Every Ryan Reynolds Horror Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Although The Adam Project star Ryan Reynolds has appeared in an impressive number of horror movies, not all of his efforts in the genre have been critically acclaimed. For many actors, horror movie roles are a means to an end. A lot of stars take on a few ignominious roles in minor horror releases early in their careers to get their names out there, only to later abandon the genre when bigger projects come calling.

However, this is not always true. Some stars, such as the original Friday the 13th‘s biggest breakout star, Kevin Bacon, return to the genre throughout their career, despite their profile growing and diversifying in the intervening years. Other stars don’t even get into the horror genre until they are well established, as is the case with The Adam Project’s Ryan Reynolds.

While Reynolds had not yet reached his current blockbuster superstardom circa 2005, he was already a fairly well-known leading man thanks to a string of successful comedy movies and rom-com roles. As such, his one-two punch introduction into the horror genre came as a surprise to some critics. Unfortunately for Reynolds, his first two efforts in the genre, Blade: Trinity and 2005’s The Amityville Horror remake, were seen as lesser entries into classic horror franchises by fans and critics alike. However, Reynolds continued to experiment with the genre throughout his impressive screen career. In 2010, he starred in the audacious single-setting psychological horror Buried, while 2014 saw him take on the leading role in the quirky, dark horror-comedy The Voices. Most recently, Reynolds was seen starring in 2017’s Life, a sci-fi horror that provided a solid end to his tenure in the genre for the time being.

5. Blade: Trinity

The disastrous ending to the otherwise solid vampire action thriller series, Blade: Trinity is easily the weakest movie in the trilogy. Notable for little outside of Reynolds’ abs and the massive drop in quality from Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, Blade: Trinity’s humdrum action feels more like a lesser Twilight sequel than a worthy addition to the comic book series. Although Blade’s CGI aged poorly, the original movie had moments of inspiration and benefitted from Wesley Snipes’ superb central turn, while Blade II proved comic book movies could tell dark, terrifying horror stories. In contrast, Blade: Trinity brought nothing new to the table and sanitized much of its action, resulting in a follow-up that felt bloodless, disappointing, and tonally out of step with its predecessors.

4. The Amityville Horror

2005’s The Amityville Horror remake can’t compare to the original haunted house horror movie, but the movie still didn’t deserve the critical drubbing that the re-imagining was met with upon release. Like 2009’s surprisingly good Friday the 13th remake, 2005’s The Amityville Horror takes a lot what makes the original franchise work and crams all of the most famous moments into its CGI-heavy, mercifully brief runtime. Reynolds gives a solid Jack Nicholson impression as the killer dad gone mad and there are some effective jump scares, making The Amityville Horror a perfectly passable bit of haunted house hokum. However, director James Wan’s The Conjuring renders this re-imagining pretty pointless as the later horror managed to make the same story scarier, more emotionally resonant, and more memorable, leaving the Reynolds remake looking a little drab and tame in comparison.

3. The Voices

Viewers can never really be sure what they will get with an offbeat independent horror-comedy, but there is no denying that 2014’s The Voices is a wholly original tale. Directed by Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi, The Voices was a movie that bemused audiences and critics alike upon release. The tale of a troubled factory worker who murders a string of romantic partners at the behest of his talking pets, The Voices is a surprisingly strong (if very, very dark) comedy upon a rewatch. The movie lets its star shows off some of the campy, twisted charm that Reynolds later brought to the role of Deadpool while also benefiting from some superb turns by Anna Kendrick and Gemma Arterton. While far from mainstream and a bit too bleak for its own good, The Voices is still a fun, creepy, pitch-black comedy that, to quote Reynolds, “never got its day in court.” One for viewers who find themselves guiltily laughing at CSI and American Horror Stories more often than recoiling in terror.

2. Buried

An ingenious lone location, real-time horror, 2010’s Buried traps Reynolds in a coffin in the desert and never lets him leave. An immersive, overwhelming cinematic nightmare, the movie follows a contractor in Iraq who is taken hostage and buried alive with a cellphone. Forced to use his wits to survive, Reynolds’ antihero faces frustration after frustration as his claustrophobic ordeal wears on. Viewers of a sensitive disposition may opt to steer clear of this one, and even hardened horror fans might want a stiff drink at hand, given Buried‘s endurance-test levels of tension. For fans of dark horror and effective political satire, Buried is one of the most brutally uncompromising post-9/11 horror-thrillers to date.

1.  Life

Wildly underrated since its 2017 release, Life‘s ensemble cast might fool the unsuspecting viewer into thinking they’re in for a deep, philosophical space-set drama like Ad Astra, Interstellar, or Gravity. Instead, Life dispenses of any attempts at deepness and instead proves to be a brutal, gory, and relentlessly dark sci-fi horror in the vein of Alien. Life pulls off a huge twist in the opening hour and doesn’t let up for a second after that, resulting in a movie that feels more like a sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic space-set horror than most actual installments of the Alien franchise.

Mean-spirited but undeniably fun, Life uses its starry cast to mislead the viewer and pulls off some authentically surprising deaths that leave the audience unsure who (if anyone) will make it out alive. When the gory horror reaches its conclusion Life doesn’t disappoint, twisting the knife one more time with a stellar closing twist. As memorably nasty as Buried but with a bigger budget and a more ambitious plot, Life is an underrated gem that proves Reynolds can anchor a classic horror movie. Although it was underrated by many critics upon release, Life remains Ryan Reynolds’ best horror movie to date and one of the best sci-fi horrors in recent years to boot.

About The Author

Cathal Gunning
(1446 Articles Published)

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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