Brad Dourif Movies
Brad Dourif is a quirky character actor whose gallery of killers, sociopaths, and other lost souls brought to life any number of contemporary horror and science fiction projects. Born March 18, 1950, in Huntington, WV, he began his professional acting career after graduating from college, honing his skills during a three-year apprenticeship with New York's Circle Repertory under the celebrated drama coach Sanford Meisner. While appearing off-Broadway in a production of When You Comin' Back, Red Rider?, Dourif was spotted by director Milos Forman, who immediately cast him in his 1975 film adaptation of the Ken Kesey novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dourif's turn as a suicidal teen asylum inmate was one of the most acclaimed film debuts in memory, earning a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe as well as an Oscar nomination. However, the performance also typecast him as a talent best suited to idiosyncratic, off-center character roles, a straitjacket he remained unable to break from for the duration of his career. He then did not reappear onscreen for another two years before co-starring in the 1977 West German production Gruppenbild mit Dame.Dourif's next major performance came in the 1978 Irvin Kershner thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars, followed by a superb starring turn as a damaged war veteran in John Huston's Wise Blood. Upon completing a supporting role in the 1980 television film Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, Dourif next surfaced in Michael Cimino's legendary flop Heaven's Gate, the first in a string of big-budget disasters to which the actor was attached including Forman's Ragtime and David Lynch's Dune. A series of low-budget projects followed before Dourif reunited with Lynch for a small role in the director's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet. However, no other offers of a similar caliber were immediately forthcoming, and instead he found himself providing the voice of the evil doll Chuckie in the Child's Play series of slasher movies. In the years which followed, Dourif occasionally reappeared in more substantial projects (including the 1988 Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, the 1990 Ken Loach picture Hidden Agenda, and Hanif Kureishi's 1991 directorial debut London Kills Me), but he remained primarily confined to low-budget genre work; additionally, he often guest starred on television, appearing in series including The X-Files, Millennium, and Star Trek: Voyager. In 2001, Dourif took a break from low-budget fright flicks to appear in a decidedly more enormous production, director Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
"Welcome to Deadwood...a hell of a place to make your fortune." These are the words that serve as greeting for saddle-weary former lawman Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) as he rides into the illegal Dakota Territory settlement of Deadwood, a scant few weeks after Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn. Before long, Bullock makes the acquaintance of another displaced Westerner, the cynical, burnt-out gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine) -- and not long after that, both men have had their first run-in with town boss Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the confident, corrupt owner of the Gem Saloon (an establishment largely populated by flint-hearted whores). Thus begins season one of the iconoclastic HBO Western series Deadwood, arguably the most realistic program of its kind ever seen on American television. In the 11 episodes that follow the season opener, a group of vicious outlaws tries to foment another Indian war; Swearengen's status as the lord of the flies on the Deadwood dungheap is challenged by a Chicago "syndicate" (yes, they had them as far back as 1876); a valuable land claim held by feisty, wealthy frontierswoman Alma Garret (Molly Parker) becomes the focus of a deadly serious power struggle; the notorious Black Jack McCall (Garret Dillahunt) kills Hickok during a poker game (quite a jolt, to knock off one of the series' main characters so early in the game!); Deadwood is ravaged by an epidemic, during which the rambunctious but compassionate Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) becomes a legend; Bullock is marked for death after bringing a murderer to heel; Swearengen is double-crossed by duplicitous "working girl" Trixie (Paula Malcomson); the town's criminal element tries to block annexation of the Dakotas, which would bring much-despised law and order to the territory; a minister finds himself less welcome in town than an opium dealer; and at season's end, Seth Bullock becomes Deadwood's official sheriff -- a position that offers neither job security nor much chance for survival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, (more)
1877. A new day is dawning in the Black Hills outlaw camp of Deadwood. For better or worse, times are changing, and the transformation from camp to town is imminent. Unsavory new arrivals - looking to cash in on the lucrative anarchy -- and a government of outsiders usher in an era of hard decisions and brutal power struggles among the camp's founders, all learning the hard way...fortune comes with a price.
- Starring:
- Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, (more)
(Rolling Stone) "The Best Drama on Television" is back with the third season on DVD! Timed to coincide with Father's Day, HBO will release Deadwood: The Complete Third Season DVD on June 12, 2007. Watch as the lawless era of Deadwood comes to an end. This DVD is loaded with bonus features including two featurettes, audio commentaries and more.
