Here's every Kurt Russell horror movie, ranked. Russell has had many phases in his career, where he started as a child actor appearing on shows like Gunsmoke and made his film debut kicking Elvis in It Happened At The World's Fair. As a teenager, he graduated to roles in Disney movies like Barefoot Executive, but it was his collaboration with John Carpenter that would help shape his movie career. After first working together on the TV movie Elvis - where he played the titular singer - Russell shed his teen idol image by fronting Escape From New York. He played the one-eyed outlaw Snake Plisskin, with the movie becoming a hit and helping him land more grown-up roles.
While many of his films with Carpenter would become cult favorites like Big Trouble In Little China, he didn't score a true success again until 1988's Tequila Sunrise, co-starring Mel Gibson. From there, Russell was on a roll of successes that included Backdraft, Executive Decision and Tombstone. After a few box-office duds like Soldier and 3000 Miles To Graceland - where he kind of got to play Elvis again - Russell moved more into ing roles. In recent years, he's ed the Fast & Furious movies as Mr. Nobody, in addition to appearing in the likes of The Hateful Eight.
Russell has appeared in pretty much every genre imaginable, from romantic comedy to intense dramas. While he's only made a handful of horror movies, at least one of them is a genuine genre masterpiece.
3. Death Proof (2007)
While its status as a horror movie might be up for debate given its lack of genre tropes, Death Proof - which was the first half of Grindhouse - has some great sequences, like a harrowing car crash and a great chase sequence, but despite a talented cast, most of it feels padded out with extended, uninteresting dialogue. Russell is delightful as the twisted villain and gets a richly deserved comeuppance, but as Tarantino himself has since conceded, it's the director's worst movie.
2. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Again, Nightmare Alley star Richard Jenkins some juicy dialogue to chew on, and while the low budget and lack of flair make it slack in the middle, its one of the best Westerns - with a heavy serving of horror - of the last decade.
1. The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of a '50s horror classic and found a research team trapped in an Arctic base menaced by a shapeshifting alien. The movie's bleakness and gory effects sequences turned critics and audiences off in 1982, but The Thing has since been reappraised as a classic. Kurt Russell gives one of his best performances, Carpenter's command of pace and tone have rarely been better, the practical effects are still jawdropping and the titular alien is one of horror cinema's most terrifying beasts.
