From ‘The Faculty’ to ‘Trap’: Looking at Josh Hartnett’s Career in Horror

Published 1 week ago
on July 31, 2024
By Mike Holtz

Almost any search of Josh Hartnett will return a bevy of articles with a headline that is some variation of “Why Josh Hartnett Left Hollywood,” which is fair. It’s a fascinating story about a guy who saw himself as an artist thrust into the spotlight of a teen heartthrob. It’s the rare story of a human choosing a simpler, more purposeful life over ultra-fame.

It’s more than admirable. A great story. But today, in honor of his latest leading role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, we’re just here to talk about blood, guts, and Josh Hartnett’s strange relationship with the horror genre.

It all began with The Faculty in 1998. Though Halloween: H20 was released first, he was offered the role of Zeke in The Faculty beforehand and had to work on both simultaneously. This started his career working with Dimension Films and the dreaded Weinsteins.

When you look at the track record, it’s no wonder Hartnett had a love/hate relationship with Hollywood. The Weinsteins decided he was their guy and immediately locked him into a multi-picture deal under the misleading guise that he wouldn’t be asked to see it through. Hartnett would explain, “We had a sort of antagonistic relationship because the contract I signed for those first two films guaranteed me to be a part of, like, five more or something. They’re called contract extensions. I was told at the time that nobody ever uses them, but then I guess I became popular and they decided to, um, exercise that right. What they did a few times was to jump on other projects I was working on already and become co-producers.”

Alas, history is history and we, the horror audience, had the pleasure of seeing Hartnett start his career with two prominent roles in the post-Scream horror genre. A guy who was so cool at the time, he could make a haircut that looked like it came from the “Suck Kut” machine in Wayne’s World appear bad ass. Hartnett had such an X-factor about him, he probably could have pulled off Courtney Cox’s Scream 3 bangs and gotten away with it. A legit star, the moment he arrived on the scene. Even if he hated it.

For the answer to the question of whether Hartnett was here for art or fame, one need look no further than the behind-the-scenes interviews for The Faculty. You won’t see a person who thinks he’s the next big thing. You’ll see a film nerd waxing philosophical about Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi. Again, we’re not here to talk about that. But it’s important to appropriately note as we adorn Hartnett in his well-earned horror flowers.

On-screen in The Faculty, Hartnett was portrayed as a tortured but painfully hip drug dealer whose parents weren’t often around as he used their home to create his own drug, “scat.” Which was… of course… ”guaranteed to jack you up.” In the first draft of writer Kevin Williamson’s script, the character of Zeke was far more unlikeable. Bullying Elijah Wood’s character incessantly. Even forcing him by threat of a “beating” to rip off a girl’s top in front of the whole school. My imagination tells me someone at Dimension didn’t want their new leading man to be seen in such a harsh light, so we received the semi-toned-down version of Zeke.

And Hartnett brought more to the character of Zeke than he ever had to. While you wanted to like Zeke, you also kind of hated him and simultaneously felt genuinely bad for the guy. He was aware enough as an actor to bring out the nuances of the character Williamson had written, and we all know he rocked the shit out of the long sleeve undershirt/short sleeve t-shirt combo.

While Hartnett was never in a Scream film himself (he would have fit right in), his career trajectory was no doubt impacted by its success. Dimension was desperately trying to replicate the genre-rescuing success of Wes Craven’s film and was running writer Kevin Williamson down to his bones in an attempt to do so. While Williamson didn’t write Halloween H20 (those honors go to Robert Zappia), Harnett’s simultaneous debut film, he did write an initial treatment for it, and there’s no doubt when you watch the film…. well, it’s Scream influenced. In H20, Hartnett plays John Tate, the son of Laurie Strode. Hartnett wasn’t sure he even wanted to do it, stating at the time: “Halloween 7? Is that going straight to video? Or straight to Hell?”

