I yield to no one in my love for Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green’s avant-garde masterpiece, a brilliant, subversive punk provocation cruelly misunderstood as a gross-out comedy. Which is why I’m thrilled to report, via The Hollywood Reporter, that Tom Green, Canadian national treasure, will be starring in his first horror movie. It may be true that Green hasn’t dabbled in the genre before, but the Reporter headline, “Tom Green Starring in First Horror Film: How a 22-Year-Old Director Landed the Comedian,” amuses me nonetheless. It suggests Green has enjoyed such a rich and varied career as a thespian that after triumphing at Shakespeare, light comedy, musical comedy, film noir, thrillers, and experimental films, Green giving horror a whirl is worthy of note.  

THR details how director James Cullen Bressack was working on Blood Lake—a film from The Asylum, the fine folks who gave us Sharknado—when he spotted Green in an alley by his offices. The two quickly struck up a friendship and hatched the idea for a collaboration. “I was really inspired by his enthusiasm,” relays Green. (Green was also presumably deeply touched by the offer of “work” as well.) 

Thus was born Bethany, a horror film shot in less than a month on a tiny budget that centers on Claire (Stefanie Estes), a woman who moves back into her childhood home with husband Aaron (Zack Ward). Soon, spooky things start happening, including flashbacks to tragic events involving Claire’s late mother (Shannen Doherty). Green will be playing a psychiatrist involved in the couple’s lives, and from this vantage point, it’s hard to imagine how the presence of a well-known funny man like Green wouldn’t be distracting in a straight-faced horror movie. 

But as a Freddy Got Fingered fan, I’m just happy to have Green back onscreen. Knowing this thespian’s remarkable eclecticism, I can only imagine what far-flung genre he’ll explore next. A Bollywood musical? A historical epic? A Christian thriller? Maybe a silly comedy? Only Green knows for sure.