Horror movies with a Detroit connection you may not have known about

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Maniac Cop
Around these parts, Bruce Campbell will forever be associated with the Evil Dead movies, and quite right too. The character of Ash is a horror icon, and he launched Campbell’s career. However, between Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, Campbell starred as Jack Forrest in the first two Maniac Cop movies. These gems of the late ’80s/early ’90s saw an undead cop called Matthew Cordell. The uniformed zombie basically offs a bunch of people including, in Maniac Cop 2, Campbell’s character. The forthcoming blu-ray edition of Maniac Cop 2 includes a deleted scene starring Sam Raimi.

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Ravenous
Traverse City actor Jeremy Davis played Private Toffler in this ’99 shocker, also starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, about cannibalism in 1840’s California, loosely based on the story of the Donner party. Some soldiers starve in a remote cabin, then a cave. Some soldiers turn on each other. Some soldiers eat each other. In the process, we learn that human flesh is addictive. The only solution? Cold turkey. HA – see what we did there?

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The Exorcist
Nobody needs the story of The Exorcist retelling, but did you know that the character of Christine MacNeil (Regan’s mom) was played by Detroiter Ellen Burstyn? So it was Burstyn who found her face all bloodied during the infamous crucifix scene. Not only that, but Burstyn genuinely injured her coccyx during the filming of the movie, resulting in a permanent injury. The woman suffered for her art, and she did it in Satan’s name.

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The Fog
Southfield native Selma Blair has appeared in Scream 2 and the two Hellboy movies, but we like to highlight the 2005 inferior remake of John Carpenter’s The Fog, a movie that proves beyond doubt that big budgets and high-tech special effects don’t necessarily result in a better film. Blair starred alongside Tom “Clark Kent in Smallville” Welling in the least scary ghost film since Casper. In fact, the film took the “Least Scary Film” category in that year’s Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.

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The Stuff
Michael Moriarty is the star of The Stuff, a man who went to the University of Detroit High School and also appeared in Pale Rider. In this film, white goop is found bubbling out of the ground and it turns out to be delicious. It is marketed to the America public as a new alternative to ice cream. Unfortunately, it turns the consumer into a mindless victim of immoral capitalism. Spot the hidden message? Oh, it also tears your head into two pieces, unlike ice cream.

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Arachnophobia
John Goodman steals every single scene that he appears in, in 1990’s Arachnophobia, and some of the scenes that he doesn’t. His character is so strong that it’s easy to forget Jeff Daniels in the lead role. Daniels isn’t bad at all; he plays the meek dad/husband who gets tough at the end very well. Plus he gets to kill the big, bad spider in the basement. Sadly, unlike Goodman, he didn’t have his own theme tune upon entering a room.

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The Butterfly Effect 3
Here’s a neato little fact: the character of Rebecca Brown (pictured) who gets brutally butchered in The Butterfly Effect 3 is played by Mia Serafino, daughter of Ralph Serafino, the guy who played drums in Rob Tyner’s ‘New’ MC5 in the late ’70s. As is the case in the first two movies, the plot involves a dude traveling through time to try to put things right, but instead royally fucking up everything.

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Don’t Look Behind You
Detroiter Pam Dawber was Mindy in Mork & Mindy and, well, that’s about all that we remember too. However, a little research reveals that Dawber starred in this little ’99 TV movie about a family trying to escape a hitman by entering into a witness protection program. Naturally, their secret doesn’t stay safe. It’s like Cape Fear, without the fear.

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Frogs
Detroit actress Lynn Borden might be best known for her portrayal of Barbara Baxter in the sitcom Hazel (although that’s a stretch to begin with), but her turn alongside Sam Elliott in the ’72 creature feature Frogs should never, ever be forgotten. An eco-horror, the movie tells the tale of a plantation full of frogs, lizards and other various creatures, all of whom are pissed about the pollution created by a resident family so they exact a slimy revenge.

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Maneater
Dean Cain of Mt. Clemens will forever be Superman to Teri Hatcher’s Lois Lane, but in 2009 he starred as FBI profiler Harry Bailey in this straight-to-video movie about a creature on the loose that is slaughtering poachers. The catch? The creature may be Bailey, as he’s having some pretty gruesome dreams. How does Cain profile and catch himself? Shoddy acting does nothing to mar some cool gore scenes.

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