Tom Hanks is one of the most celebrated and beloved actors of his generation, a two-time Oscar winner whose latest film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, finds him starring as Fred Rogers, the host of the inspirational childrens television series Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
But as youre watching A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, getting weepy at all the loveliness, it would behoove you to remember that Tom Hanks has a dark side. A creepy side. A history of nightmares that audiences are all too quick to forget, because they just like him so danged much.
Lets take a look at the horrifying history of Tom Hanks, and all the times this otherwise family-friendly actor dabbled in the scary movie genre!
Like a lot of actors, Tom Hanks got his start in a low budget horror movie. He Knows Youre Alone stars Caitlin OHeaney (Late Phases) as a young woman whos being stalked by a serial killer in the days before her wedding. In many respects He Knows Youre Alone is a conventional slasher, which closely follows the formula established by Halloween just few years earlier, and sometimes even follows Carpenters shot list. Watch the two films back-to-back and the similarities will be glaring.
But there are two things that separate He Knows Youre Alone from the early slasher movie entries, and Tom Hanks is one of them. Hanks appears late in the film as a romantic interest for one of the supporting characters, and only has about two scenes. But he steals those scenes completely with his confident performance and easygoing charm. Hes so damned likable that, allegedly, the filmmakers didnt even bother to film the scene in the script where his character was murdered. They couldnt bring themselves to kill him!
The other element of He Knows Youre Alone that stands out all these years later is the films impressive streak of self-awareness. At a time when slasher movies were largely straightforward affairs, Armand Mastroiannis film begins with a fourth-wall breaking introduction at a movie theater, which leads to a murder that clearly inspired the opening of Scream 2. Later on, the majority of Hankss dialogue is a thoughtful treatise on the appeal of the horror genre, with commentary about how our familiarity with horror tropes affects our real-life behavior, like being afraid of the shower after watching Psycho. Which, of course, also lays the groundwork for the Scream franchise decades later.
He Knows Youre Alone is a jumble of ideas, some highly derivative and some ahead of their time, but Hanks is excellent in it and there are certainly enough memorable kills and meta-gags to keep horror fans engaged.
Tom Hanks received his first Oscar-nomination for his performance in Big, as a young boy named Josh who makes a wish on a magic carnival machine and turns into an older version of himself. At the time it was hailed as a delightful comedy about an innocent child suddenly thrust into the world of jaded adults, but as you get older you realize that its only a lighthearted comedy if you watch it from Joshs perspective.
If you form any association whatsoever with Hanks mother, Mrs. Baskin, played by future Oscar-winner Mercedes Ruehl, Big is an unspeakable nightmare. She plays a woman whose son disappears, seemingly kidnapped by a strange man who looks like Bosom Buddies actor Tom Hanks. And it gets worse from there.
Months go by while her son lives the high life working as a bigwig at a toy company, while every night Mrs. Baskin cries herself to sleep and wonders what torture her little boy is enduring at the hands of the weird creepy monster who stole him. Meanwhile, Josh sends her letters with no information to go on, only platitudes about how well hes being treated by these unknown kidnappers, which no mother would ever take at face value.
Finally, after god knows how long, her son Josh returns to her, wearing clothes that are twice his size. We dont know if Josh tried to tell her the truth, but either Mrs. Baskin is bound to think that her son has been disturbingly brainwashed into thinking he was an older man this whole time, or shell live her whole life wondering what happened to him while her son refuses to confide in her and ease the daily psychological torture of never, ever knowing.
Until the fateful day, a decade or more later, when Mrs. Baskin finally sees Joshs kidnapper again. But thats only because her son has, horrifyingly, transformed into the very villain who has haunted Mrs. Baskins nightmares for years. And he did it just by growing up.
Its a cute coming of age story for a kid. But for that kids mother, Bigis a horror story of the highest order.
Tom Hanks made another classic horror comedy on purpose this time in The Burbs, an energetic and inspired cult film about paranoia run wild in suburban America. The Burbs stars Hanks as an everyday dad who decides to spend his vacation from work puttering around the house, and finds himself trying to solve a neighborhood mystery about why his neighbor has gone missing, and whether his newest and eeriest neighbors had anything to do with it.
The Burbs plays a lot like The Munsters or The Addams Family, but told from the perspective of the milquetoast neighbors. The oddball family lives in a run down house that looks like its haunted, is full of bees, and has a backyard where they mysteriously dig deep holes at night. But is the Klopek family actually a bunch of murderers, or are they harmless eccentrics who are being victimized by a bunch of xenophobic busybody neighbors who assume anything that doesnt fit their cozy conservative suburban lifestyle is evil?
