rewrite this title 5 Underrated Sam Neill Movies Every Fan Should See

Chris

Movie fans around the world are grieving the sudden loss of the great Sam Neill, a modern legend perhaps best known for playing Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park films. Yet there was much more to this New Zealand actor’s résumé, which included a host of truly classic films, such as The Hunt for Red October, The Piano, and many more. To mark the sad occasion of his passing, we wanted to highlight five of his more underrated movies, all of which feature incredible work from this iconic star.

Possession

While widely acclaimed in arthouse circles upon its release in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession has only in recent years become recognized as a horror classic. Its influence has been felt in everything from Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculateto the recent The First Omen. While Isabelle Adjani’s performance is the one that usually gets mentioned, Neill is just as good as her husband, a brooding spy working in West Berlin during the Cold War who starts to go to pieces as his wife begins to slip away from him. The film is being remade by Smile director Parker Finn, which strikes me as a bad idea—but I guess we’ll see.

Omen III: The Final Conflict

While most people think of this as the weakest Omen movie, it has one really great thing going for it—namely Neill’s incredible performance as the now-grown Damien Thorn. Even if the movie is a 6/10 (at best), Neill is a 10 as the suave, handsome, cool Damien, a man you believe could ascend to the highest ranks of power. It was a shame they killed him off at the end, as Neill could have continued playing the character in sequel after sequel while the Antichrist’s powers grew. We really missed out on seeing Damien’s long-teased fate of becoming President of the United States.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man

While this movie is no doubt tainted by stories of John Carpenter feuding with a poorly behaved Chevy Chase on set, the silver lining is that this was the first time the director worked with Sam Neill. Carpenter liked him so much that he later cast him as the lead in In the Mouth of Madness (more on that in a bit). I’ve always thought this was an underrated movie. Although Chase’s performance is weak, it’s an intriguing, action-driven take on The Invisible Man, with Neill terrific as the film’s smooth-talking antagonist, a shady CIA operative who wants the secret of invisibility for nefarious purposes.

In the Mouth of Madness

It’s a shame that one of John Carpenter’s all-time best movies was such a disaster at the box office, despite arriving in the wake of Sam Neill’s biggest hit, Jurassic Park. He’s incredible as an insurance investigator searching for missing horror author Sutter Cane. Neill, who had built a reputation at the time for playing suave, almost Bond-like characters (he once screen-tested for the role of James Bond), really gets to stretch here, particularly in the final act. The performance helped open the door for him to take on a much wider range of roles in the years that followed.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

After a couple of relatively quiet years, Taika Waititi’s charming film seemed to reignite audiences’ appreciation for Neill, reminding everyone just how extraordinary an actor he was. He has one of the best roles of his career here, playing a grumpy, illiterate bushman who winds up on the run through the New Zealand wilderness with his foster son, played by the great Julian Dennison. The film has become a well-deserved cult classic and helped spark a welcome late-career resurgence for Neill.

What’s your favorite Sam Neill performance? Let us know in the comments.

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