The great Sam Neill has passed into legend, after a five-decade career spanning film and TV roles across drama, fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Whether you lived in Neill’s native New Zealand, chosen home Australia, or abroad, it’s likely the actor had an impact on your film-watching journey.
Neill’s career was a high-profile one, with popular turns in major blockbusters – most notably Jurassic Park – all of which were buoyed by his contributions. It would be easy to think, with the actor’s low-key profile and preference for a normal, everyday life, that he was not one of the greatest in his class. Typically, that label would come with more fanfare.
ScreenHub: So long, Sam Neill, and thank you
But Neill always preferred the understated approach, quietly delivering excellent performances without the typical self-promotion. As we remember Sam Neill, it’s a chance to reflect on a humble and, by all stories, wonderful human being, who contributed so much to the world of acting, and particularly to the world of genre acting.
Neill made a name for himself on moving, artful pictures, including some all-time creepy, strange and stirring performances in sci-fi, fantasy and horror.
In the wake of his absence, appreciating what he’s left behind can be the best way to honour him. While by no means a comprehensive account of his vast and glittering career, here are six of ScreenHub‘s favourite Sam Neill performances from the world of genre.
6 great Sam Neill genre films – quick links
Event Horizon (1997)
Streaming: Buy or rent on Prime Video and Apple TV
Event Horizon is perhaps best known by a lovely bit of reported trivia: in the film, Sam Neill as Dr William G “Billy” Weir wears an outfit adorned by a new version of the Australia flag. Rather than a Union Jack, this version includes the Australian Aboriginal flag – and this was reportedly a suggestion by Neill himself, as a vision of a future Australia buoyed by unity, rather than colonial ties.
It’s a lovely notion, and one worth remembering even as the plot of Event Horizon turns strange and deadly.
In this particular film, Neill plays the designer of the spaceship Event Horizon, which mysteriously reappears after disappearing seven years earlier. As the film quickly proves, it should have stayed hidden – but without that, we wouldn’t have had this excellent, wide-eyed (and eventually horrifying) turn from Neill.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Streaming: Buy or rent on Prime Video and YouTube
In the Mouth of Madness, inspired by the HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, features a stellar turn from Sam Neill as John Trent, an insurance investigator who confronts an increasingly distressing set of horrors after he uncovers a case of fraud.
The film is a prickly exploration of insanity in the Lovecraft tradition, leaning into the strange, absurd and uncanny. To see Neill’s slow devolution is a wonderful thing, as he strains against the bounds of his odd new reality, and discovers the world is much stranger than he first believes.
While this film isn’t for the faint of heart, it’s worth watching for Neill’s performance, and that artful, esoteric Lovecraft flavour of horror.
Daybreakers (2009)
Streaming: Prime Video
Daybreakers is a modern classic of vampire cinema, made better by a rare villainous performance from Sam Neill. While typically used to playing the everyman, he does an excellent job as a high-powered corporate villain in this tale, playing the outright evil Charles Bromley, vampire and owner of a company controlling the world’s dwindling blood supply in the post-apocalypse.
In a typical Neill film, you’ll want to root for the actor, as a warm and welcome presence. Here, Bromley’s eventual downfall is one to be celebrated. You’ll want to see this particular character absolutely rot for all the evil he contributes to the world. After all, what sort of man wants to hoard wealth while lording his power over the peasantry?
Jurassic Park (1993)
Streaming: Binge, Netflix, Prime Video and Paramount+
Of course, no retrospective on Sam Neill’s contributions to genre cinema – or even cinema itself – would be complete without mentioning Jurassic Park. This was one of Neill’s most prominent and well-known appearances, playing the affable palaeontologist Alan Grant, who arrives at the titular Jurassic Park to assess its safety after the death of a dinosaur handler.
In a film littered with iconic performances, Neill is a standout: wide-eyed, sweaty and terrified, but ever the voice of reason as the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park revolt, and he and his companions fight for survival across wild jungles.
Jurassic Park remains an incredible and occasionally quite horrifying experience, as a standout of 1990s cinema. It’s certainly still the best film of the Jurassic franchise thanks, in part, to Neill.
Possession (1981)
Streaming: Prime Video
Possession is another classic of Sam Neill’s genre films, although again, it’s on the rougher and bloodier side. Here, he plays Mark, a spy who returns home from a mission to discover his wife is seeking separation, and dating other men. What follows is a slow collapse into madness – Neill really doesn’t have a great time in some of his films – as strange circumstances arise.
He runs into a doppelgänger of his partner, and a strange creature appears. Then, of course, comes the breakdown, as Neill does what he does best: hand-wringing, wide-eyed gurning, sweating, the works. Neill is here to put on a show, and does so in spectacular fashion.
Some of the more artistic elements of this film weren’t appreciated in their era, but with a more modern lens and understanding of art in film, Possession shines.
Merlin (1998)
Streaming: Not currently available
Prior to the BBC’s more famous TV series, Sam Neill starred as the classic Arthurian magician Merlin in an epic two-part mini-series (often aired as an extended film) produced by NBC. While there must be some allowance for a lower TV budget, this mini-series is fantastic and magical, with Neill delivering a warm and transportive performance.
It’s one of the definitive adaptations of the Merlin mythology, complete with time for Guinevere (played by a young Lena Headey), Nimue (Isabella Rossellini) and a scene-stealing Helena Bonham Carter as Morgan le Fay. Shining above all is Neill as the titular Merlin, a wizard with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
For a generation of kids, this was their introduction to Neill – and a very warm one indeed.
Vale Sam Neill.
