Serving as a sly tip of the hat to the audience by “hiding” a famous face in plain sight within a movie, nearly everybody loves a good cameo appearance. It’s a status quo that even extends to many ofcinema’s best directors, from Martin Scorsese frequently casting his real-life parents in minor roles to Quentin Tarantino’s love of inserting himself into his own movies. As such, it’s hardly surprising that thehorrorgenre proves no exception when it comes to including this long-running creative element.
Ranging from minor supporting character roles to literal blink-and-you’ll-miss-them background appearances,horror movies are loaded with cameos that we never expected.This pleasing state of affairs has seen some of the most famous and instantly recognizable celebrities that popular culture has to offer hidden right under the audience’s collective nose, taking on roles as live-action Easter eggs for some of the genre’s most prominent movies in a polished manner that nobody saw coming.
Following a serial killer cornered by police while attending a concert with his daughter, 2024’sTrapdivided critics upon release. However, while the jury remained out on the quality of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest psychological horror outing, fans and critics were unanimous in their praise of one of the most unexpectedly brilliant cameo horror appearances in recent memory;Kid Cudi’s appearance inTrapas a memorable take on the Thinker.
Boasting outrageous platinum blond hair that would put a Targaryen prince to shame, the Thinker is a flamboyant singer who performs with the concert’s headlining act, Lady Raven. Popping up sporadically throughout the course of the movie, Cudi’s cameo as this scene-stealing diva is arguably the most entertaining aspect of what is a firmly average horror outing, highlighting the rapper-actor’s creative versatility in sharp relief.
2009’sZombielandmay have been deep in the process of ripping up cinema’s established zombie playbook by the time thatBill Murray showed up for hisZombielandcameo, but that didn’t make his surprise appearance any less unexpected at the time. Following four survivors during a zombie apocalypse, the events ofZombielandeventually see the group take refuge in Hollywood, a route that takes them to theGhostbustersstar’s home.
Bill Murray’s cameo appearance inZombielandwas originally intended for Patrick Swayze.
Unbeknownst to them, Murray has survived the apocalypse by using makeup to replicate zombies' appearances; a choice that leads to his farcical demise by shotgun after Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus legitimately mistakes him for one of the undead. His appearance may have only been fleeting, but the American cinematic icon still manages to squeeze a few exemplary moments of comedy out of one of the genre’s most beloved cameos before croaking.
Best known for his role as series protagonist Eric Forman on the hit sitcom,That ’70s Show, Topher Grace is so unrecognizable against the backdrop of 2024’s critically acclaimed psychological horror,Heretic, that you’d be forgiven for completely missing him. This comes across as somewhat remarkable, considering the fact that his charge is one of only four named characters in the entire movie.
TheSpider-Man 3star plays Elder Kennedy against the backdrop of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' lauded outing, a Mormon missionary in the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Kennedy comes looking for Sisters Barnes and Paxton after they fail to report back to the organization’s headquarters, with Grace’s clueless charge featuring just long enough forHugh Grant’s sinister Mr. Reedto effortlessly pull the wool over his eyes.
A black-comedy horror outing from Kevin Smith, 2014’sTuskfollows the desperately unfortunate plight of Justin Long’s Wallace Byrton, a podcast host who is kidnapped and forced to undergo a series of horrific surgeries to turn him into a nightmarish human-walrus hybrid. One of the most disgusting film entries that the 2010s have to offer, on paper,Tuskis probably the last movie on earth you would expect a big-hitting celebrity to show up in a cameo role.
Depp was cast as LaPointe after Quentin Tarantino turned down the role.
As such, one could practically hear the sound of jaws hitting the floor upon the realization that Guy LaPointe, the oddball private eye hired by Wallace’s girlfriend to locate him, was actuallyPirates of the CaribbeanstarJohnny Depp. Barely recognizable under a beret and mustache, Depp is uncredited in Smith’s memorable body horror, but ironically still retains status as one of the genre’s most high-profile A-List cameos to date.
A globally recognized television star at the age of just 25, thanks to her roles inMad MenandChilling Adventures of Sabrina,Kiernan Shipkais one of the most talented young actresses plying her trade today. In addition to her high-profile television roles, Shipka earned notable praise for her role inOsgood Perkins' movie debut, 2015’sThe Blackcoat’s Daughter,a state of affairs that likely played a part in the director casting her for a cameo in his acclaimed 2024 horror,Longlegs.
