Who Is That?! 12 Horror Roles that Were Recast for the Sequel
9) VERONICA QUAIFE – THE FLY/THE FLY 2 – GEENA DAVIS/SAFFRON HENDERSON
With Seth Brundle obviously dead at the end of The Fly, the only logical way to make a sequel was to have Veronica give birth to their mutant love child and go from there. The plan was to bridge the gap between the two films by having Geena Davis reprise the role for the opening birthing sequence, but since Davis wasn’t into the idea of revisiting a character that was going to be immediately killed off, Saffron Henderson (who played the rocker chick Jason kills with a guitar in Jason Takes Manhattan) was brought in for the scene.
Cleverly, a clear shot is never seen of Veronica’s face in her one scene, so it’s hard to even tell that it wasn’t Davis. In flashback scenes, Henderson’s voice was even dubbed over Davis’.
10) MOTHER FIREFLY – HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES/THE DEVIL’S REJECTS – KAREN BLACK/LESLIE EASTERBROOK
It was of course the late Karen Black who played Mother Firefly in House of 1000 Corpses, and though Rob Zombie wanted to bring her back for the grounded-in-reality sequel, the actress lost the role when she couldn’t come to a contractual agreement with Zombie. Black reportedly demanded a much higher salary to return as the matriarch of the Firefly family, and since Zombie couldn’t afford to pay her what she needed, he had no choice but to replace her with Leslie Easterbrook.
11) YOUNG MICHAEL MYERS – HALLOWEEN (2007)/HALLOWEEN II (2009) – DAEG FAERCH/CHASE WRIGHT VANEK
You might have noticed that the young actor who played a ten-year-old Michael Myers in the first half of Rob Zombie’s Halloween was played by a totally different child actor for the flashback scenes in Halloween II. Though the two films were only filmed a couple years apart, Daeg Faerch had already grown much larger than he was in the first film, so Zombie had to make the decision to bring a new actor in, who was closer to the size Faerch was when they shot Halloween. Chase Wright Vanek lucked out, becoming the sequel’s new Michael Myers.
12) RICKY CALDWELL – SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2/SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3 – ERIC FREEMAN/BILL MOSELEY
No performance on this list is more awesomely awful than Eric Freeman’s in the oddball sequel Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, which saw him uttering lines like “Garbage Day!” with the corniest of glee. Billy’s brother returned for the franchise’s second sequel, though it was horror icon Bill Moseley – fresh off his star-making role as Chop-Top – who was brought in to take over the role. And seeing Moseley with a fish bowl atop his head, revealing an exposed brain, is mostly what makes Part 3 a worthwhile installment in the series.
