Every actor has a beginning, and that beginning is frequently hard. Even A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, who has an absurdly vast selection of films to choose from, are not immune to the cringe of the past. While some of them may wish to keep the past secret, this does not negate the fact that these films are worth seeing.
In truth, some of the industry’s top names made cameo appearances in hilariously amusing B-movies or even B-horror films before making it big with their large-budget films and series. When it comes to horror, even bad movies may be good if viewed through the eyes of a horror fan looking for pure amusement.
In this video, we will go over our best recommendations for B-horror films in which some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have acted early in their careers. In reality, these actors made their big screen debuts in the majority of these films. Despite their low Rotten Tomatoes ratings, these films are currently considered guilty pleasures and cult classics.
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Leonardo DiCaprio: Critters 3 (1991)
American science fiction comedy horror movie Critters 3 is the debut film for Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred as Josh. Directed by Kristine Peterson, it is the third film from the Critters franchise.
The movie follows the events of its predecessor Critters 2: The Main Course. Here, Charlie MacFadden tracks down the last Critters. He comes across a family of three, Annie, Johnny, and Clifford and warns them about the Critters. However, before the family could leave, a Critter lays eggs under their car. When they get back home, the eggs hatch, and the Critters attack Frank, their maintenance guy. This is just the beginning of its antics. The Critters eat the landlord and attack the residents.
In the end, Charlie must arrive at the scene and take care of the situation but that becomes iffy when you realize that the movie ends in a cliffhanger.
Unfortunately, Critters 3 bombed with the critics and at the box office with Rotten Tomatoes giving it an approval rating of only 0%. Several of these critics have called the movie sub-par with a weak and episodic plot. The special effects aren’t one to die for either. But you get to see a young Leo DiCaprio in action for the very first time and his talent is evident from the start.
However, an eighteen-year-old DiCaprio was evidently not fond of his performance, calling it an average performance for a regular kid with blonde hair. However, his performance as a boy who kills his step-father with the Critters is nuanced and layered, making it a solid debut for the actor.
Tom Hanks: Mazes and Monsters (1982)
Tom Hanks stars in Steven Hilliard Stern’s Mazes and Monsters as Robbie Wheeling. He is a student at the fictional school Grant University where he befriends Kate, Jay Jay, and Daniel.
In terms of personality, they are all quite different from each other. Fantasy games were a craze on college campuses, even more so with their complicated rules. This helped the four friends come to a middle ground as they shared a mutual interest in a game called Mazes and Monsters.
However, they decide to flip the setting of the game from a board game into one with a real-life setting. This turns out to be a terrible decision. Out of a dormitory room and into a real maze and some abandoned caverns, a casual game turns into a nightmare.
Board games transcending into the real world is conceptually brilliant, which has been proven by the Robbie Williams starrer Jumanji. Mazes and Monsters have more of an underlying message in it, one that teaches us how “the most frightening monsters are the ones that exist in our minds.”
The conclusion of the movie is sophisticated. However, it works less as the cautionary tale that it is meant to be but more as entertainment to get engrossed in. Tom Hanks’ Robbie is a complex character. We see his external charm which is a contrast to the cracks beneath the surface, which we learn about later in the movie as he speaks to Kate about his missing brother and has a full-blown breakdown in the caves.
In fact, his performance in this movie was a prominent reason for the kick-off that catapulted him to success in Hollywood.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Hercules in New York (1969)
When you make a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger, there is going to be a point in your life where you have to play an Olympian Greek God. For Arnold, what happened quite early in his career with Hercules in New York is his debut film.
He plays Hercules, who argues with his father Zeus to land on Earth for his adventure amongst men. On his arrival, he finds himself in New York City where he has some strange encounters. He also makes a name for himself in pro wrestling.
His antics piss Zeus off, who orders Mercury to stop Hercules. He fails. Zeus then asks Nemesis to make sure that Hercules is consigned to the infernal regions, a place ruled over by his brother Pluto. Juno, who hated any kid Zeus had with women who weren’t her, asks Nemesis to poison Hercules and strip him of his divinity. Pluto learns of this and bets a huge sum of money against him in an upcoming competition.
From here on, things begin to change for Hercules. Meanwhile, Zeus must find out why his son lost his divinity.
As interesting as the movie sounds, one thing might annoy Greek mythology nerds (there are more Greek mythology nerds than you may think, thanks to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series). The names of the Gods are all messed up with Zeus being referred to in his Greek form while the others such as Juno, Mercury, and Pluto tend to have names borrowed from their Roman counterparts.
To see a twenty-two-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger bash bears in his debut adds to the comedy of the movie.
