OCTOBER 21: TWENTY ONE SEXY MEN IN HORROR

Just as it was difficult to pick twenty sexy women in horror, it is equally as challenging to pick just twenty-one men.  There are a lot of attractive guys roaming around in the woods, fighting zombies, biting people's necks, and hunting ghosts... So narrowing it down - not easy!  But here are the picks for the sexiest guys in horror.

{This post is dedicated to my dear friend Pax, with love.}

1) JOE MANGANIELLO
I've already had the sexy vampires of True Blood (Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgård) on another list this month so it was high time to highlight the sexiest actor on the whole damn show. Werewolf Alcide Herveaux is, simply put, sex on two legs.  Manganiello has all the right moves and makes them at every opportunity. He's certainly half-naked a lot of the time, not that I'm complaining! Besides True Blood, he hasn't done much else within the genre yet, but he did portray Flash Thompson in Spider-Man 2 and 3.

2) TIMOTHY OLYPHANT
Currently rocking the kick-ass role of Raylan Givens on Justified, Olyphant has had several roles in horror to show off his acting prowess and charming good looks.  He started his venture into horror in Scream 2 (1997), then continued with Dreamcatchers (2003), Hitman (2007), A Perfect Getaway (2009), and my personal favorite of his: The Crazies (2010).

3) IAN SOMERHALDER
Yes, he has popped up in this month's lists before, but there was really no way to leave him off this particular list.  Somerhalder is a sarcastic, brooding heart-breaker on The Vampire Diaries, but he was near the opposite as Boone on LOST, so it's safe to assume he's a decent actor. His horror credits in movies are just one: the forgettable Pulse remake (2006). To his benefit, Somerhalder is heavily involved in multiple charities, including the St. Tammany Humane Society and the It Gets Better Project (associated with The Trevor Project) which strives to prevent bullying and suicide among LGBT teens.

4) JOHNNY DEPP
Johnny looks good in every film he's in, even when he's a disheveled psychotic writer (2004's Secret Window) or a swaggering pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. His contribution to the horror genre is quite vast actually, as the man apparently prefers the darker side of cinema. He's headlined numerous genre outings, such as Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Ninth Gate (1999), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Astronaut's Wife (1999), From Hell (2001), The Pirates series (2003, 2006, 2007, 2011), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd (2007), and most recently as vampire Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows (2012). No matter what character Depp is playing, he brings all his quirkiness and his timeless and unfaltering good looks to every role.

5) LEE BYUNG-HUN
Holy hotness, Batman!  The first time I saw Lee was in the utterly fantastic I Saw The Devil.  His portrayal of Soo-hyun - a grieving yet relentless special agent set on finding the man who savagely murdered his fiance - was truly mind-blowing. But it's not just his acting that is so astounding - just look at this guy, he's beautiful. He also starred in the South Korean thriller Addicted (2002), I Come with the Rain (2009), and had a role as Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra (2009) and the forthcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

6) CHRISTIAN BALE
Bale became noticable in 2000 to horror fans with his spine-tingling performance as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.  The extent that he seemed to get into his character was both amazing and rather scary. He turned the tables and shocked his fans when he starred as an insomniac who hasn't slept in a year and is plagued with nightmares and strange thoughts in the disturbing The Machinist (2004). Bale lost over 60 pounds for the role and it is highly distressing to watch this movie. He also has garnered much fame and critical acclaim for his role as Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Genre fans also appreciated him in The Prestige (2006), Reign of Fire (2002), and Terminator Salvation (2009).

7) GARY OLDMAN
Marie has a special affinity for Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), in which he portrays one of horror's most legendary characters, the count himself.  But Oldman has shown up in several films that horror fans can appreciate, including Murder in the First (1995), Romeo is Bleeding (1993), The Scarlet Letter (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Lost in Space (1998), Hannibal (2001), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Red Riding Hood (2011), The Backwoods (2007), The Unborn (2009), several Harry Potter films (2004, 2005, 2007, 2011), and will be seen in the upcoming Paranoia (2013).

