Kyle Gallner Is Still the Reigning Scream King

Move aside, Justin Long. Out of the way, Patrick Wilson. Ethan Hawke? How did you get here?! Look, we love you all, but it’s clear that Kyle Gallner is still horror’s reigning scream king. After news broke this week that Gallner will write and star in a new upcoming monster horror/survival thriller called Man Vs, we were simply ready to call it.

Gallner is unstoppable and, quite frankly, we don’t want him to stop. In the last 20 years, he’s starred in a string of horror flicks. Red Eye, The Haunting in Connecticut, Jennifer’s Body, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Red State, The Cleansing Hour, Scream, Smile, Smile 2, Strange Darling …that’s not even all of them. He’s also received critical acclaim in other genres, starring in the dark comedy Dinner in America and Welcome to Happiness. There doesn’t seem to be much Gallner can’t do when he puts his mind to it, and that includes being our scream king of modern horror.

From a young age, Gallner has shown the kind of onscreen vulnerability and emotional resonance that reinforces a true genre actor. His 2009 role in The Haunting in Connecticut as a teenager battling cancer who faces supernatural terror set the template for many of his horror characters: he’s really good at playing a frightened but resilient guy pushed into extraordinary circumstances.

Since then, he’s carved out an identity within the horror space in a way few supporting actors have ever managed, and in recent years, he’s made the transition to high-profile horror movies, most notably in the smash hit Smile and its sequel. As he’s matured, he’s been able to continue inhabiting grounded characters who are forced into a whirlwind of chaos, but we also never know quite what he’ll be capable of.

In 2022’s Scream, the mere sight of a dishevelled, moustachioed Gallner propping up a car was enough for horror fans to do the DiCaprio pointing meme. He can slip into characters with a menacing edge just as easily as ones with deep vulnerability, which is one of the many acting skills that make him perfect for horror. Gallner may not be a marquee name outside the horror fandom, but we love that he can always turn out to be the terrorised or the tormentor. It keeps us guessing!

We hope he’s fine with us declaring him our reigning scream king. We’d never want him to feel pigeonholed, and we’ll take all the Gallner we can get, but he has said he’s “grateful” for the label before.

“I’ll take the term all day, I’ll adopt it and wear it like a badge of honor,” he told The Hollywood News last year. “It’s a genre that I enjoy. I enjoy the fans. I think they’re some of the most dedicated fans out there. They show up, they watch the films, they talk about them, they share them, they push it out there, and it’s where I got started.”

Kyle, thank you for your service. Rest assured, we’ll watch you in anything, horror or otherwise.

In the meantime, long live our gracious king.