- Starring:
- Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, (more)
Al (Ian McShane), cleaning a bloodstain off the floor of the Gem, offers some advice. "You might, Dan (W. Earl Brown), want to learn how to indicate interest in a girl without murdering another person." E.B. (William Sanderson) has murder on his mind, suggesting to Al that offing Seth (Timothy Olyphant) and Alma (Molly Parker) in their sleep might be the best way to gain control of Alma's gold claim. But then smallpox vaccine arrives in the camp, along with news of a probable treaty with the Sioux, and Al, sensing a change of times, preaches patience. "We are about to be swimming in money," he tells E.B. Alma, having taken Trixie's (Paula Malcolmson) words to heart, is ready to accept E.B.'s bid and return with the girl (Breeseanna Wall) to New York, but Seth insists on assaying her claim first. Ellsworth (Jim Beaver) is just the man to do it, but at the claim, he lets Seth get far enough ahead of him that he can say to Dan, "If I'm to get my throat cut...I'd rather not exert myself further." With Dan's reassurance, Ellsworth points out a rich vein of gold to Seth. Trixie, meanwhile, has apparently decided that her prospects for continued survival in Deadwood are poor. On returning to camp, Seth meets with Al, who tells him, "If a treaty is signed, it'd be wise for you and me to paddle in the same direction." Seth wants Al to guarantee Alma's safety, and he does. Flora (Kristen Bell), knowing that Cy (Powers Boothe) suspects her, convinces Miles (Greg Cipes) that it's time for them to make their move. Joanie (Kim Dickens) tries to protect her, but as Cy puts it to one dismayed onlooker, "You could help your delicate sensibilities by turning the f*ck away." ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Wild Bill Hickok is dead, and the people of Deadwood prepare to try the man who murdered him, Jack McCall (Garret Dillahunt). Discussing the "hoople-heads," Al (Ian McShane) tells Cy (Powers Boothe), "Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw their bodies in the creek." Cy sardonically replies, "But that would be wrong." Al is worried about trying and possibly executing McCall in town, because it might irk some people in Washington to see Deadwood enforcing its own laws. Still, he agrees to hold the trial at the Gem, while making his view of things clear to the judge. Seth (Timothy Olyphant) struggles to keep his anger in check until a verdict comes down. Alma (Molly Parker), upset with Jane (Robin Weigert) for abandoning her while she cares for the girl (Breeseanna Wall), asks E.B. (William Sanderson) to help her find someone to replace Jane. E.B. goes to Al, and, informing him of the widow's laudanum habit, suggests that Trixie (Paula Malcolmson) could help Alma with the child, while encouraging her along in her habits. Cy, worried about Andy (Zach Grenier) scaring or infecting his customers, has him brought out into the woods and left to die, angering Joanie (Kim Dickens). Doc (Brad Dourif) threatens to spread word of smallpox unless Cy sends someone to Fort Kearney to obtain vaccine. Jane finds Andy in the woods. At trial, McCall testifies that Bill murdered his brother sometime back; he's not quite sure when. After Bill's funeral, Reverend Smith (Ray McKinnon) has a seizure. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
This futuristic sci-fi tale copies Alien and Robocop and stars Brad Dourif as Jack Dante, a nutty, long-haired genius inventor who hides out in a basement where he watches cartoons and collects sex magazines. He has also developed a killer robot. The greedy head of a corrupt corporation and the dope-smoking survivor of a terrorist group find themselves at the mercy of Dante and his robot and watch as he turns others into cyborgs and stages battles to the death between them. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Dourif, Ely Pouget, (more)
This made-for-TV movie was initially shown under the title I, Desire. Coroner's aide David Naughton can't understand why one of the corpses under his care has been drained of blood. Doing a little detective work on his own, Naughton follows the trail of clues to sexy streetwalker Marilyn Jones. Could it be that this far-from-happy hooker is a vampire? Dorian Harewood costars as the detective on the case. I Desire originally aired November 15, 1982, two weeks too late for Halloween. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In exchange for clearing Duell McCall's name, the cowboy's assistance is needed in locating the murderer of the sheriff's wife. ~ All Movie Guide
Just how far will some guys go to pay off a debt? Frank (Jason Lee) and Eddie (Crispin Glover) are a pair of inept would-be wise guys trying to scare up enough money to get out of the small Texas town they call home. They think their ship may have come in when Spider (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a local crime boss, offers them a big payday to drive a truck full of bootlegged cigarettes into Mexico. Frank and Eddie jump at the chance, but soon discover they're been made patsies in a scam when the truck turns out to have been booby-trapped, and by the end of the day they owe Spider a quarter-million dollars. Desperate to raise the cash, Eddie, a part-time gravedigger, hears that an exotic dancer with a rich sugar daddy has recently died, and was buried wearing a valuable diamond necklace. Frank and Eddie then hatch an elaborate scheme to exhume the stripper, swipe the necklace, and hold her remains for ransom. Drop Dead Sexy was the first directorial credit for writer and producer Michael Philip. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Crispin Glover, Jason Lee, (more)
