Thomas Lee Holland (born July 11, 1943) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and former actor. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, penning the screenplay for Psycho II (1983), the sequel to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho; writing and directing the cult vampire film Fright Night (1985); and directing and co-writing Child's Play (1988), the first entry in the long-running Child's Play franchise. He also wrote and directed the Stephen King adaptations The Langoliers (1995) and Thinner (1996), and directed an episode of Masters of Horror (2007). Holland is a Saturn Award recipient for Best Writing for Fright Night, which also won the Avoriaz Dario Argento Award and the Fantasporto Critics' Award.
In 2020, Holland published his debut novel, The Notch, through Cemetery Dance Publications, and has continued expanding the Fright Night universe through novels, comic books, and a 40th anniversary cast reunion podcast.
Holland was born on July 11, 1943, in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Lee and Tom Holland. His father worked for a department store chain, and the family relocated frequently during Holland's childhood. "By the time I was two, I had been in almost every state. I've been in five schools," Holland recalled in a 1966 interview. He later said that the experience of being perpetually new left him feeling like an outsider: "I always felt left out in school."
Holland attended Ossining Public High School in Ossining, New York, before transferring to Worcester Academy, where he graduated in 1962. At age 16, he apprenticed for a summer at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
After high school, Holland attended Northwestern University for one year, then transferred to New York University. He ultimately graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1970. He subsequently earned a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law and passed the California Bar on his first attempt, receiving license number 61529.
In addition to his academic training, Holland trained at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg.
Holland's first professional work was dubbing dialogue, and his television debut was on the Western series Temple Houston.
Holland's most significant early role was as a series regular on the ABC daytime soap opera A Flame in the Wind (later retitled A Time for Us), playing the character Steve Reynolds for approximately 50 episodes in 1965–66. During this period he also appeared in over 200 television commercials.
His film credits include A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) with Anthony Quinn and Ingrid Bergman, and Model Shop (1969) directed by Jacques Demy. Television guest appearances included episodes of Combat!, Felony Squad, and The Incredible Hulk (1978, credited as "Tommy Lee Holland").
Holland has continued to take occasional acting roles in later decades. He played Deputy Norris in Psycho II (1983), for which he also wrote the screenplay. He appeared as Carl Hough in the ABC miniseries Stephen King's The Stand (1994), and had a cameo in The Langoliers (1995) in addition to writing and directing.
In December 2009, Holland was cast in Adam Green's Hatchet II, to star alongside Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, and R.A. Mihailoff. He narrated the film alongside Green at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.
Holland made his screenwriting debut with the 1978 made-for-television film The Initiation of Sarah. He made his feature film writing debut in 1982, adapting the Edward Levy novel The Beast Within into the film of the same title. That same year, he wrote Class of 1984, an urban thriller film centered on juvenile delinquency and punk subculture. The film proved controversial upon release and was heavily censored in the United Kingdom and outright banned in other countries. It has since become a cult classic.
Holland was hired by Universal Pictures to write a sequel to the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, which since its initial release had been acclaimed as not only a seminal and iconic horror film, but one of the greatest films of all time. Lead actor Anthony Perkins, who had previously displayed apprehension at appearing in a sequel, agreed to do the film after being impressed by Holland's screenplay. The film, directed by Richard Franklin and co-starring Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, and Dennis Franz, opened at No. 2 at the box office (behind Return of the Jedi) and went on to gross $34 million.
Holland re-teamed with director Franklin the following year on his next film, Cloak & Dagger. Unlike their previous film, Cloak & Dagger was a spy film aimed at a younger audience, and starring Henry Thomas of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in its leading role. Despite positive critical reviews, the film was a financial failure, grossing $9,719,952 off of a 13 million dollar production budget.
In 2020, Holland published his debut novel, The Notch, through Cemetery Dance Publications. The thriller, which centers on a mute boy with healing powers who emerges from the desert amid a global pandemic, received endorsements from figures in the horror community including Clive Barker and Mick Garris. In 2022, Holland and co-author A. Jack Ulrich published Fright Night: Origins, a novel expanding upon the story of the original Fright Night film and the first installment in a planned trilogy. A second novel in the series, Fright Night: Aftermath, was announced in 2026.
Holland's directorial debut came in 1985 with the vampire horror film Fright Night. Holland first conceived of the premise during the writing of Cloak & Dagger, of a horror film fan who learns that his neighbor is a vampire. He chose to direct the film himself after being disappointed with Michael Winner's direction of his screenplay Scream for Help. The film was both financial and critical success, earning a rave review from Roger Ebert who wrote "Fright Night is not a distinguished movie, but it has a lot of fun being undistinguished." The film spawned a sequel in 1988 titled Fright Night Part 2, and a 2011 remake, Fright Night starring Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin. That remake also had its own sequel, Fright Night 2: New Blood, which was released in 2013. Holland was not involved in any of the sequels or the remake.
After Fright Night Part 2 was released in 1988 without Holland's involvement, Holland and star Roddy McDowall began discussing a potential third film. McDowall set up a meeting with José Menendez, the head of Carolco Pictures subsidiary Live Entertainment, who had acquired the Fright Night rights. However, before the meeting could take place, Menendez and his wife were murdered by their sons on August 20, 1989, ending all prospects for a direct sequel. Holland remained friends with McDowall until the actor's death in 1998.
On October 28, 2020, Holland confirmed that he is writing a direct sequel to the original Fright Night titled Fright Night: Resurrection and that his sequel would ignore the 1988 sequel and be a proper sequel to his 1985 film.