![\"Highest-2-Lowest](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Highest-2-Lowest-Spike-Lee-Denzel-Washington-A24-2025-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: A24<\/p>\n
Tue 21 July 2026 2:30, UK <\/p>\n
Denzel Washington<\/a> can do it all. <\/p>\n On the dramatic front, he is untouchable, and he\u2019s got the awards, good reviews, and paycheques to prove it, and he\u2019s also very funny when he needs to be, either as part of a drama or in a straight-up comedy. He\u2019s a proven action star, a romantic lead, and in recent years has shown that he is more than capable of playing a villain. There\u2019s a reason why his name regularly appears in lists of the greatest actors of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1998, the two-time Oscar winner appeared in a type of movie that his fans weren\u2019t used to seeing him in, playing Detective John Hobbes in Fallen, investigating a series of murders with a supernatural bent. The film was a thriller-cum-horror from director Gregory Hoblit and the closest Washington has ever come to starring in a horror, remaining a fascinating addition to his impressive filmography.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the surface, an actor of Washington\u2019s calibre might seem overqualified<\/a> for this sort of thing, but in the late 1990s, horror still had a stink about it. You can see this in an interview Washington conducted with film critic John C Tibbets at a press junket<\/a> for the movie, where the latter asks what drew the iconic actor to the role, given that horror movies often lacked \u201cintelligence\u201d, in his words. Washington explained that there was one person in particular responsible for this change of pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t get to read a lot of screenplays in this genre,\u201d he said, \u201cI guess that\u2019s a credit to my agents who send the bad ones away or whatever. They said, \u2018Denzel, we got something going here, you know\u2019, my agent said\u2026 Once I knew they wanted me to do it and read it, which seems like it took 15 minutes, because when you get a good screenplay, it\u2019s like \u2018boom\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n In Washington\u2019s own words, he\u2019d never appeared in a horror movie before, but he had starred in films that \u201cwere just as frightening, but for the wrong reasons\u201d. As well as the strong script, he was also drawn to Fallen due to its similarities with another project<\/a> he was working on at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite his enthusiasm for the project and his willingness to try something new, Washington\u2019s risk did not pay off, because Fallen was a box office flop, making just over $25million from a $45million budget. <\/p>\n This is strange given its lead\u2019s star power and the inclusion of Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, and John Goodman in the cast<\/a>, but critics weren\u2019t crazy about it. The core idea was praised, but reviewers weren\u2019t happy with its execution, which they felt was shallow and underdeveloped. In the cold light of day, Fallen is neither a great Denzel Washington movie nor a horror classic.\u00a0<\/p>\n This disappointing end result doesn\u2019t matter all that much. Washington was something of a trailblazer, given how many famous actors are starring in horror films these days. The genre has come a very long way since critics could openly call it dumb in interviews. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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