In the end, he took the role and made it one of the more memorable characters of the Halloween sequels. He made his mark in multiple face-offs with both Michael Myers and his mother/school headmistress, as his character tried to break his mother of her obsession with her past, paranoia, and alcoholism. Trading lines with a legendary actress (Jamie Lee Curtis) returning to her most legendary role in your first-ish film ever is quite the task and it never appeared that Hartnett ever so much as blinked.

Perhaps working in the horror genre via the confines of Dimension soured Hartnett to the genre for a while, or maybe it was just fate, but Hartnett wouldn’t work directly in horror again for almost a decade before 30 Days of Night came calling. Or more specifically, producer Sam Raimi, who Harnett credited as the reason he took the role. Raimi assured Harnett (in Hartnett’s own words) that, “Aside from this being a vampire film it was going to be something that was quite elevated. Something that was actually worth working on as an actor.”

Hartnett would run and scream, of course, as the film’s premise (based on a graphic comic series) was a small Alaskan town being hunted by vampires during their month of total darkness. Hartnett, however, spent most of his time playing the character Sheriff Eben Olsen more as if he were in a subtle Western than your typical vampire flick. A soft-spoken, calming center of gravity amidst the bloody chaos. Sam Raimi wasn’t lying to him.

A mostly inward but multi-faceted character, Olsen was one of the very few protectors of a remote town, suffering through a broken relationship with his significant other (played by Melissa George). The film had its moments; a great idea for a horror movie, along with a stand out setting, and a frightening lead vampire (played by Danny Huston), albeit with some major pacing issues and a lack of true scares. Hartnett though, was again a bright spot and a welcome sight for the sore eyes of horror fans who had missed seeing him. It was the beginning of an actor maturing in front of our eyes, complete with vampires ripping out folks’ throats.

Hartnett’s next tour into the dark arts would be in 2014 when he played Ethan Chandler in the TV series Penny Dreadful, which ran for three seasons on Showtime.

For a man who loves to play multi-dimensional characters with introspective turmoil, Ethan Chandler was an interesting choice for Hartnett. The character was a womanizing, American gunman, and semi-con artist with a drinking problem. One of those characters who had a whole hell of a lot going on behind those eyes. The show takes this character along with fellow leads, Timothy Dalton and Eva Green, into a twisted underworld, using his talents, and misgivings, to unravel a story involving everything from Frankenstein to more vampires. Lots of vampires. For those of us who hadn’t seen Hartnett in a while, it was awesome just to see him in general. But also great to see him in a role where he could do some real scenery chewing.
Fast forward to 2023 and Hartnett was back in the horror genre, or at the very least, in the ballpark, with an episode of Black Mirror titled Beyond the Sea. I’ll keep this mostly spoiler-free as I imagine many who haven’t heard of this mini-movie will want to check it out, and it’s well worth doing so. In the episode, we’re in an alternate universe of 1969. Two astronauts, played by Hartnett and Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, are the first test subjects of a new technology. While they are in space on a six-year mission, they are able to crawl into a chamber of some sort and mentally take over the synthetic version of themselves that is back at home with their families. But when a group of hippies decide this is unnatural, they intervene Charles Manson style and send the episode catapulting into a horrific tale of pure anguish.

Hartnett is tasked with playing a character who goes through the absolute darkest of human emotions from unbelievable grief to extreme loneliness. It’s an amazing exhibition of his underrated acting abilities. It’s a must-watch episode of the show and feels more like its very own movie than anything else.

A while back, Hartnett stated himself that, “People wanted to create a brand around me that was going to be accessible and well-liked, but I didn’t respond to the idea of playing the same character over and over, so I branched out. I tried to find smaller films I could be part of and, in the process, I burned my bridges at the studios because I wasn’t participating. Our goals weren’t the same.”
As we stand today, I think it’s fair to say that Josh Hartnett has flipped the script the way he wanted to all those years ago. Hollywood knew he was a star, but he was more interested in becoming a serious actor. Anyone who’s seen his recent work knows he’s accomplished that, and I’m willing to bet he’s still pretty damn marketable too.

We look forward to seeing him back in the thriller/horror genre with Trap on August 2.

It’s guaranteed to jack us up.

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