8) BEN BARNES
Known primarily for his work as Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia film series (2008, 2010), Barnes is an English actor who began his career in musical theater, and moved on to film in 2007 with the release of Stardust (2007), a adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novel. He has also shown up in the independent thriller Locked In (2010) and in the excellent Dorian Gray (2009) as the title character from Oscar Wilde's classic novel.

9) SEAN BEAN
One of my favorite actors, Sean Bean has a fairly prolific resume in genre films since his turn as Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has since shown up in Equilibrium (2002), Flightplan (2005), The Island (2005), The Dark (2005), Silent Hill (2006), The Hitcher (2007), Black Death (2010), Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012), and perhaps most famously as Eddark Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones.  Bean is an excellent multi-faceted actor, though it does seem he meets an untimely end in many of the roles he has taken on.

10) MICHAEL FASSBENDER
I am in love with Michael Fassbender. There, I said it.  Meanwhile, all of you folks can gaze upon his striking beauty whilst I tell you of his stellar acting skills.  The Fass has just, within the last few years, come into his own in the world of film. Thinking back, he was seen in 300 (2007), Eden Lake (2008), Blood Creek (2009), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Centurion (2010), Jonah Hex (2010), Jane Eyre (2010 and my personal favorite of his), X-Men First Class (2010, and the just out on DVD Prometheus (2012).  His critically acclaimed film Shame (not horror, but scary-good nonetheless) was simply terrific - though not for kids as it has an NC-17 rating. He does, after all, play a sex addict.  Bonus: Fassbender is German and Irish.  Just like me. SCORE!

11) JACK HUSTON
My first experience with Jack Huston was in the low-rent Shrooms (2007), which for some reason I hold a special liking for - and that reason just may be Huston.  The grandson of acclaimed director John Huston and nephew of Angelica Huston and Danny Huston, it would seem like Jack would have easy access to decent roles and be a bigger star than he is.  Besides Shrooms, he has been in Outlander (2008), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), and on the TV shows Eastwick (2009) and currently Boardwalk Empire (2010- )

12) ANTONIO BANDERAS
If there is a better looking, sexier Spanish actor out there, please direct me to him.  I have long admired Banderas' seductive good looks and sultry accent, and have found myself watching the films he has been in many times over just to see that sexy swagger of his. In 1994's Interview with the Vampire, he was perfectly cast as Armand, and since then he has been in Desperado (1995, again - perfect casting), Assassins (1995), Never Talk to Strangers (1995), The Mask of Zorro (probably the role most suited to him in film), The Thirteen Warrior (1999), The Body (2001), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), The Legend of Zorro (2005), and The Skin I Live In (2011). And let's not forget his charismatic turn as Puss in Boots in Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Shrek Forever After (2010) and Puss in Boots (2011).

13) XAVIER SAMUEL
This Australian hottie hasn't done a lot in the horror field (yet) but what he did accomplish so far leads me to believe we will be seeing a lot more of this guy in the future. Bait 3D (2012) is just what you think: a monster shark terrorizes a group of friends. Road Kill (a.k.a. Road Train in Australia, 2010) seems to be very similar in theory to Joy Ride (2001) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has Samuel a newborn vampire leading a group of baby vamps to destroy the planet (or whatever shit they do in those films).  But my favorite of Samuel's limited film credits has got to be The Loved Ones (2009), in which he plays Brent, a teenager who has lost his father, is in a deep depression, and ends up being kidnapped by a demented fellow student with her eyes set on Brent and the dream of the perfect prom. 

14) JAMES BROLIN
Before he was Barbra Streisand's other half, Brolin gave a truly believable performance as George Lutz - the head of the Lutz family who move into 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville and are bombarded with supernatural experiences until they have to flee in the dead of night.  The Amityville Horror (1979) was not the only horror film Brolin was in.  He also was in the 1977 thriller The Car - in which Brolin attempts to lasso a rogue Lincoln and stop the terror! He also starred in Fantastic Voyage (1966), The Boston Strangler (1968), and Night of the Juggler (1980).

