Truly Terrifying Performances

what’s wrong with Gainsbourg’s She as a performance choice? it was pretty bloody terrifying

First off, that role would be just as “terrifying” played by anyone. Second, it wasn’t terrifying. The entire movie was just lame. Also, dynasties (Hollywood or otherwise) are bad.

I didn’t find it lame…perhaps you cannot appreciate the deep grief from the loss of a child, or loathed your sex so much that the only escape from it is to slice it from your body, or immersed yourself for months on end in the horrors mankind has been willing to rip from the innocent that you’ve been sent mad by it etc and so on -

it wasn’t to me a literal thing but a graphic and deeply moving representation of the manifestation of many diabolical things human beings have the capacity to perpetrate and endure, and cannot give voice to..terrifying, yes I think so.

Of course, this has been done in cinema in myriad ways, and Antichrist was but another unique treatment.

As for saying “oh anyone could have done that” *rolls eyes"

I love all his films that I’ve seen, in this order:

Breaking the Waves
Dancer in the Dark
Antichrist
Dogville
Mandalay
The Five Obstructions

Antichrist is one of the most honest expressions by a director I’ve seen. There are a lot of people I respect greatly who undervalue this film.

@House of Leaves: I’m probably being a bit too severe, but I’ve never liked Lars von Trier. I’ve seen all of his films, some several times. I’m completely biased, but everyone can’t love everything.

There are a lot of people I respect greatly who undervalue this film.

I’m touched. Noone has ever expressed such high regard for me in the past

Was Anthony Perkins too obvious for anyone to mention?

Robert Mitchum — CAPE FEAR

James Cagney — WHITE HEAT

The midget who played Chucky.

I second Ben Kinglsey in Sexy Beast. Hillarious…. but also terrifying.

Damián Alcázar as serial killer Vinicio Cepeda in Cronicas

Tom Noonan as Francis Dollarhyde/The Tooth Fairy in Manhunter

Andy Robinson as Scorpio in Dirty Harry .

Douglas Rain as the voice of Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey

Eric Bana as Chopper in Chopper

Morgan Woodward as Boss Godfrey (No Eyes) in Cool Hand Luke

Tom Hardy – Bronson
Tyson – Tyson

The children in snowsuits from The Brood

Bob from Twin Peaks

Nicholas Cage in Deadfall and The Wicker Man.

Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

John Malkovich in IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993). Esp. the scene where he shows up at the home of the bank officer who’d caught one of his lies during the application procedure.

“Sure, I read the whole thing.”

Jeff Goldbloom

My 10 favorites…in no particular order:

Gunner Hansen, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Hume Cronyn, Brute Force
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Ted Levine, Silence of the Lambs
Patrick Magee, Marat/Sade
Jessica Lange, Titus
John Jarrett, Wolf Creek
Sidney Blackmer, Rosemary’s Baby
Robert Ryan, Act of Violence

Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter
DEFINITELY Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West — I did not expect that at all!

Def Gunnar Hansen in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE…such an idiot madness.

See also: the thread about good uses of masks in movies.

most recently, tom hardy in BRONSON. I know someone just said it a few posts back. But it’s one of the greatest performances in recent memory and an absolute knock out.

nicole kidman in To Die For. how many female sociopaths are there?

The morbidly obese Lt. Eckhart in Tim Butron’s BATMAN. Not to mention the two junkies at the beginning. Or Jack Nicholson, for that matter. Real unhinged. Okay, Beetlejuice too, in a weird, definitely still funny way.

Great call on Nicole Kidman in TO DIE FOR…some of her best work.

I didn’t read the whole topic, but I guess somebody mentioned Peter O’Toole in ‘The Ruling Class’.

Just watch the ending, if you don’t – even though you should – have time to watch the entire film.

the ruling class was just plain uncomfortable.

like a rectal thermometer.

Without a doubt:
-Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
-Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet
-Wallace Shawn, Toy Story

Robin Williams in fucking ONE HOUR PHOTO………

Oh….and Wilson from Cast Away

In no particular order, just a few amongst many that have been burned into memory:

*Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu as Raymond Lemorne in The Vanishing (1988, fuck the remake!)
*Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-su in Oldboy (Also would like to mention him for his terrifying roles in I Saw the Devil and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance!)
*Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter.
*Grace Zabriskie as Juana Durango in Wild at Heart
*William Dafoe as Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart.
*Douglas Silva as Li’l Dice in City of God.
*Greg Cruttwell as Jeremy Smart in Naked (Ugh, he was so vile in this!)

Ken Ogata in Vengeance is Mine

Mostly though, individual characters don’t terrify me, not because I’m trying to be a badass or because of any fault on the actor’s part. I honestly don’t know why.

Presences, or the effects ideas or horrors have on groups are more terrifying to me, such as the predicament in The Thing or just the concept of Cord in Cutter’s Way.

Dean Stockwell in Compulsion

Jason Statham – Crank: High Voltage