Popping up around the halfway point of the movie, the actress has a brief role as Carrie Ann Camera, the sole known survivor of the movie’s eponymous serial killer. Despite only appearing for a few minutes, Skipka’s legitimately unsettling cameo is one ofLonglegs’scariest scenes, utilizing a thousand-yard star and a hypnotic tone to deliver a haunting performance that lingers in the mind long after the credits roll.
Loosely based on Washington Irvine’s classic short story,The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,1999’sSleepy Hollowsees police constable Ichabod Crane sent to investigate a series of murders. The killings are purportedly carried out by a supernatural entity known asthe Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow; the fearsome ghost of a Hessian mercenary from the American Civil War, terrorizing the eponymous hamlet in search of his missing head.
With his usual visage barely discernible behind a mane of spiky black hair and teeth filed down to the point, many viewers likely got a jolt upon the realization that the actor behind the Hessian version of the Horseman was none other than Academy Award-winning actor Christopher Walken. Still regarded as one of the genre’s finest unexpected cameos to this day,The Deer Hunterstar was uncredited for his performance and has zero lines of dialogue outside a few feral roars and growls.
Frequent Tim Burton collaboratorDanny DeVitohas a habit of consistently showing up in the director’s movies, but that didn’t make his return in 2024’sBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceany less of a delightfully unexpected surprise.Danny DeVito’sBeetlejuice 2cameosees him feature in the sequel to 1988’s original as a cleaner in the afterlife, becoming the first victim of Betelgeuse’s ex-wife, Delores La Ferve, after inadvertently causing her to rematerialize in the sequel’s early goings.
Danny DeVito has appeared in five of Tim Burton’s movies to date.
The actor’s ghoulish charge has just enough screen time in proceedings to watch Monica Belluci’s character staple herself back together, before being reduced to a lifeless husk after she drains the soul out of him to the strains of the Bee Gees’Tragedy. DeVito only features briefly, but still manages to make his appearance epic; hardly a surprising state of affairs when one considers that this is the same man who brought audiences Frank Reynolds.
One of horror’s flagship franchises, theScreammovieshave never been short on high-profile cameos. The long-running slasher franchise has featured several brief A-Lister appearances to produce a number of sly winks to the audience over the years, from Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin appearing as actors in Stab 7, to Wes Craven himself playing a school janitor dressed up in Freddy Krueger’s trademark attire for Halloween.
However, the franchise’s crowning glory in unexpected cameos is undoubtedly Carrie Fisher’s left-field introduction in 2000’sScream 3. TheStar Warsicon appears briefly as Bianca Burnette, a cigarette-toting archivist at Sunrise Studios. Fisher’s charge even slyly makes reference to her trademark role, informing Gale and Jennifer that she was “this close” to being cast as Princess Leia after they tell Burnette she resembles Carrie Fisher.
The latest sinister offering from the brilliantly depraved mind of Osgood Perkins, 2025’sThe Monkeyadapts Stephen King’s 1980 short story of the same name to chaotic results onscreen. Led byThe Gentlemenstar Theo James in a dual role, the black-comedy horror movie centers on a pair of estranged identical twins, as a cursed toy monkey from their past returns to wreak bloody havoc on their lives.
The Monkeyfeatures a minor supporting character named “Torrance,” in a nod to Stephen King’s classic novel,The Shining.
Much like Kiernan Shipka’s fleeting turn in 2024’sLonglegs, Perkins makes use of the opportunity to bestow another brief cameo on a high-profile face from television. On this occasion, it wasSeverance’sAdam Scott, with the Apple TV+ standout’s lead appearing in the movie’s prelude as Captain Petey Shelburn. The twins' estranged father, Scott’s character walks out on the family and is never seen again after attempting to get rid of the drum-playing toy during the movie’s gory introduction.
Credited with one of cinema’s mosticonic zombie movies, 2004’sShaun of the Dead,leading man Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wrighthave explained that George A. Romero’s work hugely influenced their horror-comedy with hisNight of the Living Deadseries. However, despite the film’s stellar success and lasting cultural impact, even the duo themselves likely wouldn’t have dreamed that they’d end up having a cameo appearance in one of the legendary horror director’s movies.
However, it turned out that Romero appreciated the pair’s tribute to his work no end, inviting them to feature in a minor capacity in 2005’sLand of the Deadaccordingly. As such, Pegg and Wright’s cameo sees the pair turn in one of the genre’s most crowd-pleasing blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearances as a pair of photo booth zombies, a tip of the hat to their signaturehorrorfilm that doubles as a tribute to one of their creative icons.
