Hard rock and heavy metal make a natural fit for the horror genre, and whether it’s comics, books, TV, of films, there have been plenty of rockers who have taken a plunge into the dark side beyond music. Most notably, Rob Zombie has directed many movies in the genre, incuding his Firefly trilogy and two Halloween reboots. Then there are those performers who jump in front of the lens, extending their stage personas onto celluloid.
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Here are six rockers who have appeared or starred in horror and horror-related movies. They tasted blood and wanted more!
W.A.S.P (in The Dungeonmaster, 1984)
This low-budget flick is not a classic, but it has a devoted cult following. A silly fantasy film with touches of horror that plays a little like a cross between Conan and Tron, it is most notable for Night Court cast member Richard Moll playing the villainous title character Mestema and for the performance scene in which L.A. shock rockers W.A.S.P. perform their song “Tormentor” before a club crowd of “crazed” metalheads. Our hero pushes to the stage to save his girlfriend who has been tied up and hooded on a rack. He has to stop frontman Blackie Lawless from decapitating her with a machete. You can tell Lawless loved hamming it up onscreen, especially as this was an actrual part of their stage shows back then. (Although he preferred using his sawblade codpiece.)
Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons (in Trick or Treat, 1986)
Here are two cameos from major ’80s rock figures in a movie about a bullied teen named Eddie Weinbauer who summons the spirit of a deceased, once-bullied rock star named Sammi Curr by playing his music backwards. Their revenge pact against their tormentors seems to work at first, until things get out of hand.
Rock’s Prince Of Darkness has played himself in everything from Little Nicky to the Ghostbusters remake. But in this B-movie, Osbourne portrayed the Rev. Aaron Gilstrom, a crusader against pornographic rock music who discusses that very topic on television. He’s clearly poking fun at the type of people who derided his music and antics back in the 1980s. Gilstrom declares of rock music, “It’s absolutely sick and bizarre, and I’m going to do my utmost best to stop it now!”
KISS bassist Simmons co-starred in three movies back in the ’80s—Runaway, Never Too Young to Die, and Wanted: Dead Or Alive—and claims he could have starred as Curr, but he thought it was too close to home. So he took on the smaller role of a fast-talking DJ named Nuke who hands Eddie the master tapes of Curr’s unreleased album Songs in The Key of Death, which sets all the trouble in motion.
Again, it’s not a classic movie, but this is the archetypal rock-oriented B-movie that kids would rent for kicks on weekends back then. It’s so ’80s!
Alice Cooper (in Prince of Darkness, 1987)
This underappreciated John Carpenter movie follows a group of scientists and grad students who investigate a large ancient canister of green liquid in an old church. Upon opening it, they set free a malevolent force that will likely threaten humanity. Could it be … Satan? The film has some great moments, and Cooper has a few scenes as a “street schizo,” the leader of a pack of possessed vagabonds who even skewers one of the scientists in alleyway. It was inevitable that he’d be cast in a role like this, and he clearly enjoyed it. Around this time Cooper starred in the Spanish horror movie Monster Dog. He later cameoed as Freddy Krueger’s foster father in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Samuel Leventhal in The Attic Expeditions (2001), and a vampire bartender in Suck (2009).
Dee Snider (in Strangeland, 1998)
Following the demise of Twisted Sister in the late ’80s and before their subsequent reunion, frontman Dee Snider tried other musical projects and journeyed into radio with the nationally syndicated House of Hair, which later led to a multifaceted career in television, musical theater, voiceovers, and even as the star of his own horror movie which also featured Elizabeth Pena and Robert Englund. In Strangeland, he played the torture-minded serial killer Captain Howdy, a character directly pulled from his two-part song “Horror-Teria (The Beginning)” from Twisted’s 1984 hit album Stay Hungry. Snider’s heavily pierced and tattooed character cut an ominous, imposing figure that some feel is underrated as a horror villain, and the singer has stated that people have told him that he was a pioneer of the torture porn craze of the 2000s. Alas, there was no sequel, but at least Snider got his band to reunite initially for the solid anthem “Heroes Are Hard to Find” that plays during the end credits. They would play out regularly again in the 2000s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYPf7qnaKUM
Dani Filth (in Cradle of Fear, 2001)
Cradle Of Filth frontman/mastermind Dani Filth has been a lifelong horror fan, so it’s no surprise that he wound up in Alex Chandon’s gory, low-budget horror anthology Cradle of Fear. While the film fairly received mixed reviews, it had some interesting moments. Appearing for only about 10 minutes in the movie, Filth emerged as “The Man” who serves as narrative glue throughout this anthology, inflicting supernatural cruelty and suffering upon his victims in the service of a jailed killer, all the while baffling the London authorities. Chandon was reportedly inspired by the classic Amicus anthology Asylum from 1972.
Foo Fighters (in Studio 666, 2022)
This horror-comedy from director B. J. McDonnell, and inspired by a story by Foos frontman Dave Grohl, got a mixed reception as well, but it’s clear that everyone involved had fun making it. The group moved into a mansion to write their next album and overcome their writers block, and the singer becomes possessed by a demonic presence … which leads to bad things happening. Check out the clip below: As Grohl “comes up with” the song “Hello,” a creepy-looking Lionel Richie suddenly appears to warn him not to steal his f–king song.
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