Landman's Michelle Randolph Made Her Debut In A Horror Movie With Emily Bader

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Michelle Randolph was no stranger to the Taylor Sheridan-verse when she took on the role of Ainsley Norris in "Landman." She'd previously played Elizabeth Strafford on Sheridan's "Yellowstone" prequel series "1923." But Ainsley has proven to be a true breakout role for the actor, who's only been in the profession for less than a decade. Her first acting gig was the 2017 TV horror movie "House of the Witch," in which she appeared alongside Emily Bader of Netflix rom-com "People We Meet on Vacation."

Aside from that streaming hit, Bader is known for starring in the surprisingly fright-free "Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin" and fronting Prime Video's unceremoniously cancelled series "My Lady Jane." But unlike Randolph, Bader had been acting for some time before scoring those more high-profile projects. By the time she came to star in "House of the Witch," Bader had already appeared in a handful of films and TV shows, including Lifetime movie "Stalked by a Reality Star" and the independent films "Anonymous Killers" and "Broken Visions." She'd also made guest appearances on the Nickelodeon shows "Henry Danger" and "Game Shakers."

Randolph, on the other hand, moved from Northern California to Huntington Beach in 2016 and signed to a modeling agency that same year. As the actor told Grazia, "When I booked my very first movie, the second I walked onto set, I had so much fun and realized that's all I wanted to do. I stopped modeling and pursued acting ever since." That first movie was "House of the Witch."

Syfy

"House of the Witch" was directed by Alex Merkin, who previously oversaw Brittany Murphy's final film "Across the Hall" back in 2009. "House of the Witch" was made for Syfy, and starred Michelle Randolph as Rachel, one of a group of teens who break into an abandoned house on Halloween night on a dare. Emily Bader played another member of the group named Lana Brady, who, alongside the other teens, quickly finds herself trapped with a supernatural force in the dilapidated home. The rest of the film plays out exactly as you might expect, with the teens being picked off one by one in gory fashion. The titular witch isn't exactly thrilled these kids have entered her domain, and in retaliation, she might just possess one of the unfortunate youngsters and escape.

It wasn't exactly the most prestigious affair. But for a low-budget TV movie, "House of the Witch" wasn't as bad as it could have been. Unfortunately, Letterboxd users weren't too impressed, with most bestowing scores of 1 star or below upon the Syfy film. One even claimed to have been "rooting for the witch the whole time." There's also only one review on Rotten Tomatoes, and it ain't great. But fans of Randolph and/or Bader will no doubt get a kick out of seeing them in this early horror effort.

Meanwhile, Randolph is preparing to change her approach to Ainsely Norris in "Landman" season 3, while Bader is set to play retired soccer star Mia Hamm in Netflix's upcoming movie "The 99'ers." If you do fancy checking out "House of the Witch" in the meantime, it's available to stream for free on Tubi and Pluto TV.