May 26^th, 2000

"IN CHARACTER"

This week in the grab bag we look at three actors who've become known commodities in the horror genre. Actors that when horror fans see them listed in the credits they know they just have to see it. Actors who've made a comfortable living in the best damn genre in the world.

They are Clint Howard, Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Campbell.

One's known for playing freaks, another intelligent scientists and weirdos and the other the most macho hero that ever graced a horror movie screen.

Re-Animator [1985] is the movie Jeffrey Combs will forever be known for. Even if he's made amusing turns in movies like The Frighteners and the the follow-up to this that he made with director Stuart Gordon called From Beyond.

Here he plays Herbert West, a medical student who's working on a formula that can regenerate the dead. This, of course, leads to all sorts of wacky goings on including a zombie cat, dismembered baddie and a nice little bit of intestine grabbing.

A wacky, gore-soaked and fun little film with plenty of grue and comedy with Gordon directing it with style. But it's Combs and his peformance that carries it, he's all at once smart, confused and utterly stupid (I wouldn't have injected David Gale with the regent).

If Re-Animator is the movie Jeffrey Combs will forever be remembered, then Evil Dead II [1987] will be Bruce Campbell's. After starring in the 1982 original as Ash we saw glimmers of Bruce's great charisma but it's not until the semi-remake that he worms his way into horror fans hearts.

He plays Ash again and at first he's sort of a wimp, but after seeing his girlfriend possessed, seeing a moose head laughing hysterically at him and having his hand go zombie; he decides to take no more.

Strapping a chainsaw on his now handless arm, strapping on a shotgun and getting attitude to the nine's he goes on a demon killing spree!

Awesome...and Campbell would get even more bad-ass when Army Of Darkness would show up five years later.

Ice Cream Man [1994] is one of Clint Howard's few starring roles (they include the awful 1981 movie Evilspeak). And while it's a pretty pathetic little movie, at least Clint gives it his all.

Here he plays a psychotic ice cream man who goes one a wondefully cold killing spree (get it?) as a group of pre-teens set-out to stop him.

Yeah, it's pretty lame; but Howard is at his scenery chewing best and when you see him walking around using two policemen's dismembered heads as puppets. It's gruesome, but damn funny at the same time.

And if it was anybody but Clint Howard, this would be even worse than it turned out.that says something right there.