One of the great things about horror movie monsters is their ability to pull you away from reality. How many times has a trailer used the tagline, “It’s only a movie…it’s only a movie…?” That’s because the filmmakers behind the most memorable horror movies of all time were able to pull you inside their vision so intensely that you forget it wasn’t real. And depending on how you look at it, that could be a shame because there are some great actors behind legendary horror icons, even if you don’t recognize them under their incredible makeup.
However, Angela Norris, the owner of Fxattics Studios, wanted to honor those men and women beneath the makeup in a series of photos that showcases both their human side and their most monstrous.
“I am the owner of Fxattics Studios, where I make props and Halloween masks, so I’m always trying to create works of art to increase my likes and views on the page,” Norris told Defused, “I had the idea to do the montage with the clown Twisty as many people don’t know that he is John Carroll Lynch from the show Drew Carey. My followers liked the idea and I kept doing it.”
Entertainment website Defused put together a list of Norris’ work and we picked some of our favorites from the list below.
Tony Moran as Michael Myers
The iconic man behind the mask throughout the movie was Nick Castle, but it’s been famously reported that Tony Moran stepped in for the unmasking scene in which we get to (partially) see Michael’s face.
Fxattics Studios
Quinn Lord as Sam
Did you know that Quinn Lord was also the little boy with the lollipop at the beginning of the film, who peeked into the window while the girls were undressing?
Fxattics Studios
Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger
It’s unthinkable now, but Englund wasn’t director Wes Craven’s first choice to play Krueger. He wanted to use a stuntman for the role but decided that wasn’t going to work and Englund got the part.
Fxattics Studios
Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding
There were three people up for the role of Captain Spaulding: Jon Polito, Red West, and Sid Haig. Guess who got the part?
Fxattics Studios
Howard Thornton as Art the Clown
The mime-like performances that you see Art the Clown doing in the film were used based on Howard Thorton’s experience as a mime.
Fxattics Studios
Bonnie Aarons as The Nun
Long before Aarons became the demon Valak in The Conjuring universe, she was featured in the music video for Counting Crows’ “Round Here” video in 1993.
Fxattics Studios
Daveigh Chase as Samara
Before getting the part of Samara in The Ring, Chase tried out for the part of Jodie Foster’s daughter in Panic Room. She lost to Kristen Stewart.
Fxattics Studios
Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise from IT (2017)
Skarsgård got his inspiration for Pennywise from watching the iconic movie psychos from, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, The Dark Knight, and Silence of the Lambs.
Fxattics Studios
Doug Bradley as Pinhead
Bradley nearly turned down the role as the lead cenobite because he was just starting out as an actor and thought people should see his face.
Fxattics Studios
Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees
Kane might be the most recognized person to have played Jason even though he only became a part of the franchise in its sixth sequel.
Fxattics Studios
Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface
Because Gunnar was faster than Marilyn Burns, during their chase scene, he had to slow down a little by doing other things like pausing to use his chainsaw on a random tree.
Fxattics Studios
John Carroll Lynch as Twisty from American Horror Story
Lynch’s Twisty the Clown portrayal was criticized by the National Clown Association of America for giving their profession a bad name.
Fxattics Studios
Jonathan Breck as The Creeper
The Creeper was bald because Breck thought that it would need to “borrow” its victim’s hair, based on the storyline.
Fxattics Studios
Warwick Davis as The Leprechaun
Unlike Gunnar Hansen in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre who could outrun his final girl in real life and had to slow down in chase scenes, Davis couldn’t keep up with Leprechaun’s final girl (Jennifer Aniston) in a wheelchair scene, so she had to slow down in order for him to keep up.
Fxattics Studios
Tim Curry in Legend, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and IT (1990)
The amount of makeup and prosthetics curry had to have done for this movie was astounding. At one point Curry got claustrophobic during the removal process and panicked ripping off part of the costume and some of his own skin with it.
Fxattics Studios
To see more movie monster photos and the actors who portrayed them, head over to Defused.
All photos were created by Fxattics Studios.
.jpg "Converge Announce Second Album of 2026, Share New Song")
