Ranking our top 3 favorite Kyle Gallner movies

An actor's journey can be long and arduous. Some won't find fame and recognition until late in their careers, while others find success early, reaching a peak they struggle to maintain. Many are typecast into specific roles, finding it difficult to shed an image. Some aren't defined by box office success and fame. Actors who ply their trade not for fame but because they love the art form. Actors who only work on movies that they would watch themselves. Thus, they promote their films even when the studios won't. In today's landscape, one such actor is Kyle Gallner. 

Gallner has been acting since he was a teenager. He started in minor but regular roles in shows like Veronica Mars, Smallville, and CSI: NY while also having parts in films like Wet Hot American Summer and Wes Craven's Red Eye. In movies like 2009's Jennifer's Body and the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Gallner played the timid goth kid.

He did so in such a fashion that for many horror fans, whenever he popped up in films, the image of the scared teenager was hard to shake. Yet Gallner made a change in the 2020s that started in the mid-2010s with films like Band of Robbers, which led him to become a must-watch whenever his name was listed as part of the cast of an upcoming movie.

By taking on roles in films with more intimate settings and a smaller cast, Gallner's performances have been diverse while also creating his own sense of style. One of Gallner's recent standout films was the 2020 film Dinner in America, a vulgar, punk-rock version of Napoleon Dynamite. Here, he first establishes the deliberate, slow-paced delivery where each word cuts through the screen.

Gallner can play his characters equally menacing as they are kind. Perhaps his most significant strength is his ability to create chemistry with his co-stars. In films like 2023's Mother, May I?', which is essentially as much a stage play as it is a film, Gallner demonstrates an ability to show vulnerability to go along with his more menacing performances. 

In the world of horror, having a distinct style helps an actor as much as it does a director or writer. For those unfamiliar with Gallner's work, 1428 Elm examines three films where the now-veteran actor is at the helm of the story. 

1. Smile (2022)

One of the most successful recent horror movies was 2022's Smile. Based on a short film by writer and director Parker Finn, Smile is a psychological supernatural horror film about an invisible entity that appears to its victims as a person they know or a stranger with a creepy, unnatural smile on their face. Gallner plays Joel, a police officer caught in the middle of helping an ex-lover and unsure if he is dealing with her mental issues or an actual supernatural presence. 

For some horror fans, Gallner's short appearance in 2022's Scream and Smile marked the first time they had seen the actor in nearly a decade. Going from the timid high schooler to a mustached detective at first felt jarring, yet Gallner's performance shuts down any notion of perceived softness or weakness. Other than Gallner's dynamo showing in Dinner in America, Smile is the perfect place to start before diving deep into his filmography. 

2. The Passenger (2023)

One of the more shocking and surprising performances of 2023 was in The Passenger. What makes the horror genre so unique from others is monsters and ghosts aren't prerequisites. The biggest and scariest monsters are usually human beings. The Passenger straddles the line between horror and thriller with one of the more memorable opening scenes in recent memory. 

Gallner plays Benson, a fast food worker who calmly changes the course of his and his co-worker Randy's lives one random morning. Benson then takes Randy on a journey, traveling in his car to various destinations to confront his past. Gallner's ability to switch from being intimidating to kind is one of the film's highlights.

The conversations between Gallner and Berchtold, as he tries his best not to say anything that will set off his captor, build a sense of dread and tension in the film as they go through a checklist of Randy's past. The Passenger has a simple premise, yet within the story, it brings out the complexity of its characters. Within this complexity, Gallner genuinely shines. 

3. Strange Darling (2024)

One of the best-reviewed films of 2024, JT Mollner's Strange Darling is a two-person showcase between Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald. Strange Darling follows the final days and crimes of a serial killer named The Lady, played by Fitzgerald, and her encounter with the Demon, played by Gallner. The movie is presented in six chapters in a nonlinear fashion, immediately throwing the audience into a situation without overexplaining. It's a film that needs to be experienced as it takes the viewer on a ride with Gallner and Fitzgerald at the wheel. 

"To me, that's the fun about going to the movies—to share the same experience with everybody," Gallner told Forbes about Strange Darling. "There are moments where you feel the air completely leave the room or everybody jumps or everybody laughs or yells. Going to a movie is such a special experience and I think this movie caters so well to that experience. "

Gallner, one of the few actors who goes beyond the typical late-night talk show and Hot Ones appearance to promote a movie, has pushed for wide releases of several of his recent films. Gallner isn't your typical movie star. However, he has earned a level of trust with audiences to watch his movies, regardless of the genre. Gallner has gained confidence with the horror community. Any film he stars in moving forward will be anticipated by his name being attached. Strange Darling, among others, has garnered him that level of anticipation.