Hankss everyman persona is smartly subverted in The Burbs as he evolves from the straight man in a cast full of comic relief sidekicks into the craziest person in the whole film. Joe Dante films the hell out of The Burbs, and Jerry Goldsmiths brilliant score evolves from moment to moment to match the warped imaginations of the characters. Its not just one of the best horror comedies of the 1980s. Its probably Tom Hankss best live-action comedy of them all.
Most people think Tom Hanks made his directorial debut with the musical comedy That Thing You Do!, but that was just his first feature. Just like Hanks made his acting debut in the horror genre, he first stepped behind the camera for an episode of HBOs all-star horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt, in an installment that playfully subverts his wholesome persona.
The episode, None But the Lonely Heart, is all about a guy who appears to be wholesome and nice but its only an act, and hes hiding a malevolent murderous streak. Treat Williams stars as a Bluebeard killer, who marries nice old ladies and murders them after he gains control of their money, and hes been at it for a while. Hanks co-stars as the head of the video dating service where he finds all of his wealthy marks, and hes just one of the people Williams brutally murders over the course of the episode as he tries to keep his secrets.
None But the Lonely Heart ends in typical Tales from the Crypt fashion, with the wicked protagonist getting their ironic and supernatural comeuppance from the decomposing corpses of all the women he seduced. The makeup effects are impressively gross but the creepiest part of the show is Williams, who appears to be mimicking Hankss charming style whenever hes on, and becomes a slithering monster whenever his audience isnt looking. Its not a brilliant episode but its a promising start to his directing career, and the perfect opportunity to play outside his wheelhouse.
Tom Hanks spent the next few decades making family films and Oscar contenders, and pretty much avoiding the horror genre altogether. And then, all of a sudden, he became an instant Halloween icon with the Saturday Night Live sketch Haunted Elevator, wherein he plays the hilariously inexplicable David S. Pumpkins.
The sketch starts simply, in a scary amusement part ride in which the patrons enter an elevator, and every time the doors open theres something scary on the other side. A couple of murders and ghosts and severed heads later, the doors open and its Tom Hanks in a pumpkin-speckled suit, with two b-boy skeletons. He announces that hes David Pumpkins and that hes going to scare the hell out of you, and then the skeletons dance. Just before the doors close he asks, Any questions?
Yes. Yes, there are many questions. As the patrons ask a series of pertinent queries about who David S. Pumpkins is, whether they are supposed to be familiar with him, and why hes supposed to be scary, David S. Pumpkins and his skeletons begin to show up with greater frequency, gradually taking over the whole ride as a state of amusingly terrifying uncertainty washes over the protagonists. They have so many questions. They will never, ever have answers. Is that not the greatest horror of all?
Bizarre in its execution but simple in its construction, the Haunted Elevator sketch is already considered an all-time Saturday Night Live classic, and with good cause.
David S. Pumpkins took on a life of his own, and the very next year he starred in a half-hour animated Halloween special called, fittingly enough, The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special. Tom Hanks reprised his role in a very short bookend sequence, and like the title character and the original sketch, the special relies on subverted expectations and absolute confusion to get a laugh out of the audience.
The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special is narrated by Peter Dinklage, who through a series of rhymes recalls a magical Halloween night from his childhood, when he was too old for trick or treating but had to take his little sister out anyway. His little sister picks the grossest pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, and that unleashes David S. Pumpkins and his b-boy skeletons, who sing a song about how they were born and then stuff happened. They then help them go trick or treating and turn the tables on local bullies, who were impersonating a creepy local urban legend to steal candy from unsuspecting kids.
Short and strange, The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special was met with a mixed response when it came out, but its so confident in its subversion of basic comedy norms that its bound to find an appreciative audience over time. The climactic scene in which Pumpkins and his skeletons scare the hell out of the villains by not singing a song, but doing all the stuff theyd do in a musical number anyway, is one of the most weirdly subversive comedy set pieces in recent memory.
Tom Hanks is sure to have a long career ahead of him, and may return to the horror genre again someday. But for now this wholesome actor and director can rest assured knowing that, when hardly anyone was looking, or in projects that mainstream audiences werent eager to label as part of the genre, he was building up a rather impressive horror resum.
