The horror movies Jon Bernthal was raised on: “Those are all films I dug a lot”

Jon Bernthal might not be renowned as a horror actor, given his recent roles as The Punisher and Mikey Berzatto in The Bear, but once upon a time, audiences loved to hate him as Shane Walsh in The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead is a zombie horror show from the 2010s that made television history with the amount of viewers it amassed for its third season, and can be credited for the rise in popularity of zombie TV shows since. 

So, despite not being massively tied to the genre of horror, it’s safe to say Bernthal has served his time there, even if it was relatively short-lived. Plus, he grew up in the 1980s, so it’s safe to say he would have had plenty of exposure to all of its gruesome thrills. But what does the man himself have to say about the genre? 

“I grew up and was a huge Friday the 13th fan, Part I and 2,” he told CrypticRock. “Unfortunately, as little kids, we really rooted for Jason. I loved those films”. Again, as an ‘80s kid, it’s no surprise that the first film on the list is one of the classic slasher films from the genre’s golden age. 

Although it was a box-office hit and spawned multiple sequels, crossovers and a reboot, Friday the 13th was originally an independent film inspired by the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween. Another series of films Bernthal cites as a favourite, Halloween, along with Friday the 13th, was a precursor to many of the iconic horror features that came out of the ’80s. 

That’s not where Bernthal’s love of slasher ends, either. He goes on to mention A Nightmare on Elm Street—which even had a crossover with Friday the 13th—and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. “Those are all films I dug a lot. I am a fan,” he added. Obviously, Jon has a type, but he didn’t just grow up on any old slasher. His choices are actually somewhat snobby with regard to the oeuvre. 

For starters, many film scholars credit Friday the 13th as the initiator of the slasher/stalker subgenres, due to its focus on a group of young people being stalked by a masked murderer. And, along with Halloween, it’s considered one of the first films that standardised the trope of the ‘final girl’. Each of them is considered influential in some way and remains relevant. While many of the films that have followed in their footsteps have failed to reach the cultural or critical acclaim they have, they undoubtedly have inspired many of the subsequent horrors to this day. 

Even Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which preceded all of Bernthal’s other favourites, has been revisited through the lens of the slasher, ‘final girl’ tropes, and the sexual morality play that all the subsequent movies helped to popularise. Bernthal was lucky to grow up in an era of influential horror films, and clearly, they influenced his own tastes. 

It’s interesting that he mentions how he and his friends rooted for Jason, the outright antagonist of those films, as it can provide insight into how this might have influenced his portrayal of Shane in The Walking Dead. The character was the antagonist, who frequently lured people to their death, albeit for more benevolent ends than Jason Voorhees.