15) MICHAEL WATSON
Not too much to say about Michael Watson.  He played the "good" vampire Stefan in Subspecies (1991), but you won't find him on Wikipedia, and though he is listed on IMDB, he doesn't have any kind of bio to speak of - so who knows what the guy is up to these days.  IMDB does list him as being in a few genre TV series like Freddy's Nightmares (1989) and Sleepwalkers (1997-1998), and surprisingly it notes he was on Melrose Place in 1998-1999 in a small (apparently forgettable) role....because I don't recall him and I watched that show.  Regardless, the first time I saw Subspecies I about had a heart-attack just gazing at his damn good looks.

16) JOHN GAVIN
With Psycho (1960) being one of my most favorite films (ok, it's number two), I am very familiar with the charms of John Gavin.  He is one splendid looking individual, and I would most certainly lick the stamps too (inside Psycho joke there).  This is a guy who (rightly) played Julius Caesar in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960).  Cast often as the love interest for the stunning young actresses of the time, Gavin can't claim horror as being his forte. Though he did do a few episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.  Sadly, he was all set to play James Bond, until Sean Connery nixed that by coming back to the role. 

17) RYAN KWANTEN
Yeah, I went and did it.  I added another True Blood actor to my list.  Well folks, if we're talkin' sexy then we're talkin' Ryan Kwanten.  This Aussie is just pure testosterone and all kinds of come-hither yumminess. With his boyish good looks and his out-of-control libido, Jason Stackhouse gets himself into more trouble than a fox in a hen house. And generally, his kind of trouble involves shedding clothing.  Kwanten himself has another couple horror creds on his resume with the spooky Dead Silence (2007), the thriller Red Hill (2010), and the upcoming supernatural thriller 7500 (2013).

18) JENSEN ACKLES
As older brother Dean Winchester on the addictive television show Supernatural , Ackles has made a name for himself in horror as a brooding yet charismatic ghost hunter/demon wrangler/monster nabber.  He rose to fame in the late 90's when he played Eric Brady on the popular daytime soap, Days of our Lives.  I guess there is some crossover into horror when Eric's mother Marlena became possessed by the devil. (Yeah, someone really wrote that script!).  Right after leaving Days, he was a cast member in Dark Angel. Ackles hasn't done a lot of horror, but he did stand out in the remake of My Bloody Valentine (3D, 2009), and starred in the straight-to-DVD Devour (2005).

19) JASON BEHR
As Max Evans in the popular television series Roswell, Behr caught the eye of many a young lady, I'm sure - and continues to do so, since he made this list.  His genre credits include Rites of Passage (1999), The Grudge (2004), Skinwalkers (2007), and The Tattooist (2007).

20) JASON PATRIC
Most people remember Patric as being the man that Julia Roberts ran off with days after she canceled her wedding to Kiefer Sutherland (can you really blame her?). But Patric has horror cred. He is probably most famous for portraying Michael in The Lost Boys - and this is where I first saw him and still the film I think of when I hear his name.  He was also in After Dark My Sweet (1990), Frankenstein Unbound (1990), and Sleepers (1996).  But for me, he'll always be Michael.

21) STUART TOWNSEND
Well known for being the former long-time love of Charlize Theron, the Irish-bred Townsend also has the dubious distinction of being cast as Aragon in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then removed from the role just days before shooting began. Tough break there, no doubt.  (But then again, he had Charlize to go home to, so...)  Townsend has acted in a few genre roles including his portrayal of Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). He also took over the reins from Tom Cruise and played Lestat de Lioncourt in Queen of the Damned (2002), and starred as Carl Kolchack in the revamped series Night Stalker, which ran on TV in 2005.