Ethan Hawke will soon star in psychological horror The Black Phone, but how do the actor’s earlier horror efforts rank in comparison to each other? Since his career began as a child star in the mid-‘80s, Hawke has always picked idiosyncratic projects and gone against the grain. In some cases, this has paid off handsomely, with the actor’s offbeat Richard Linklater collaborations earning particular acclaim.
However, in other cases, Hawke’s choice of projects has alienated even his biggest fans and left viewers wishing he would stick with more commercial outings. Unfortunately for that contingent, his role in The Black Phone will not be an easy watch for many. Based on a short story from horror author Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, The Black Phone is an intense psychological horror that sees Hawke plays a ruthless child killer.
While this deeply creepy role may be a departure for the usually affable actor, it is far from the first time Hawke has ventured into the darker side of genre cinema. Hawke has starred in a trio of horror movies, beginning with 2004’s psychological thriller Taking Lives before taking on a lead role in 2009’s sci-fi horror hybrid Sinister rounds up Hawke’s horror efforts, but how do the triumvirate of movies compare to each other, and which is the actor’s best genre outing to date?
Taking Lives (2004)
Coming in dead last is 2004’s Taking Lives, a late entry into the string of serial killer thrillers that littered multiplexes in the wake of Netflix’s recent No One Gets Out Alive, this horror was based on a novel that had proven a hit upon publication. Unlike No One Gets Out Alive, though, Taking Lives was an uninspired effort whose changes to the source material only served to make the story thinner and more predictable. Oddly enough, legendary critic Roger Ebert gave this one a solid review upon release, but Hawke himself was closer to the truth when he later deemed Taking Lives “terrible.”
Daybreakers (2009)
Released in 2009, the futuristic vampire horror Daybreakers is an ambitious but flawed outing from future Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld series offers a pulpier mix of confusing vampire lore and blue-hued action-horror filmmaking, while Predestination offers a more intriguing attempt to fuse existential questions with fast-paced action from the same directors, leaving Daybreakers with little going for it.
Sinister (2012)
By far the best Hawke horror effort thus far, 2012's Sinister sees him star as an alcoholic true crime novelist who can’t accept that fame has left him behind, prompting him to move his young family to the site of some grisly murders in the hopes of regaining some notoriety. This being a horror movie, Hawke’s antihero gets more than he bargained for and watching the demon Bughuul haunt the protagonist is almost as engaging as watching Hawke embody the character’s inner demons. This Blumhouse effort, like the recent The Voyeurs, features a twist ending that stretches credulity, but the real appeal of Sinister is seeing Ethan Hawke commit to a character many lesser actors would phone in and finding real humanity under the boorish, self-centered protagonist’s hardened exterior.
