Reacher's Alan Ritchson Made His Movie Debut In A Horror Flick That's Streaming For Free

If you've ever watched an episode of Amazon Prime Video's "Reacher" and wondered what its hulking hero would look like with frosted tips and a preppy polo shirt, there's a movie out there for you. It's called "The Butcher," and the 2006 low-budget slasher marked "Reache" star Alan Ritchson's first on-screen role in a film that wasn't made for television.

"The Butcher" arrived over 15 years before the model-turned-actor became known for his lovable buff guy turn in the popular adaptation of Lee Childs' action-thriller novels, and you can tell it's a product of the aughts from a mile away. Everyone is dressed like a character from "The O.C.," and in an early scene, Ritchson's Mark cracks jokes about unauthorized sex tapes and tries to film his two female friends getting frisky on his flip phone ... while driving.

In terms of its premise, "The Butcher" seems to follow the well-trodden path of other films made around the same time, from the "Wrong Turn" movies to the mid-aughts remakes of "House of Wax" and "The Hills Have Eyes" (not to mention blueprint-building classics like "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"). The film revolves around a group of six party-ready teens who are on their way to Las Vegas when their plans are abruptly derailed by a gory auto accident. According to an official home media synopsis, they then "seek help at an isolated farmhouse, only to discover a horrifying family secret."

The largely forgotten movie was directed by Edward Gorsuch, and alongside Ritchson, it co-stars theater actor Catherine Wreford and shoestring horror producer Tom Nagel. Feedback from viewers across the internet is about as scathing as you'd expect for a direct-to-video Tobe Hooper ripoff, but the movie is noteworthy for its glimpses of Ritchson, then in the midst of an early stint on "Smallville" and fresh off his 15 minutes of fame as an "American Idol" contestant. 

In a video for Wired, Ritchson explained that he beat the odds by winning roles in all of his first three Hollywood auditions, one of which was for "The Butcher" (the third audition was for Ray Winstone's motion-capture double in Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf"). As Ritchson put it, "I was in a horror movie called 'The Butcher,' because I died real good in that audition."

Okay, so maybe his first feature film role didn't win him scream king status, but it's one of several eclectic early roles that put Ritchson on the path to stardom (and, with it, "Reacher"). In the years that followed, the actor would make a stronger impression with roles in 2013's "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," 2014's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and even a standout episode of "Black Mirror." Eventually, he would end up taking part in an eight-month audition process that landed him the role of Jack Reacher, the larger-than-life, near-mythological hero figure who has now punched his way through three wildly entertaining seasons and counting. To see where it all began, you can watch "The Butcher" now on Prime Video or catch it for free via both the ad-powered streaming site Fawesome or the library card-based digital rental service Hoopla.