The horror of A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story wouldn’t become a hit until it aired on cable a year after its release, but November 18^th, 2013 is the 30^th anniversary of its theatrical release. What a perfect opportunity to celebrate the horror of A Christmas Story! The members of this beloved cast are no strangers to horror!

We begin with Darren McGavin.

Anyone who was around in the 1970s will know him as Kolchak – The Night Stalker! In this series, he played a reporter who managed to find himself confronting different supernatural creatures every week. He also appeared in Happy Hell Night (blog here), had a recurring role on The X-Files, was in the awesome Joe Piscopo flick Dead Heat (blog here), appeared opposite Sandy Dennis in the creepy 1970s made-for-TV movie Something Evil, and starred in the film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

Melinda Dillon is the best movie mom ever (actually, she’s tied with Dee Wallace).

She was the mom whose little boy was taken by the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and was also Harry and the Hendersons mom. She had a small role in the horror flick Spontaneous Combustion with Brad Dourif (blog here). Plus, she even appeared in To Wong Foo and a gay comedy called Adam & Steve!

Okay, So Scott Schwartz (who played Flick, not Schwartz) got his tongue in predicaments other than a frozen pole when he went into porn. But he also did horror!

He was in the 80s flick Raiders of the Living Dead. Why have I never even heard of this? Fear not—I’ve already ordered it. Blog to come.  He did some cheap Alien knockoff called Unseen Evil 2 (aka: Alien 3000). He was in a 1988 home invasion film called Fear. He was also in a 2004 film called Skin Walker—with RuPaul!

Ian Petrella played cute little oinking Randy.

After A Christmas Story, Ian had a small role in fricking Crimes of Passion with Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins! WTF???

Zack Ward started as evil Scutt Farkus, but turned into a hot as hell ginge.

He has racked up the horror films—many of them adaptations of video games: Freddy vs. Jason, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, BloodRayne: Deliverance, Alone in the Dark II (blog here, Blood Lake (blog), Don’t Blink (blog), The Devil’s Tomb (blog here), End of the Road (blog here), Dark House (blog here), and mockumentary Sharknado: Heart of Sharkness.

And finally, there’s RALPHIE!

Peter Billingsley was not only Messy Marvin, but he starred in the horror flick Death Valley in 1982 (blog here)! He was literally a scream kid, being chased by a psycho killer!!! But now…he is a MAN. Woof!