May 6, 2016

Next Friday, May 13th, Kevin Bacon returns to the horror genre when he leads the cast of Greg McLean’s new supernatural chiller THE DARKNESS! But obviously, over the course of Bacon’s vibrant and eclectic career, he’s faced off against plenty of terrifying specters, vengeful ghosts, worm creatures, thugs, serial killers and even Mama Voorhees! In prep for THE DARKNESS, let’s take a look back at some of Bacon’s previous brushes with darkness!

FRIDAY THE 13TH

While Bacon had done bit parts in TV movies and had appeared in ANIMAL HOUSE, his first prominent role on the silver screen was in the 1980 horror classic FRIDAY THE 13th, playing the character of Jack. Little did director Sean Cunningham know that his independent movie about a vengeful mother would go on to spawn a massive franchise led by the little boy that drowns and has less than a minute of screen time in the original. Even back then, there was something natural, charismatic and likable about Bacon’s performance as Jack. He never came face to face with Jason Voorhees as Jason didn’t really come into play until the sequel. Instead he was one of Mrs. Voorhees’ victims and has what’s arguably one of the best death sequences in the movie, courtesy of the legendary Tom Savini. Of all the radical murders, the one with Jack getting an arrow shoved through his throat was the one people talked about the most!

TREMORS

The 1990 creature feature about two repairmen, played by Bacon and Fred Ward, stumbling upon a series of strange occurrences in the desert caused by giant, underground, flesh-eating worms was a surprise hit for all those involved! It managed to spawn 4 sequels and a 13 episode TV series, and although Bacon only played the lovable Val McKee in the original, rumor has it he’ll be reprising the character for an upcoming new TREMORS series from Universal Cable Productions and Blumhouse Productions. My favorite TREMORS reference has to come from the low-budget indie horror flick THE BATTERY in which the “Governor”-type leader of a facility called The Orchard (voiced by Larry Fessenden) requests the title for their movie night.

FLATLINERS

Easily one of my favorite of Bacon’s movies, I recall seeing FLATLINERS several times in theaters as a kid! In the 1990 Joel Schumacher helmed pic, Kevin plays David Labraccio, one of the several medical students conducting unorthodox and secret experiments with death. They’re able to induce a “near death” experience, and bring each colleague back. But once you return from death, your sins tend to follow! Surrounded by an all-star cast also consisting of Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt, this is one of Schumacher’s most engaging thrillers and some of Bacon’s finest work. A remake is currently in the works. My recommendation? Bring Bacon back in another role.

STIR OF ECHOES

This 1999 horror thriller from director David Koepp based upon the Richard Matheson novel came out around the same time as M. Night Shyamalan’s THE SIXTH SENSE, which for a brief period changed the course of horror movies so that every supernatural thriller had to end with a twist! STIR OF ECHOES could be one of Bacon’s finest performances. He plays Tom Witzky, a devoted father and husband who, after being hypnotized by his sister-in-law at a party, suddenly begins suffering from strange hallucinations of a female ghost. The more he investigates, the more obsessed he becomes with uncovering her identity. He channels a bit of Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance here, although he never quite goes over-board crazy. He’s just focused on uncovering the truth about this mysterious girl, regardless of what it will do to his family and his personal life. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen this one, or if you’ve never seen it, of all the films on this list, it gets my highest recommendation!

HOLLOW MAN

Paul Verhoeven’s HOLLOW MAN, the 2000 semi-remake of THE INVISIBLE MAN, where Kevin Bacon plays scientist Sebastian Craine is an interesting horror feature. It’s obviously not a straight up remake of the Universal Classic Monster, and the digital FX for the time period are extremely impressive, but as a whole, the sum doesn’t add up to all its parts by the end of its lengthy 2 hour running time. Regardless, Bacon is at his best here getting to do a role that’s part-Seth Brundle, part Claude Rains and he seems to be loving it. He’s yet again surrounded by an all-star cast including Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin. There are some surprisingly gory bits in this, making it worth another look.

DEATH SENTENCE

This one is not particularly a “horror” movie per se, but one worth checking out, if anything, because it has SAW and INSIDIOUS mastermind James Wan in the director’s chair. Based upon the novel by Brian Garfield, which in turn was a sequel to his DEATH WISH novel, DEATH SENTENCE shares very little in common with its source material, but the movie version almost plays like a brutal, realistic origin film for THE PUNISHER. Kevin Bacon is Nick Hume, a mild-mannered executive who is forever changed with the senseless and violent murder of his son. Slowly, the thugs involved begin chasing him and his family until they push him to the brink and the tables turn. What’s great about this movie is watching the on-screen metamorphosis that Bacon undergoes to become the man we see in the finale. Any day now, this is going to be considered a cult classic and screened at revival houses to be rediscovered.

THE FOLLOWING

Last, but not least, is Kevin Bacon’s role as Ryan Hardy, an FBI agent that’s forever obsessed with serial killer/arch nemesis Joe Carroll (a brilliant James Purefoy), whom he caught and put behind bars. In the pilot of the show, however, Joe Carroll manages to escape and suddenly has the FBI in a frenzy as his loyal group of followers are murdering innocent people in his name. The show lasted 45 episodes over the course of 3 seasons and featured some of the most violent, horrific stabbings and murders for any network television program! The fun of it was the cat and mouse relationship between Bacon and Purefoy, and it was just fascinating to watch an actor like Bacon get the opportunity to evolve a character over the course of 3 seasons, as opposed to a movie’s 90 minute running time. It helped that Bacon was backed by a terrific supporting cast of actors like Shawn Ashmore and Jessica Stroup, who absolutely (pun intended) killed it week to week and helped make Bacon’s Ryan Hardy shine. While the show concluded with its 3rd season finale, you can find these on Netflix Instant for your binging pleasure!

In THE DARKNESS, Kevin Bacon plays Peter Taylor, an architect, husband and father of 2 who, after a trip to the Grand Canyon, may have brought back a supernatural presence. The writer/director of the WOLF CREEK movies and ROGUE is at the helm, so we’re looking forward to checking out another one of Bacon’s forays into the horror world come Friday, May 13th!