Go here to see the original:
A Frightening Day in the Neighborhood: The Horror History of Tom Hanks! - Bloody Disgusting
- The 30 best classic horror movies of all time - Entertainment Weekly News - March 16th, 2024
- The 23rd Spring, Is Jeepers Creepers Coming Back To Michigan? - 102.5/104.9 The Block - March 16th, 2024
- Winnie The Pooh Horror Movie Dominates The Razzie Awards - 106.3 The Groove - March 16th, 2024
- This Underrated Blumhouse Horror Movie Is Unlike Any Other Creature Feature - Collider - March 16th, 2024
- 13 Horror Movies Where Everyone Dies by the End - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- Willy Wonka Experience Villain The Unknown Gets Its Own Horror Movie - TMZ - March 8th, 2024
- The 13 Scariest Horror Movies Streaming on Peacock: Alien, Leprechaun, The Exorcist: Believer and More - Syfy - March 8th, 2024
- Every Horror Movie Releasing in March 2024 - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- 10 Scariest Movies That Have Won Oscars - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- The 10 Best New Horror Movies To Watch in March 2024 - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based on Viral Willy Wonka Experience Coming Soon - Bloody Disgusting - March 8th, 2024
- Where To Watch Imaginary: Showtimes & Streaming Status - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- Immaculate: Eveything You Need to Know About Sydney Sweeney's Upcoming Horror Movie That Will Give You ... - FandomWire - March 8th, 2024
- The 20 best horror movies on Peacock - Entertainment Weekly News - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based on the Willy Wonka Experience Villain, The Unknown, Now in the Works - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- Melissa Barrera's Scream 7 Replacement Actually Sounds Better Than Fighting Ghostface Again - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- 'Shaitaan' Movie 2024 Filming Locations: Shooting Spots Of The Horror Flick - TRAVEL + LEISURE INDIA - March 8th, 2024
- The Horror Movie Franchise With the Most Sequels Ever Is One You've Never Heard of - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- Jimmy Fallon asked people to ruin a horror movie by adding a single word to its title - Upworthy - March 8th, 2024
- The Absolute Best Horror Movies on Hulu - CNET - March 8th, 2024
- Willy Wonka Experience creepy character 'The Unknown' handed role in new horror movie - The Mirror - March 8th, 2024
- The Best Sea Monster Movies, Ranked - Screen Rant - February 28th, 2024
- The Borderlands Movie's Scary Behind The Scenes Drama That Has Us Worried - Screen Rant - February 28th, 2024
- Netflix Just Quietly Added the Best Holiday Thriller of the Decade - Inverse - February 28th, 2024
- The 20 best scary movies streaming right now - Entertainment Weekly News - February 19th, 2024
- Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked - New Scary Movies to Watch - Rotten Tomatoes - February 19th, 2024
- 'Only Murders in the Building' Adds Molly Shannon to Season 4 Cast - Yahoo Eurosport UK - February 19th, 2024
- Why Lindsay Lohan Refused to Kiss Charlie Sheen in "Scary Movie 5" - Best Life - February 19th, 2024
- 15 Best Scary Movies To Stream - Screen Rant - February 11th, 2024
- Eight Skin-Crawling Scary Films That Don't Have Any Jump Scares In Them - Digg - February 11th, 2024
- David Cronenberg names some of the scariest movies ever - Far Out Magazine - February 11th, 2024
- 12 Horror Movies That Will Give You the Biggest Jump Scares - Collider - February 3rd, 2024
- TAROT's Trailer Brings the Iconic Cards to Life and Things Get Weird - Nerdist - February 3rd, 2024
- Review: Baghead - Is the Movie as Scary as it Looks? - Blazing Minds - February 3rd, 2024
- Natasha Lyonne Says James Woods Hit On Her As A Teenager While Filming Scary Movie 2 - 106.3 The Groove - February 3rd, 2024
- The Witcher's Freya Allan explains the challenges of filming her first horror movie Baghead: "You have to surrender ... - Gamesradar - January 26th, 2024
- The 5 Best Uses of Popcorn in Scary Movies - Dread Central - January 26th, 2024
- 5 Horror Films That Transformed The Genre - Study Finds - January 26th, 2024
- Kristen Stewart Wants to Star in Another Horror Movie in the Future - ComingSoon.net - January 26th, 2024
