Ethan Hawke made his acting debut in 1985, a breakthrough in 1989 with Dead Poets Society, and has been critically acclaimed ever since. The actor has been nominated for Academy Awards, and Golden Globes, and won awards including the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. Additionally, Hawke is known for a long line of well-known films, with such titles as Reality Bites, Before Sunset, and Training Day.
While Hawke has long since been recognized for his range, he is currently being recognized as a scream king in his own right. In his overall acting career, Hawke has dabbled with a wide array of genres, breaking ground in horror in his monstrous role as The Grabber in the acclaimed, The Black Phone. Here are Ethan Hawke’s other horror films audiences may know him for, and how well they made it in theaters.
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5 Daybreakers ($51.4 Million)
Lionsgate
The 2009 sci-fi horror film, Daybreakers, stars Ethan Hawke in a dystopian version of society that is overrun by vampires. The film follows his character, Edward Dalton, who after failing to find a substitute for human blood, joins human survivors to generate a cure that may save the species from complete ruin.
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With a budget of $20 million, the film grossed roughly $51.4 million. The film opened on the same weekend as top charting films such as Avatar and Sherlock Holmes and received mixed reviews. Variety found that Daybreakers “emerges as a competent but routine chase thriller,” likely due to the slew of thrillers and remakes of classic horror films. Nevertheless, it has been acknowledged for having an “intriguing premise” despite coming out after a vampire burnout.
4 Taking Lives ($65.4 Million)
Village Roadshow Pictures
Taking Lives is a psychological thriller starring Hawke as an elusive serial killer who becomes the identity of his victims, and Angeline Jolie as the FBI profiler tracking him down. Loosely adapted from the novel by Michael Pye, the film follows Jolie as she circles around Hawke, and they form an intimate relationship until the killer reveals himself.
The film had a budget of $45 million and grossed a total of $65.4 million. Generally, it received poor reviews, with a consensus that Jolie’s performance was fitting and decent, though not enough to save the film from its flawed script and predictability. In a 2012 interview, Ethan Hawke would say of the film: “The times in my life I’ve tried to sell out have failed miserably. I did this Angelina Jolie horror film thinking it would be a big hit and it was terrible.”
3 Sinister ($87.7 Million)
Lionsgate Films
In 2012, the supernatural horror film, Sinister, was released at the SXSW festival and praised by critics. The film focuses on Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt, a down-on-his-luck true-crime writer, as he and his family move into the home of a grisly murder. When he discovers the films of unsolved murders and missing children, he also begins uncovering an obscure supernatural entity.
Sinister was a box office success, with a budget of $3 million and a box office total of $87.7 million. Variety praised the film for a tale that would “paralyze kids’ psyche,” whereas Roger Ebert favored Hawke’s human performance and claims the film to be “undeniably scary.” Although the film has been criticized for the use of Super 8 clips, Sinister has since garnered a reputation as a cult classic and even named the scariest film ever made by Broadband Choices.
2 The Purge ($16.8 Million)
Universal Pictures
The Purge is one of many dystopian horror films and certainly an iconic one. The story is built on a future where one day out of every year, the United States legalizes all crime, including murder. Ethan Hawke attempts to keep his family from harm when his son hides a man who is targeted by enthusiastic Purgers and a night of violence and killing ensues.
On its opening day, The Purge garnered a box office sum of $16.8 million, steadily rising to $34.1 million throughout the weekend. Eventually, it grossed a total of $89.9 million, beating its $3 million budget. That being said, the film has a mixed critical consensus, with Rotten Tomatoes critics stating: “The Purge attempts to make an intelligent point, but ultimately devolves into numbing violence and tired clichés.” In spite of this, a franchise spawned from the film, and its social allegory would eventually be praised.
1 The Black Phone ($161.2 Million)
The Black Phone is a coming-of-age supernatural horror adapted from Joe Hill’s short story of the same name. In 1978, young Finney (played by Mason Thames) is kidnapped by the much-feared, “The Grabber,” played by Hawke in a pivotal horror role. The story proceeds to follow Finney as he receives supernatural help from The Grabber’s past victims through the titular black phone.
The film was both commercially and critically successful, grossing a box office total of $161.2 million compared to an estimated budget of $18 million. Though it was released alongside the popular Elvis, many were in attendance, including a target audience of women between the age group of 18-34 years. Heidi Venable of CinemaBlend praised the child actors, score, and screenwriting; Derrickson would be commended for his direction, Hawke for his electric performance, and the overall film for its faithfulness to the original source. To top it off, there may be talks of a sequel project coming up for the film in the near future.
