Welcome to Day 16 of Spooky Season! Today, I’m sharing part 2 of my favorite horror movie cameos! I honestly go back and forth on what I consider to be a cameo. Right now, I’m sharing some of the special appearances that both surprised and delighted me. I hope you enjoy and let me know your favorite horror movie cameo!! (SPOILER ALERT!!!)
Vincent Price as The Invisible Man – Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein
Synopsis (provided by IMDb.com): The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula (Bela Lugosi) want his brain for Frankenstein Monster’s (Glenn Strange) body.
Vincent Price was one of the masters of horror, and it was a real treat and surprise that he was (kind of) in this film! After all the monsters were defeated and Wilbur (Lou Costello) and Chick (Bud Abbott) thought they were finally safe in their boat, an invisible figure lit a cigarette behind them and started talking about how he missed all the fun. Price lent his iconic voice and laugh to give us an epic conclusion to the film, AND to tell us who they’d be up against in their next film.
Bill Murray as Martin Heiss, Annie Potts as The Desk Clerk, Dan Aykroyd as The Cabbie, Ernie Hudson as Uncle Bill, & Sigourney Weaver as Rebecca Gorin – Ghostbusters (2016)
Synopsis (provided by IMDb.com): Following a ghost invasion of Manhattan, paranormal enthusiasts, Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), nuclear engineer, Jillian Holtzman (Kate McKinnon), and subway worker, Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) band together to stop the otherworldly threat.
I originally planned to talk about these cameos individually, but I just couldn’t do that. I just love how almost all of the original Ghostbusters cast joined this film in support of it. I love that Murray played the pretentious skeptic, and I love that Potts gave us her iconic “what do ya want?” line. Aykroyd played an unfazed New Yorker, Hudson played Patty’s uncle who gave them their hearse, and Weaver played Holtzman’s odd mentor. People were hating on this film from the second it was announced and I’m really glad that the O.G. ghostbusters weren’t a part of that hate. It seemed like they had a lot of fun in this film. Even though it wasn’t really a “passing of the torch” situation, these cameos helped solidify this film as a great installment in the franchise!
Lotta Losten as Esther – Lights Out
Synopsis (provided by IMDb.com): A supernatural entity reemerges to terrorize a family when the lights go out at night.
In 2013, we were given an amazingly creepy short horror film about a spirit who only appears in the dark. 3 years later, it was given the full feature treatment with the same amount of suspense and scares. In the short film, Lotta played a woman terrorized by this spirit in her apartment. Here, she worked for a man whom the spirit was targeting and she was almost caught in the crossfire. Not only do I love that Lotta appeared in both films, I love that they recreated the short’s most iconic moment with her. It was a great reference to the one that started it all.
Brandon Crane as Big Guy – IT: Chapter 2
Synopsis (provided by IMDb.com): Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
For 27 years before Andy Muschietti took over the story of IT, we had the 1990 adaptation to bring us a reason to fear clowns, sewers, and balloons. Brandon Crane played a young Ben Hanscom all those years ago, fighting the demonic alien clown with good friends. This chapter showed that we certainly didn’t forget the original when he was brought back to share a scene with the new Ben (Jay Ryan). It was such a wonderful surprise to see one of the original Losers in this new installment, and still working with architects. I don’t know why they credited his cameo as Big Guy, though. Is that also supposed to be a nod to his original character?
Tony Todd as Daniel Robitaille – Candyman (2021)
Synopsis (provided by IMDb.com): A sequel to the horror film, Candyman that returns to the now-gentrified Chicago neighborhood where the legend began.
This film was so great for many reasons. One was that instead of choosing to recast Tony Todd as the iconic Candyman, they changed the story to show that even though Daniel Robitaille was the first Candyman, he wasn’t the only one. There may be more than one Candyman, but Tony Todd with ALWAYS be Daniel Robitaille and I love that they did that for him. I wasn’t expecting to see him in this film at all so when he appeared at the very end, it really hit me in the best way. After Brianna (Teyonah Parris) was being threatened to cooperate with the crooked cops’ story, she summoned Candyman to take care of them. As he was surrounded by bees, his last words were “tell everyone.” it was a great sendoff for one of Todd’s most iconic characters.
