The 1990s were rife with young actors keen to capitalise on an ever-more commercial movie industry, with Leonardo DiCaprio joining the likes of Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves and Julia Roberts. Yet, unlike his industry rivals, DiCaprio’s climb to the top of Hollywood success was almost instant, working with the great Robert De Niro in just his third feature film role.

Rising to success in the early 1990s, DiCaprio appeared in a number of minor TV roles before almost immediately making it in the industry’s biggest films. First came This Boy’s Life in 1993, where he worked with De Niro, with this film prompting a chain reaction of other exciting projects, which included What’s Eating Gilbert Grape with Johnny Depp and The Basketball Diaries with Mark Wahlberg.

Leonardo DiCaprio's Worst Film Is So Terrible It Has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

As the ‘90s went on, it was clear that DiCaprio was destined for greatness, working with some of the greatest directorial minds of the era in Baz Luhrmann, James Cameron and Woody Allen, before the decade was through. This bypasses just how significant these collaborations were, however, with DiCaprio’s role as Jack in Cameron’s Titanic changing modern cinema as we know it.

Yet, despite his meteoric rise to success, not every single one of DiCaprio’s early films was a success, even going so far as to call one of them “lousy”.

The movie in question was Critters 3 in 1993, a low-budget horror flick that told the story of tiny aliens that chew through any life force they can find in an LA tower block, leaving a rag-tag group to stop them in their tracks. DiCaprio’s very first movie role, while Critters 3 was a critical and commercial bomb, it gave his profile the leg-up it needed to thrive in the industry.

“I admit I’ve done a few lousy roles in the beginning of my career,” he later admitted, “like my role in Critters 3. But at that age, you’ll do anything for attention!”.

Indeed, he’s not the first star to engage in horror during his acting debut, with DiCaprio joining a long line of actors who have done exactly the same thing. Tom Hanks made his first big break in He Knows You’re Alone, Johnny Depp kicked off his career with A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Jennifer Aniston starred in Leprechaun long before the TV show Friends.

Watch the trailer for Critters 3, starring DiCaprio, Aimee Brooks and Lin Shaye, below.