Jeff Goldblum: Death Wish (1974)
Jeff Goldblum made his debut in Hollywood with the 1974 film Death Wish. This vigilante action drama film was directed by Michael Winner.
It revolves around Paul Kersey, who is an open-minded architect. He returns to New York after he’s done vacationing with his wife. He feels great but his spirits are brought down after he encounters his cynical co-worker at work, who warns him about the rising crime rate.
Paul is a liberal guy who thinks the reason for the crime is poverty, which makes sense when you look at the bigger picture but in the case of Paul, it hands him the shorter end of the stick when his wife is beaten to death and his daughter is brutally raped and rendered catatonic by some thugs who followed them home to rob them. The police lack leads on the situation while his helplessness is fuelled by his son-in-law. Paul realizes that there’s not much that could have been done as the police cannot be everywhere at once. He is then sent to Arizona where Paul learns what the Old West ideals are about.
Michael Winner does a fantastic job at portraying a New York City overrun by terror. Every nook and corner of the city has been overrun by muggers and no place is safe. In fact, it feels less like a real-life city and more like a dystopian, war-torn city that you can see in a cyberpunk animated series. With killers everywhere, New York breeds crime.
Jeff Goldblum doesn’t play a huge role in the movie as he appears as one of the freaks involved in killing Paul’s wife and raping his daughter. Goldblum himself believes that he stuck out like a sore thumb in his movie but Michael Winner commended him on his performance despite having to play such a brutal part.
Clint Eastwood: Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Directed by Jack Arnold, who had previously directed the first Creature film, Revenge of the Creature marks the on-screen debut of Clint Eastwood. It was the only 3D film to have been released in 1955.
After being shot and becoming a home ground for bullets, the Gill-man manages to survive. He is then captured and sent to the Ocean Harbor Oceanarium in Florida. Animal psychologist Professor Clete Ferguson, along with ichthyology student Helen Dobson, studies the Gill-man.
Clete and Helen experience a budding romance with each other, which isn’t supported by Joe Hayes, the keeper of Gill-man. Meanwhile, Clete’s communication with Gill-man takes a toll when Gill-man begins to like Helen. The Gill-man escapes and flees to the ocean, but he kills Joe before doing so.
However, the Gill-man is unable to stop thinking about his newfound love Helen. Hell is bound to break loose when a creature begins to simp for you and that is exactly what happens in this movie.
In terms of plot, it isn’t groundbreaking, earth-shattering, or super special. Things play out in a way you’d expect it to but being a 50s monster matinee, that gets a pass. The Gill-man is seen swimming a lot, which can get monotonous but to cut him some slack, he has gills. He needs the water.
A lot of subtlety is present in this movie, which requires the understanding of seasoned horror fans, who actually tend to enjoy the movie, making it one of the classic monster films by Universal Studios.
Fans of Clint Eastwood can spot him early in the story when he appears as a lab technician named Jennings. In his brief role, he interacts with Professor Ferguson and accuses a cat of eating their lab rat. However, he finds the rat to be in the pocket of his lab coat.
Demi Moore: Parasite (1982)
1982’s Parasite was directed by Charles Band and is a Demi Moore starrer, who makes her debut in this film as a local lemon farmer.
The movie is set in a dystopian future where the world has been reduced to poverty following an atomic disaster. An organization called Merchants runs America by exploiting what remains of their society. They force Dr. Paul Dean to create a parasite that feeds on the host to control the population. But the doctor escapes the clutch of the Merchants. However, he gets infected himself.
Paul travels from town to town trying to find a way to destroy it while he is on the run. Meanwhile, a Merchant named Wolf is trying to hunt him down. A former slave of the Merchants finds Paul and attacks him in a desert with his hooligans. In the process, they steal a silver canister that contained the parasite. It infects one of the gang members.
Paul meets a pretty woman named Patrician who vows to help him destroy the parasite. Meanwhile, the others must deal with the infection and the parasite while Wolf is on the loose.
The movie sounds serious but it adds doses of humor here and there. Over time, Parasite has been able to find a soft spot in the hearts of many, despite not enjoying success with the critics. The opening promises something more horrifying with its eerie sequences but the movie fails at providing the same horror in its runtime. However, some interesting new ideas and gore scenes compensate for it.
Jennifer Aniston: Leprechaun (1993)
Similar to most of the other entries in the list, Leprechaun saw Jennifer Aniston make her debut on the big screen. Written and directed by Mark Jones, this horror movie dabbles with comedy for its charm.
A vengeful, Irish leprechaun has recently lost his pot of gold. In fact, it has been stolen by Dan O’Grady. He returns to the United States, hoping to settle down in luxury as the gold will fetch him substantial wealth. But life isn’t that easy is it?