David Lynch wades through dark waters in his adaptation of Frank Herbert's cult science fiction novel. In condensing Herbert's rambling and complex book by eliminating characters and compacting events, Lynch succeeds in rendering the story incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the novel and making the film look like a sketchy greatest hits collection of the book for Herbert fans. The story takes place in the year 10,191. The universe is governed through a system of feudal rule, presided over by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (José Ferrer), who appears to take his marching orders from something that resembles a talking vagina. In the kingdom are two rival houses -- the House of Atreides and the House of Harkonnen. Each house is trying to gain dominion over the universe, but that dominion can only be gained by the house that controls the Spice, a special substance that permits the folding of time. The Spice is only available on the desert world of Arrakis, or Dune. Shaddam, tired of the feuding between the two houses, permits the Atreides to take over the Spice production on Dune, while secretly working with the Harkonnens to launch a sneak attack on the Atreides and destroy them. The leader of the Atreides is Duke Leto (Jürgen Prochnow), who rules with the help of his concubine Jessica (Francesca Annis) and son Paul (Kyle MacLachlan). The rival Harkonnens are headed by the pus-oozing degenerate Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan, in a thoroughly through-the-roof performance) and his two unsavory nephews, Rabban (Paul L. Smith) and Feyd (Sting). When his father is murdered by the Harkonnens, Paul escapes to Dune, where he is greeted by the Fremen (the desert dwellers on Dune who prepare the Spice) as the messiah foretold in Fremen legend. Paul assumes the mantle of messiah and leads the Fremen in a revolt that topples the balance of power in the universe. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francesca Annis, Leo Cimino, (more)

- 2004
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Kilo was born into a life of crime. By the time he was an adult, he was a full-time dealer, and when he meets Sabeva, the daughter of a Colombian drug kingpin, he reaches the upper levels of drug trafficking. It is a dangerous business, however, and eventually Kilo ends up in prison. Still running his operation from inside of a cell, he is eventually offered a shady deal: his sentence will be suspended if he will murder a convicted child-killer. Now Kilo stands at a crossroads, unsure which actions will clear his conscience, end his sentence, or end his life. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Based on a real case from the television series Unsolved Mysteries, this dramatic tale looks at the hunt for Paul Stamp, an abusive man who one night attacked his ex-wife and her new lover, killing the latter and abducting the former. Thanks to diligent viewers of the aforementioned show, the story has a happy ending. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Pitillo, Adam Storke, (more)
This made-for-television remake of Disney's popular feature tells the tale of two orphan twins with special powers who go looking for their origins. The two are hindered by an avaricious tycoon who only wants to exploit their abilities. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erik Von Detten, Elisabeth Moss, (more)
A shutterbug is haunted by psychic visions of the killer who is murdering all of her friends in this hit thriller. Intense and driven, successful photographer Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) has made a name for herself by juxtaposing sex and violence in her glamorous photos. But at the height of her success -- and just as a media backlash is brewing -- she begins to experience daydreams from the point of view of a serial killer as he relentlessly stalks and murders her associates. Her unbalanced ex-husband (Raul Julia) seems like an obvious suspect, especially when his new girlfriend is murdered and he goes on the lam. But Laura is shocked by the prospect that the killer could be somebody out to discredit her work, which she views as an artistic commentary on the degradation of the modern world. Under the protection of police detective John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones), Laura is unable to save even one of her friends from a violent end. Soon, she finds herself inside the mind of the killer as he marches down a familiar hallway: the one outside her own door. Co-written by Halloween director John Carpenter, Eyes of Laura Mars also features character actors Brad Dourif and René Auberjonois. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
Rita Rizzoli (Whoopi Goldberg) is a crusading narcotics cop assigned to track down the source of some killer crack cocaine in this pretentious and preachy anti-drug crime drama. Rita poses as a prostitute and is soon hot after two small-time hoods (Brad Dourif and Mike Jolly) who murder their way up the drug-dealing ladder in hopes of becoming kingpins. Cheech Marin and Catherine Blore provide interesting cameos in this feature that co-stars Ruben Blades and Sam Elliott. Contains stereotypical characters and gratuitous violence. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Sam Elliott, (more)
