What happens when you take a burgeoning stage star, give him 15 lines of useless "Kill the Crites" dialogue, and make him the star of your terrible horror movie? Yep! You ruin his film career!
Terrance Mann was the star of Cats, Les Miserables and Barnum, all in lead roles. With his theatre legend already established, Mann chose to enter the world of film. Unfortunately for him, he chose poorly. His first attempt at film stardom was in Critters, a cheesy horror film from Mick Garris. He plays an alien bounty hunter searching for the title creatures. With the exception of seeing a young Billy Zane getting eaten alive, Critters has limited Oscar moments. So following the film's modest success, what does Mr. Mann do? He signs on for ALL THREE SEQUELS. The rest is history. If you watch Critters 1 and 2 back-to-back, you can see the toll this took on poor Terrance, as he appears to have taken to cheeseburger gorging and booze guzzling.
Mr. Mann continued to achieve mega-stardom on Broadway,and is still lauded as one of the most recognizable voices on the Great White Way, but his talents (and oddly long, Tim Curry-esque features) never transcended to film success. I suggest seeing the Critters films for their goofy humor, and to watch the descent of poor Terrance Mann into madness.
No comments:
Post a Comment