- Best Home Invasion Movies of All Time, Ranked - MovieWeb - January 26th, 2024
- Presence Review: Steven Soderbergh Tells a Ghost Story from the Ghosts POV. It Is Scary? Not Quite. But the Family Demons Lure You In - Variety - January 26th, 2024
- 55 best horror movies that are actually good and terrifying - Digital Spy - January 18th, 2024
- She is a Real Housewife, was in a scary movie franchise, is pals with Bethenny Frankel, has a Hilton connectio - Daily Mail - January 18th, 2024
- The Scream cast talk about the legacy of Scary Movie - Popverse - January 9th, 2024
- The 20 Best Horror Movies on Netflix: January 2024 - Vulture - January 9th, 2024
- Scream cast reveals their favorite scary movies - Popverse - January 9th, 2024
- Horror fanatics are 'desperate' to watch the first scary movie of the year Night Swim after trailer leaves the - Daily Mail - January 9th, 2024
- 20 Scariest Horror Movies That Are Too Disturbing to Re-Watch - Collider - January 1st, 2024
- Raging Grace review politicised critique of imperialism in horror movie form - The Guardian - January 1st, 2024
- 15 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time, According to Rotten Tomatoes - MovieWeb - January 1st, 2024
- The 19 Best Horror Films of 2023 Best Life - Best Life - January 1st, 2024
- The Best Horror Movies of 2021, Ranked by Tomatometer - Rotten Tomatoes - December 23rd, 2023
- This Is What Takes 'The Descent' From Scary to Terrifying - Collider - December 23rd, 2023
- 15 Best Horror Movies Of 2023 - Screen Rant - December 23rd, 2023
- 25 Best Horror Movies Created in the Last 5 Years - CBR - Comic Book Resources - December 12th, 2023
- 25 horror movies that were based on true stories - Yardbarker - December 12th, 2023
- The 30 best horror movies of all time - Gamesradar - December 12th, 2023
- Scary Movies In Theaters Now (2023/12/06)- Tickets to Movies in Theaters, Broadway Shows, London Theatre & More - Hollywood.com - December 12th, 2023
- What Is the Highest Grossing Horror Movie of All Time? - Collider - December 12th, 2023
- The 27 Best Horror Films of 2023 - MarieClaire.com - December 12th, 2023
- Upcoming horror movies: new scary films coming in 2023 and beyond - Gamesradar - December 12th, 2023
- 20 Best Horror Movies on Max (Formerly HBO Max): Dec. 2023 - Vulture - December 12th, 2023
- Scary Movie (2000) - Plot - IMDb - December 3rd, 2023
- The Best Horror Movies on Netflix - Rotten Tomatoes - October 16th, 2023
- The Best Horror Movies on Prime Video to Watch Right Now - October 16th, 2023
- From Psycho to a new crop of horror movies, the genre has some mommy issues - The Seattle Times - May 13th, 2023
- Months After Hulu Controversy, Mike Tyson Makes Major Move in the World of Cinema - EssentiallySports - April 8th, 2023
- Best Horror Movies of 2023 Ranked - New Scary Movies to Watch - March 31st, 2023
- Three cheers for the Moose: Everybody knows the name of beloved '80s sitcom star and 'Masked Singer' eliminee - Yahoo Entertainment - March 31st, 2023
- The 10 Scariest Horror Movies Ever - Rotten Tomatoes - February 26th, 2023
- Films Turning 10 in 2013: Oz the Great and Poweful The Croods Oblivion Labor ... - Latest Tweet by Pop - LatestLY - January 1st, 2023
- Family of slain Idaho student from Skagit County relieved to hear of suspect's arrest - KPIC News - January 1st, 2023
- The 50 Scariest Movies of All Time - Reader's Digest - December 24th, 2022
- 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' director rips cancel culture in comedy ... - December 24th, 2022
- "I was a side piece and you're a str*pper": Nia Long spills tea about Regina Halls role in The Best Man: The Final Chapters - Sportskeeda - December 24th, 2022
- Mother says scary movie guy wanted to kidnap her child in Spains Castellon area - The Olive Press - December 16th, 2022
- The Daily Show To Replace Trevor Noah with Chelsea Handler, Kal Penn, Al Franken, Sarah Silverman & Leslie Jones - Television - December 8th, 2022
- 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' director rips cancel culture in comedy: 'We don't want to try to educate' - Fox News - November 11th, 2022
- 20 Scary Horror Movies to Watch on HBO Max - Harper's BAZAAR - October 2nd, 2022
- Best scary movies of 2022 to watch for Halloween - Dexerto - October 2nd, 2022
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero