The nape drape. The squirrel pelt. The beaver paddle. The Tennessee top hat. The Mississippi mud flap.
Call it whatever you want, but there’s no denying that the hairstyle most commonly known as the mullet is a truly remarkable thing, worn by those with the balls to wear it and revered by those who will never know what it truly means to have a business meeting in the front and a bitchin’ party in the back.
In tribute to “The Walking Dead’s” Eugene and that head of hair that instantly told us all he’s not really a scientist, we thought it might be fun to take a look back at some other epic mullets that have graced our screens over the years. Because why the hell would that not be fun?
So come along with us as we tour the hallowed halls of the Horror Movie Mullet Museum!
1) THE LOST BOYS – THE CALIFORNIA COOL
There are few horror movies more gloriously epic in the hair department than The Lost Boys, which features a wide array of hairstyles that remind us all that 80s hair is the best hair. The fact that Kiefer Sutherland’s bleached-blonde, undead mullet stands out amongst all the others is a testament to how truly remarkable it is, and it’s the sort of hairstyle that would instantly render most vampires totally uncool. Yet, Sutherland more than pulls it off, proving that it’s the man who makes the hair, not the other way around. Sleep all day. Party in the back.
2) FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER – THE UNINTENTIONAL JARVIS
A handful of characters immediately come to mind when the word combination “horror movie mullet” is mentioned, and one of those characters probably isn’t Tommy Jarvis. As portrayed by Corey Feldman in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Jarvis rocked a pretty serious mushroom-style ‘do for the majority of the movie, though at the end he of course went incognito as a young Jason by crudely running a razor across his head. What you may not have realized is that Jarvis unintentionally gave himself a mullet in the process due to his inability to reach that special party spot. The Jarvis flavor-saver, I like to call it.
3) MAHAKAAL – THE DREAM MULLET
Long before The Asylum started ripping off big time box office hits, Bollywood was driving the unlicensed remake train, and in 1993 they made a pit stop on Elm Street. Centering on a burnt-faced demon stalking people in their sleep, Mahakaal is without question the strangest Nightmare on Elm Street rip-off ever made, as the killer looks exactly like Freddy but with one major addition: He’s got a bitchin’ mullet. Essentially, if a 1990s John Stamos played Freddy Krueger and it was written in his contract that his hair must not be covered up, he’d be Mahakaal. And that makes this unofficial Bollywood remake one of the best things to ever happen to humanity.
4) RAWHEAD REX – THE PAGAN DEATH-HAWK
It’s impossible to tell whether the demon in the Clive Barker-penned Rawhead Rex is the coolest movie monster or the shittiest, which is something I feel pretty comfortable typing considering the fact that I’ve spent many sleepless nights mulling it over. A resurrected Pagan god, Rawhead Rex is basically a giant rubber Halloween decoration come to life, somehow managing to express less emotion with his face than even Kristen Stewart is capable of. But it’s Rex’s hair that truly makes him a standout monster, a mullet-mohawk hybrid that makes you wish he had applied to GWAR rather than pissed on people and ate babies. Then again, I think they do both of those things on the GWAR party bus.
5) STEPHEN KING’S IT – THE SADISTIC SKULLET
Another horror icon who often skirts under the mullet-dar is Pennywise, the terrifying clown from Stephen King’s It. If there’s any hairstyle that best personifies the “business in front, party in back” motto, it’s without question Pennywise’s poofy red mess, which is forever engrained in the nightmares of pretty much everyone who has ever seen the 1990 miniseries. His hair is quite frankly a party in and of itself – the sort of party that his forehead wasn’t invited to. Pennywise is rocking what’s commonly referred to as a skullet, a rare sub-class of the mullet that you can often find flapping in the wind at NASCAR races. Or, in this case, floating in a storm drain.
6) BRAINSCAN – THE TRICKSTER
There are a handful of reasons why any self-respecting human being should have 1994’s Brainscan in his or her DVD collection, two of them being Edward Furlong and Frank “Skeletor” Langella. Another is the fact that it’s home to perhaps the most wildly ridiculous horror villain of all time, known simply as The Trickster. Played by stage actor T. Ryder Smith, Trickster’s look is as gloriously dated as the CD-ROMs he carries around, highlighted by a poofy mane of reddish hair that seems quite eager to escape his weird head. It’s no coincidence that Trickster has a spot on this list right underneath Rawhead Rex and Pennywise, as he’s more or less the love-child of the two.
7) JASON GOES TO HELL – META MULLET
Anyone who was a regular on the horror convention scene throughout the late 80s and early 90s surely remembers that Kane Hodder had a pretty badass mullet back then, which unfortunately was obscured from sight whenever he portrayed Jason Voorhees. That is, until 1993, when Hodder was given a self-referential cameo in Jason Goes to Hell. At long last, his power mullet was exposed for the world to see and immortalized on celluloid in a quick scene where Hodder’s security guard character refers to Jason – aka himself – as a big old pussy. So next time you watch Jason Goes to Hell, remember one thing: Under that mask is an ass-kicking mullet.
8) THE BLOB – THE REBEL YELL
Though the title of this 1988 remake is of course in reference to the slimy pink monster that serves as its villain, The Blob is also a fitting description of the hot mess that sits atop star Kevin Dillon’s head in the film. Yes, before he was Johnny Drama on “Entourage,” Dillon was rebel biker Brian Flagg, and to say he looked the part of a “cool dude” from that time period would quite frankly be a criminal understatement. In many ways, Dillon’s hair is the best special effect in the movie, seemingly growing at a geometric rate right along with the bubblegum Blob itself.
9) THEY LIVE – ROWDY RODDY MULLET
If you referred to John Carpenter as the godfather of the movie mullet, I’m not so sure I’d take any issue with that statement. Kurt Russell had a serious one in Big Trouble in Little China, and so too did pro wrestler Roddy Piper in 1988’s They Live. You don’t need a special pair of black sunglasses to see what’s going on here, and what’s going on here is one of the most majestic examples of manhood these eyes have ever had the pleasure of ogling. Nada is an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary situation, and his hair is every bit as extraordinary as anything else going on in the movie. OBEY the mullet.
10) FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING – THE GREASY DEMON
Decades before Danny McBride popularized the elusive Jheri curl mullet in the series “Eastbound and Down,” Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., made the hairdo look super fly in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. The Return of the Living Dead star portrayed Demon in the film, the older brother of Reggie “The Reckless,” and though those damn enchiladas were his downfall, it was his immaculate curls that are his lasting legacy. Paramedic Roy was simply jealous of the raging party on top of Demon’s head, and jealousy unfortunately killed this particular cat. You deserved better than dying on the shitter, Demon. But damn if you didn’t look good until the bitter end!