By George & Josh Bate
Some of the most iconic actors and filmmakers behind Star Wars have featured in horror movies worthy of a watch this Halloween season. Here’s how you can see the likes on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Din Djarin, Kylo Ren, and more in a decidedly different and spookier light.
Pedro Pascal in Bloodsucking Bastards
This indie horror comedy from 2015 didn’t get much attention, but it’s definitely worth a watch. The film follows a man who begins to suspect that his new boss (played by Pedro Pascal) is a vampire intent on turning everyone in the office into vampires. The film is funny, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and has a bonkers third act in which Pascal really gets to do something different from what we’re used to seeing from him.
Tony Gilroy – The Devil’s Advocate
Best known now as the creator of Andor, Tony Gilroy actually wrote the script for The Devil’s Advocate (1997). The supernatural legal thriller stars Keanu Reeves as a lawyer who may or may not be working for the devil, played by Al Pacino. The film mixes courtroom drama with horror themes and imagery, highlighting glimpses of Gilroy’s fascination with power and ethics — themes he’d later explore in Andor.
Hayden Christensen in Awake
Hayden Christensen followed up his time making the prequels with a slew of films, one of which was the 2007 psychological horror film Awake. The film follows Christensen as a young man, who, while undergoing surgery, experiences intraoperative awareness. He becomes fully alert — but paralyzed — and therefore cannot tell his doctors that he is not sedated and is enduring the whole process. Jessica Alba co-stars as Christensen’s wife. It’s not a perfect movie but definitely a fun watch.
Ray Park, Ian McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee in Sleepy Hollow
Before they joined forces (or the dark side) in Star Wars, these three Sith lords appeared together in Tim Burton’s gothic horror Sleepy Hollow (1999). Ray Park plays the Headless Horseman’s stunt double, Ian McDiarmid appears as the town doctor, and Christopher Lee portrays a stern judge who sets Ichabod Crane on his eerie investigation. It’s a delightful Star Wars reunion within a movie pitch perfect for Halloween season.
Ewan McGregor in Nightwatch
Before he picked up a lightsaber, Ewan McGregor took a night shift in a morgue. Nightwatch (1997) is a taut psychological thriller in which McGregor’s character starts to realize that the bodies piling up around him might be the work of a serial killer closer than he thinks. The dim lighting, late-’90s atmosphere, and grim subject matter make it one of McGregor’s more underrated pre-Star Wars gems.
Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac in Annihilation
Two Star Wars veterans from two different eras team up for Alex Harland’s 2018 sci-fi horror film Annihilation. The movie follows Portman as a biologist who enters a mysterious environmental zone called The Shimmer, while Oscar Isaac plays her husband — one of the few to have returned from The Shimmer. The scares sneak up on you, but, when they hit, they hit hard. The film features some of the most unnerving creative designs and encounters in modern horror and features an abstract, spine-tingling finale.
Adria Arjona in The Belko Experiment
Before she played Bix in Andor, Adria Arjona appeared in this bloody horror comedy written by James Gunn. The Belko Experiment (2016) takes place in a locked-down corporate building where employees are forced to kill each other or be killed. Arjona stands out in the ensemble and shows off her range here.
Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Death Proof
Two Star Wars actresses from the Disney+ series Ahsoka previously joined Quentin Tarantino’s grindhouse homage Death Proof (2007), which was originally released as part of the three-hour epic Grindhouse. Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are part of a group of women targeted by a psychotic stuntman (played by Kurt Russell) who uses his car as a weapon. The movie’s first half is a slow burn, but by the end, it’s all roaring engines, revenge, and pure Tarantino adrenaline.
Harrison Ford in What Lies Beneath
If you haven’t seen What Lies Beneath, skip this paragraph and watch the movie already, because it’s fantastic. If you have seen it, then you will know that Ford delivers one of his rare villainous turns here. The Han Solo actor stars opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath (2000), which begins as a simple haunted-house story but slowly morphs into something much darker.
Carrie Fisher in Sorority Row
Carrie Fisher doesn’t show up much in this 2009 slasher remake, but when she does, she steals the scene — as the sorority house mother, no less. The film is a decent horror flick filled with all the tropes you’d expect, and Fisher gets one of the movie’s best moments.
Mark Hamill in Child’s Play and Village of the Damned
Mark Hamill has always had a knack for voice work and villainy, and he got to combine both in the 2019 remake of Child’s Play, voicing a modernized and technologically-enhanced version of the killer doll Chucky. But that wasn’t his first horror outing — back in 1995, he starred in John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned, facing off against telepathic children. Both roles show off Hamill’s range and willingness to get weird, well beyond Luke Skywalker.
Adam Driver in The Dead Don’t Die
Jim Jarmusch’s 2019 zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die sees Adam Driver and Bill Murray as small-town cops dealing with a zombie outbreak. What more do you need to know to sell this movie? It’s a slow, quirky, self-aware horror comedy that lets Driver show off his comedic chops while still wielding a weapon or two.
Katee Sackhoff in Oculus and Halloween: Resurrection
Before she appeared in The Mandalorian, Katee Sackhoff starred in Mike Flanagan’s Oculus (2013), a psychological horror about a haunted mirror that manipulates perception and memory. Chris Stuckmann called Oculus the best haunted mirror movie of all time and, although Oculus has its flaws, he’s probably right. Sackhoff plays the mother of two children who witness the mirror’s disturbing influence. Before that, Sackhoff was one of Michael Myers’ many victims in the awfully hilarious (or hilariously awful) Halloween: Resurrection.
Jon Watts and Chris Ford – Clown
Before directing Spider-Man: Homecoming and Skeleton Crew, Jon Watts made a horror film with co-writer Chris Ford called Clown (2014). The film blends clown slashers like It with plot elements from Halloween III: Season of the Witch, culminating in a nasty and monstruous horror debut.