While the jury is still out on whether or not Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a full-blown horror movie, its star Elizabeth Olsen has certainly appeared in her fair share of scary genre fare. Almost every actor has at least one horror movie to their name. For some stars, like Anya Taylor-Joy, horror movies remain a career mainstay throughout their careers. However, for other stars, the horror genre is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
This could be said of MCU heroine Elizabeth Olsen, whose appearances in the genre dwindled as her big-budget blockbuster career blossomed. That said, Olsen does have four horror movies to her name—and that’s without including legendary horror director Sam Raimi’s recent superhero sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As a result, Olsen, certainly has substantial genre credentials.
While the question of whether or not Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a horror movie is up for debate, one thing that's clear is Olsen’s experience as a horror performer. Between 2011 and 2014, Olsen starred in four horror movies, almost as many as Brad Pitt managed in his multi-decade career. Olsen’s contributions to the genre ran the gamut from the full-blown haunted house horror Silent House to the subtler psychological thriller Martha Macy May Marlene, to the monster movie Godzilla, to the thought-provoking sci-fi horror mashup Red Lights. Here's how Elizabeth Olsen’s horror movies compare to each other.
4. Silent House
A remake of the Argentinian horror of the same name, 2011’s Silent House is a haunted house chiller notable for appearing to be shot in one continuous take (despite the hype, the movie actually consists of a handful of takes cut together to seem seamless). Unfortunately, that’s all that is notable about this slow, exploitative, and predictable horror. While Silent House was already overlong and over-reliant on Olsen’s performance, like 2010’s Nightmare On Elm Street remake, a tasteless twist pushed this movie into outright awful status.
3. Red Lights
While 2010’s Buried proved that director Rodrigo Cortes could do a lot with a little, his 2012 follow-up Red Lights also showed that he could also make very little out of an all-star cast and a killer premise. Ostensibly about Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver’s professional skeptics debunking Robert DeNiro’s “psychic,” Red Lights gradually reveals itself to be a deeper, twistier psychological mystery than it initially seems. It’s a shame, then, that it’s one that unfortunately never takes its paranormal elements far enough to really sing.
2. Godzilla
Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla is dark, slow, and often surprisingly sad, but it’s also a spectacular monster movie with heart. Admittedly, the later Alexander Skarsgård horror Godzilla Vs Kong will be a far better fit for genre fans who just want some giant monster-focused fun. However, Godzilla deserves plaudits for taking a different tact and trying to tell a more soulful story than most “giant radioactive lizard lays waste to a city” movies ever attempt.
1. Martha Macy May Marlene
Martha Macy May Marlene is an unbearably tense psychological thriller that plants viewers in the head of Olsen’s cult survivor as she attempts to lead a normal life after escaping an unhinged cult leader. Harrowing, horrifying, and fascinating in equal measure, Martha Macy May Marlene is both a chilling experience and a fantastic calling card for the young Olsen. It’s a subtler sort of horror than everything else on this list, but Martha Macy May Marlene proved that future Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Elizabeth Olsen had a bright future ahead of her (despite being the most memorably dark movie in the actor’s impressive back catalog).