The leprechaun is not the type to let go of its pot so it follows O’Grady all the way to the United States. After a lot of effort, O’Grady manages to lock the leprechaun in his little basement and make a narrow escape from its clutches.
Ten years pass by and now J.D. has moved into O’Grady’s house with his spoiled daughter Tory. Unaware of what lay behind the basement doors, the leprechaun is accidentally released. Now it is desperate to get its pot of gold back and goes after it while showing no regard for human life.
After starring in this movie, Jennifer Aniston, who played the role of Tory Reding, did not expect her career to catapult much. In fact, she found the movie to be embarrassing. But thanks to its success with the audience and its cult fanbase, Aniston did not have to worry about not surviving in the industry.
Jack Nicholson: Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
Directed by Roger Corman, Little Shop of Horrors is an American black comedy film. Jack Nicholson stars in the film, playing the role of Wilbur Force.
It revolves around Seymour Krelborn, a clumsy man who spoils his client’s flowers, making his boss Gravis ready to fire him. Seymour then tells him that he has mixed two separate breeds of flowers to create a hybrid called the Audrey Jr, so his boss gives him another chance.
Audrey Jr. becomes Gravis’ pride and draws interest from the others. However, Audrey Jr. develops a taste for blood, confusing Seymour who does not know how to deal with its thirst. Trying to come up with a solution, Seymour walks alongside the railroad track. He throws a stone that accidentally hits a man on the head. The man topples and falls on the railway track when a train runs over him, cutting his body into pieces. Seymour takes those pieces and goes back to his shop. When he feeds them to Audrey Jr. he realizes that the plant likes human flesh.
The plant then grows and has become the star of their flower shop. But Seymour must figure out what to do with the plant and how to feed it.
The movie is a slapstick comedy, often absurd, and a bit depressing at times. It is renowned for its musical numbers that are performed in musical theaters, the most notable one being Suddenly Seymour.
Jack Nicholson’s Wilbur Force appears to Seymour after the accidental death of the man in a memorable cameo role.
Angelina Jolie: Cyborg 2 (1993)
Directed by Michael Schroeder, Cyborg 2 is a science fiction action film. Even though Angelina Jolie had made her big-screen debut as a child star in 1982’s Lookin’ to Get Out, Cyborg 2 was where her career found its earnest beginning.
The movie is set in the future of 2074 where PinWheel corporation creates a cyborg. This cyborg is almost human and is named Casella Reese, but casually called Cash. It was created to seduce the people from a rival headquarters, charm its way into the place, and then self-detonate to destroy everything.
However, she eventually develops feelings for Colt 45 or Colton Ricks, a human, who worked at PinWheel as an instructor for martial arts. Her feelings are reciprocated and they manage to escape. Unfortunately, the corporation sends a Cyborg Tracker called Danny Bench after the two, and there on begins the violence.
This is Angelina Jolie’s first feature film, which is often cited as being the movie’s claim to fame. This was also the first project taken by Jack Palance (who plays Mercy) after he had won an Oscar for CITY SLICKERS in 1992.
The movie sports a strong script, making it an entertaining watch-through and through. Jolie shows a lot of promise with her performance as Cash while Elias Koteas nails his role as Colt 45. During a 2005 interview on Inside the Actor’s Studio, Jolie referred to it as a fantastic B-movie.
Gerard Butler: Tale of the Mummy (1998)
Russell Mulcahy’s Tale of the Mummy is a 1998 horror film, where Gerard Butler portrays a character named Burke.
A Prince was buried under the sands of ancient Egypt centuries ago. His tomb was cursed to prevent people from suffering from his evils. A group of archeologists breaks the seal of the tomb, centuries later causing all of them to vanish with no traces. All that was left was a logbook and the legend of the bloodthirsty Talos as a deadly warning.
Fifty years pass by. The head archeologist from that expedition had a granddaughter, who got her hands on the logbook. She decides to follow her grandfather’s steps and finds the forbidden treasure. She unknowingly unleashes the tomb and its savage power after recovering a sacred amulet. She teams up with an American detective and her original dig team to fight this savage force while racing through London. Together, they try to undo the curse and prevent Talos from causing unprecedented destruction for immortality and power.
The Tale of the Mummy is a B-Movie. Mulcay tries his best to make it look like it isn’t but due to budget constraints, that does not work out. The mummy flying in its bandaged form is sure to get chuckles in and its humanoid transformation is even funnier. The final form knocks the laughter out of the park. As great as that may sound, the movie is not supposed to be a comedy which only makes this the ideal watch because cringe content is often the best.
What did you think of these movies? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye and have a nice one!