In 1979, Michael Cimino went from being a director with one obscure Clint Eastwood action film and a handful of television commercials to his credit to one of the hottest talents in Hollywood, all on the strength of one film, The Deer Hunter. A multiple Oscar winner, a box-office success, and a controversial critical favorite, The Deer Hunter made Cimino a director to watch, and United Artists, a studio in need of both critical prestige and a box-office blockbuster following the departure of their longtime management team, signed up Cimino for his next project, a historical Western drama called The Johnson County War. However, by the time the film reached theaters in 1981, Cimino had exceeded his shooting schedule by nearly a year, the budget had swelled to a then-scandalous 40 million dollars, and the movie had a new title, Heaven's Gate. Originally premiered in a version running nearly four hours, Heaven's Gate was savaged by American critics, and had developed a reputation as a nearly total disaster before it went into wide release in a 160-minute edit. As one might expect, the film was a box-office flop, and the bad publicity and financial debacle led Transamerica, United Artists' parent company, to sell the studio later that year, essentially putting them out of business. Steven Bach, one of the United Artists executives who oversaw the project, wrote a book about the making of the movie, and Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate is a documentary adaptation that looks at where Cimino's ambitions and United Artists' management style went wrong, as well as asking if the meticulously crafted film is the unmitigated disaster it's chalked up to be. Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate was screened at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival, where it was shown in tandem with a restored print of the 220-minute cut of Heaven's Gate. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
In this drama, a renegade Los Angeles priest, Father Daniel Tyrone, must return to his gang-land roots to prove himself innocent of killing a stripper. His investigation leads him to the seamy underbelly of the pornographic film industry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
One of countless Stephen King adaptations, this take on one of the author's Night Shift tales is set in a Maine textile mill whose overbearing manager (Stephen Macht) finds himself in a tight spot when county inspectors crack down on his less-than-safe operation after a fatal accident involving a picking machine. He rounds up a few financially-desperate locals -- including drifter David Anderson, the film's nominal hero -- into a rag-tag crew to clean up the nightmarish, rat-infested lower levels of the decrepit building. Working their way through the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the mill, the crew encounters a rat's nest far beyond what their foreman had imagined, with a gigantic, man-eating monster rodent nesting at its center. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Andrews, Kelly Wolf, (more)
An entertaining hybrid of Amicus-style horror anthology and gritty low-budget western, this first-time effort from writer-director Wayne Coe succeeds where many such genre-bending attempts have failed. The quartet of uneven but well-mounted stories are spun around a desert campfire by grizzled, menacing bounty hunter Morrison (a rousingly hammy James Earl Jones) and wet-behind-the-ears city slicker Farley (Brad Dourif). Morrison starts off with the tale of an Indian tribe's ritual revenge against the drunken cracker who desecrates their sacred burial ground; When Farley seems interested but unfazed, Morrison follows up with the more visceral story of a Good Samaritan who succumbs to temptation while rendering aid to a pregnant woman, leading to a particularly disgusting (though definitely original) demise. Appalled by the storyteller's lack of taste, Farley counters with a down-to-earth morality tale involving a prairie settler's young daughter who witnesses her father's horrifying act of hate, realizing that the man she trusted with her life is a very human breed of monster. Morrison acknowledges his companion's skill but offers another violent story according to his own idiom -- that of a slick gunfighter who gets his comeuppance by his own hand after winning a deadly competition. The stories feature fine acting and direction but are ultimately overshadowed by the engaging framing story and lack much of the dramatic payoff of their earlier British counterparts. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Earl Jones, Brad Dourif, (more)
The West German/French Group Portrait with Lady (Gluppenbild mit Dame) is based on a bestselling novel by Heinrich Böll. The film is a string of anecdotes, some longer than others, related to the topic of German war guilt. The main plotline involves German woman Romy Schneider's affair with Russian prisoner of war Brad Dourif. Through an occasionally confusing series of flashbacks, we discover Schneider's ultimate fate, and also solve the mystery of the Jewish girl buried in a convent cemetary. Romy Schneider won several German film awards for her participation in this 100-minute elegy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Michel Galabru, (more)

- 1980
