Elijah Wood is perhaps best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings trilogy, but Wood has a long acting history, dating back to 1989. Wood is set to star in The monkeyan upcoming Stephen King adaptation in 2025 that Wood says will be something audiences have never seen. However, this horror film isn’t Wood’s first dip into the genre. Since 1990, Elijah Wood has starred in eight notable horror films.

One of Wood’s first films was a TV movie called Child in the night (1990). Like many popular actors, Elijah owes at least part of the credit to the horror genre for giving him his foot in the door of Hollywood. Frodo Baggins may have been Wood’s big success, but his love of horror kept drawing him back to the genre.

8 The Good Son tells the story of childhood evil

The Good Son (1993)

The good son follows a 12-year-old boy named Mark after the death of his mother. Mark’s father goes on an extended business trip, which requires Mark to stay with his aunt and uncle for a while. Mark hasn’t seen his extended family in years, so he doesn’t know what to expect. During his visit, he meets his cousins, Connie and Henry. Both boys of the same age, Henry and Mark got along well at first.

Shortly after arriving, Mark realizes that something is seriously wrong with Henry. The more time Mark spends with Henry, the more uncomfortable he becomes. Henry displays disturbing and violent behavior that ultimately makes Mark feel unsafe. Some moviegoers have compared Henry to The omens Damien. Even though the film did well financially, critics had very little love for this film. Even after more than 30 years, reviews of this film have not improved.

Open Windows (2014)

Open Windows can be described as a techno-thriller and when it comes to horror films, this one is quite unique. Nick Chambers’ dream comes true when he wins a competition that will allow him to meet his favorite celebrity. Unfortunately, actress Jill Goddard isn’t as nice or inviting as Nick hoped. She cancels the competition, dashing his hopes of ever meeting her. After hearing from Jill’s manager, Chord, things take a surprising turn.

Chord hacks Jill’s phone to turn on the camera and microphone. He then gives Nick access to Jill’s phone so he can monitor her as well. Nick doesn’t want to invade Jill’s privacy but ultimately agrees to Chord’s plan. Together, they spy on him. Things take a dark turn for the worse, but once Nick realizes Chord isn’t who he says he is, he’s in too deep. Most of the film is told through cameras on various devices, giving it that found footage vibe. Despite this film’s interesting premise, critics didn’t like it very much. Moviegoers hated it even more, making it one of the least well-received Elijah Wood horror films.

6 Cooties tries to make the zombie apocalypse funny

Cooties (2014)

Cooties is a zombie comedy that’s not as ridiculous as it seems. Some of the best zombie media is horror comedies. Think about it; Zombie Land (2009), Shaun of the Dead (2004), and Warm bodies (2013) are among the most famous zombie films in the world, but they are as hilarious as they are horrific. Sometimes zombie media succeeds best when there’s a level of comedy to take your breath away and the gore.

Cooties attempted to follow this trend by focusing on a zombie virus spread via school lunches. At Fort Chicken Elementry, a pandemic of zombie infections has spread among the students. All the children who ate the chicken nuggets were infected, leaving the school staff in a fight for survival against the children they were supposed to protect and teach. While this concept is fun, critics and fans haven’t had many good things to say about it. Cooties took a big hit, but unfortunately, it was also a big miss. It just doesn’t live up to the gems of this zombie trend.

5 Maniac relied too heavily on a negative mental health trope

Maniac (2012)

Maniac is a 2012 psychological remake of the 1980 film, Maniac. Unfortunately, this film falls into an unfortunate trope of the horror genre where the villain acts a certain way because of mental illness. In this case, Frank Zito suffers from schizophrenia. Frank is a young man dealing with a lot of trauma related to his mother’s abuse and neglect. After his death, Frank took over the family business, a model catering service.

Frank’s trauma leads him to violently slaughter and scalp women and attach the scalps to his mannequins to recreate a happy memory of brushing his mother’s hair. Even though the grittiness of this film makes it a thrilling slasher, it’s hard to get away with. The maniac more serious defects. Trauma and mental illness have been demonized in horror films for decades, but recently this trend has been increasingly denounced. The backlash against films like Divide (2016) holds filmmakers accountable for not demonizing entire groups of people. Describing mental illness as violent or evil is not only far from the truth about actual mental illness, but it is also harmful. Maniac probably didn’t need a remake. This brings nothing positive to the modern era of horror films.

4 Child in the Night is one of Wood’s early films

Child in the Dark (1990)

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Child in the night is a made-for-television psychological thriller. It first aired on CBS Network and was later released on home video. This film presented Elijah Wood with a difficult challenge at a young age. Wood plays Luke, a nine-year-old boy who witnessed his father’s gruesome murder. The killer used a cargo hook as a murder weapon. This allows Luke’s young and sensitive mind to match the killer with Captain Hook in order to deal with the violent crime he witnessed.

Detective T. Bass takes the lead in the investigation. He brings on board a child psychologist named Dr. Hollis. Dr. Hollis, naturally, is there to help Luke deal with his trauma and hopefully help the investigation extract some useful information from the boy. Unfortunately, as Dr. Hollis gets closer to Luke, she learns something that puts her life in danger. Wood was incredibly young when he worked on this film. Despite Child in the night age, it holds up decently, especially compared to some of Wood’s other horror films.

3 College is a wild ride from start to finish

The Faculty (1998)

The Faculty is a science fiction horror film centered around a school in Ohio, Herrington High School. The film is released with a bang. After a late-night meeting with school staff, some faculty members attacked the school principal, injuring her but failing to kill her. From there, the film introduces the main group of teenagers who end up confronting the school teachers. One of the teens, Casey, finds a weird parasite on the soccer field, bringing the sci-fi influence home.

Eventually, the teens discover that various faculty members are infected with an alien parasite. Under the influence of parasites, hosts have little control over their bodies. The infection spreads throughout the school, allowing the parasites to multiply. This film received mixed to average reviews. No one can say it’s the best sci-fi horror movie, but it has a creative concept and some surprisingly impressive special effects from the 1990s.

2 The Toxic Avenger fuses superhero and body horror

The Toxic Avenger (2023)

The Toxic Avenger is a black comedy film based on the 1984 film of the same name. The original film has a cult following that spawned three sequels from 1989 to 2000. This film has incredible reviews, with some critics calling it “enjoyably stupid.” The Toxic Avenger never forget that this is primarily a comedy film, but it is also not afraid of horror elements.

The film follows a man dying of a terminal illness named Winston. Winston’s company refuses to pay for the treatment he needs, so he decides to rob the company instead. While trying to steal from his boss, Winston falls into toxic waste and transforms into a superhuman monster. With his newfound power, Winston sets out to help people like himself and take revenge on evildoers who use greed to justify the harm they do to others. This film has a lot of social commentary to offer about the rich killing the poor.

1 Come to Daddy is one of Wood’s best horror films

Come See Dad (2019)

Come see daddy is a dark comedy thriller that keeps the plot twists going. The film tells the story of Norval Greenwood, a musician from Beverly Hills, who goes to reunite with his father after years. Norval lives with his mother, but he has not seen his father since he was five years old. One day, his father contacts him out of the blue, urging him to come visit him so they can reconnect. Curious about his father, Norval agrees, but he should have known something was wrong when he ventured into a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

It’s hard to describe Come see daddy without spoiling the film. There are so many twists and turns that it’s sometimes hard to keep up. Despite the many directions the film takes, the story will keep audiences engaged without making them feel lost. Wood’s performance is incredible and compelling, creating a narrative that is both confusing and engaging.