While Denzel Washington’s career has lasted over 40 years, the actor has only ventured into a certain genre once and his lone effort was a financial and critical failure. Denzel Washington is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. As a result, it is easy to forget that the star has weathered his fair share of flops during his illustrious screen career. 1995’s Devil In A Blue Dress underperformed, while Washington directed the 2021 flop A Journal for Jordan, which lost over $15 million upon release. Fortunately, Washington’s many hits more than made up for these missteps.

Furthermore, not all of Washington’s financial failures have been critical catastrophes. Devil In A Blue Dress is deservedly seen as one of the most underrated noir movies of the ‘90s, while Washington’s early 1986 flop Power earned a stellar review from Roger Ebert despite its box office struggles. Some of Denzel Washington’s best movies even managed to overcome both a bad reception from reviewers and a terrible box office showing to become cult classics. This is true of 1998’s Fallen, which also has the ignominious honor of being Washington’s only failed attempt to try out one contentious genre.

1998’s Fallen Is Denzel Washington’s Only Horror Movie

The Legendary Star Has Appeared In 50 Movies

Although the actor has appeared in 50 movies over the last 43 years, the underrated 1998 flop Fallen is the only Denzel Washington movie that could reasonably be called a horror. Directed by Primal Fear’s Gregory Hoblit, Fallen follows the story of Washington’s troubled detective John Hobbes as he slowly realizes that a series of copycat killings aren’t necessarily the work of an ordinary human serial killer. Washington famously turned down Se7en and this similarly gloomy, brutal serial killer thriller starts out like another replica of David Fincher’s nihilistic psychological thriller. However, Fallen’s big twist changes its genre entirely.

Fallen is a dark, slow-burn psychological thriller that transforms into a full-blown horror over the course of its story as Hobbes realizes to his horror that he is dealing with an immortal body-hopping demon. With this killer premise and a supporting cast that includes John Goodman and James Gandolfini, Fallen inevitably went on to become a cult classic in the decades after its release. However, it was initially a major flop for Washington. Fallen cost $46 million to produce and earned only $25 million at the box office. Afterward, Washington never risked another foray into the horror genre again.

Denzel Washington’s Career Avoided A Common Problem

The Actor Has No Embarrassing Early Horror Roles

While Denzel Washington’s Fallen was underrated, he is far from the only actor with a critically maligned horror movie in their back catalog. Since he rose to prominence in a TV role on St. Elsewhere, Washington sidestepped a career rite of passage that many actors share. Denzel Washington has no embarrassing early roles in cheap horror movies, something that can’t be said for many future A-list stars. For example, Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Paul Rudd, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, and Renée Zellweger all starred in horrors early on.

McConaughey and Zellweger actually starred in the same movie, a laughably bad Texas Chain Saw Massacre sequel that never enjoyed the critical reappraisal Fallen received. Washington avoided this early-career staple, although the reception of his later work was as uneven as any of his contemporaries. In particular, Denzel Washington’s remakes struggled to impress critics as much as his original movies. Few of his films ever fared as badly with reviewers as Fallen, which has a mere 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, 2021’s superficially similar psychological thriller The Little Things dipped near this with a 45% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Fallen’s Failure Explains Washington’s Lack of Later Horror Movies

Fallen Was A Critical and Commercial Failure

Even though the movie is brilliant, Fallen’s failure seemingly put Washington off returning to horror movies later in his career. As a genre, horror is often viewed as a stepping stone by young actors hoping to get exposure before taking on projects that are seen as more serious or worthy. Although horror has undergone something of a critical reappraisal in recent years, it is still rare to see the genre celebrated at the Academy Awards. This might explain why Denzel Washington’s best roles trend toward historical dramas, psychological thrillers, and action movies.

This is a shame since Fallen proved that Washington had the makings of a great horror hero. As Hobbes, the actor bounced between frustrated disbelief and dawning horror in a way that made the movie’s potentially goofy supernatural twist feel earned. Fallen’s ending is one of the strongest in Washington’s career, a bleak coda that fits the tone of the grim preceding movie. As such, viewers who enjoy Denzel Washington’s work should seek out the lone underrated horror movie in the actor’s lengthy screen CV.