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This two-part TV movie was, of course, sparked by the November 1978 mass suicide of 913 people at the South American religious "colony" of Jonestown. The catalyst for this tragedy was cult-leader Reverend Jim Jones (played by Powers Boothe, who won an Emmy for his performance), head of the so-called People's Temple. The film traces the life of Jones from his days as an idealistic 1960s activist. He drifts into penny-ante confidence scams and bed-hops from woman to woman, before electing to pass himself off as a modern messiah--eventually believing his own feverish sermons. The climactic scenes are chillingly staged in a near-documentary fashion, with Puerto Rico and Georgia substituting for Guyana. Ned Beatty plays the ill-fated Representative Leo Ryan, while James Earl Jones has a cameo as 1930s religious-leader Father Divine; most of the other main characters are composites of real people. Originally broadcast April 15 and 16, 1980, The Guyana Tragedy was adapted by Ernest Tidyman from the Washington Post and Charles A. Krause's Guyana Massacre: An Eyewitness Account. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Powers Boothe, Veronica Cartwright, (more)
The Devil's Rejects director Rob Zombie resurrects one of the most notorious slashers in screen history with this re-imagining of the 1978 John Carpenter classic that spawned numerous sequels and countless imitators. As a child, young Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) committed one of the most unspeakable crimes imaginable. Subsequently locked in an asylum and placed under the care of Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), the hollow-eyed boy grew into an emotionless man determined to escape back to his hometown of Haddonfield and complete the murderous mission that he began so many years back. These days, the long-abandoned Myers house sits decrepit and overgrown on a peaceful suburban street, its boarded windows and rotting wood a silent testament to the slaughter that has haunted Haddonfield for decades. Now Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) is back, and as the children of this typical Midwestern town fill the sidewalks for a fun-filled night of tricks and treats, Haddonfield is about to find out that there is no escape from pure evil. Brad Dourif, William Forsythe, Udo Kier, Dee Wallace, Sheri Moon Zombie, Danny Trejo, and Adrienne Barbeau co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, (more)

- 2009
- R
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Filmmaker Rob Zombie returns to Haddonfield for this Dimension Films sequel that finds the murderous psychopath Michael Myers (once again played by Tyler Mane) out on the loose again. Zombie writes and directs, with Malek Akkad handling producing duties. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, (more)
A notorious artistic and financial failure, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was blamed for critically wounding the movie Western and definitively ushering out the 1970s Hollywood New Wave of young, brash, independent filmmakers. Taking a revisionist, post-Vietnam view of American imperialism, Cimino used the historical Johnson County War incident in Wyoming to create an impressionistic tapestry of Western conflict between poor immigrant settlers and rich cattle barons led by Canton (Sam Waterston) and his hired gun Nate Champion (Christopher Walken). Attempting to mediate is idealistic Harvard graduate and county marshal Averill (Kris Kristofferson), who is both Nate's friend and his romantic rival for the affections of Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). However, war erupts, at great cost to all involved. Flush from his success with the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978), Cimino demanded creative control, and his insistence on shooting on location and building historically accurate sets and props multiplied the film's original budget to a then-astronomical $36 million. When United Artists premiered the original 219-minute version (sight unseen), they discovered that Cimino had produced an elliptical epic, compounding the box-office difficulties of making a Western without any major stars. Critics howled about Cimino's incomprehensible self-indulgence, and United Artists pulled the film after several days. Re-released five months later, 70 minutes shorter, Heaven's Gate bombed again, and MGM bought out the financially crippled United Artists. The ailing Western genre virtually vanished during the 1980s, Cimino's career never recovered, and Hollywood studios had had enough of bankrolling financially risky ventures by "auteur" directors. Heaven's Gate's reputation recovered somewhat after its video release, as it garnered praise from some viewers for such visually remarkable sequences as the Harvard dance and the final battle, as well as for David Mansfield's haunting score. Steven Bach's book Final Cut provides a full production history. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, (more)
This political thriller is set against the backdrop of Northern Ireland's "Troubles" and directed in the documentary fashion common to British filmmaker Ken Loach's films. Paul Sullivan (Brad Dourif) and Ingrid Jessner (Frances McDormand) are American attorneys serving on a human rights group working to monitor cases of prisoner mistreatment in war-torn Belfast. When Paul learns of some information that may be injurious to the Thatcher government, he is killed, and a top-secret tape disappears. Assigned to the case, Inspector Kerrigan (Brian Cox) is joined by Ingrid in probing Paul's death, which seems to be related to rumors of a high-ranking cabal within the British government working to undermine the Irish Republican Army and liberal policies toward Irish separatists through violent and illegal means. Ingrid meets with Harris (Maurice Roeves), a former British Secret Service agent who's now turned on his former cronies. Together, they look for the top-secret tape. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frances McDormand, Brian Cox, (more)

























