Norman Bates, a doting son. The Bates Motel’s proprietor, Norman is there to greet his guests with a smile and offer soft-spoken words of kindness. When Marion Crane stops for the night during a thunderstorm, the sweet momma’s boy fixes her up a sandwich. He keeps her company in between checking in on his mother at the house behind the motel. He’s such the poster child for the Nice Guy that the reveal that it’s he and not his overbearing mom who’s the killer makes for one of horror’s most shocking twists of all time.
To meet horror’s newest killer Nice Guy, look for My Dead Ones on VOD. The Brazilian horror-mystery from director Diego Freitas and TMA Releasing is already available on Vimeo VOD On Demand and releases this Halloween in North America, UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India. The movie will be available on iTunes, Google Play, Vimeo and Amazon Direct Video.
TMA Releasing also signed with Bayview Entertainment for a January 2021 DVD release in North America ahead of the forthcoming AFM. The DVD (Region 0) will be made available online for other countries.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
You must be logged in to post a comment.