Spooky season is coming, so it’s time to start planning your next Halloween party. Break out the candy, the costumes, and the decorations. And what’s a Halloween party without a scary movie to go along with it? Now, you could opt for an actually scary movie that performed well and got rave reviews. Or you could spice things up a bit.
Not everybody likes super scary movies, and that’s fine. So, if you plan on inviting some easily scared friends over, there are luckily plenty of horror movies with concepts so dumb they become comedies.
Updated on October 20, 2023, by Rob Lee:
With spooky season upon us, it’s the perfect time to bust out some stupid horror movies and enjoy their gut-busting senseless comedy during a Halloween party with some friends.
13 ‘Most Likely to Die’ (2015)
Most Likely to Die is what happens when you take every bad horror movie cliché, throw it together into one trash can, and then set it on fire. Protagonists who never call for help? Check. Protagonists who opt to stay and fight instead of running away? Check. Side characters inexplicably tripping over unseen objects as they run away? Check.
The tiny amount of plot that exists involves a group of college students invited out to a cabin in the woods (there’s another cliché for you) for a high-school reunion. They all agree to go despite not knowing who the host is. It turns out the host is a kid they used to bully in high school, who then becomes a serial killer, dressing up in a graduate’s gown and cap. A cap which, by the way, has a blade in it. This leads the killer to literally headbutt his victims, which looks far more hilarious than the filmmakers intended.
Watch on Peacock
12 ‘Leprechaun’ (1993)
Most people are familiar with leprechauns. They’re sprite-like creatures from Irish folklore that resemble little men in green with red beards. They often cause mischief and leave hidden pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Now, imagine the mischief that involves murdering people. That’s the basic premise of this movie.
Leprechaun turns a recognized symbol of luck into a creature with a thirst for blood. The comedy comes not only from its ridiculous premise but also from the laughable practical effects. The leprechaun itself looks like it walked out of the ’70s or ’80s rather than the ’90s, leading it to look more ridiculous than scary. This movie or any of its sequels are great picks for any bad movie screening.
Watch on Hulu
11 ‘Piranha’ (1978)
Piranha is a movie that suffers from being severely misinformed about actual piranhas. For one, piranhas aren’t that dangerous and have only killed a few people. So, the movie really tries to make the fish scary and threatening when in real life, they’re far from it.
The film tried way too hard to cash in on the commercial success of Jaws, and it winds up falling flat on its fishy face. At least with Jaws, sharks are actually dangerous (albeit not inherently malicious). It also doesn’t help that the practical effects are laughably cheesy, and the scares are more funny than anything. Even though the movie did get good reviews, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still pretty dumb.
Watch on Peacock
10 ‘Teeth’ (2007)
Someone wrote Teeth. A team of people sat down and actually did it. And it is glorious. To its credit, Teeth is somewhat self-aware, as it is more of a tongue-in-cheek satirical movie that pokes fun at all the other dumb horror films out there, while also including a surprisingly effective message at its center.
The premise involves a girl who has an extra set of teeth. But it’s not in her mouth. Let’s just say they’re in a place one would not normally expect to find teeth. This proves to be a problem for all of her romantic partners, many of whom are eaten by the extra set of teeth.
Watch on Paramount+
9 ‘Frogs’ (1972)
Frogs sees the story of Jason Crockett, a grumpy millionaire with a physical disability who invites his family over to his island estate for a birthday celebration. However, the party soon goes wrong when the various swamp creatures on the estate, from frogs and spiders to toads and snakes all begin to take their revenge and kill each member of the Crockett family. It soon becomes up to nature photographer Pickett Smith to talk some sense into the family members so that they can escape the estate before it’s too late.
Aside from featuring a surprising first major role for Sam Elliott, Frogs is far from being a quality creature feature, and whose shortcomings make for hilariously strange mistakes. The biggest and most hilarious mistake that the film constantly makes is with its establishing shots of frogs, spliced throughout the film to make them seem menacing. However, the film is so mismanaged that 90% of these shots aren’t even of actual frogs, but are actually just shots of toads.
Watch on Prime Video
8 ‘Deathbed: The Bed That Eats’ (1977)
Deathbed: The Bed That Eats is something of a cult classic. Not because it’s good, but because very few people have seen it. This is likely due to how much the concept makes for a hilariously bad horror movie. The plot is exactly what the title implies: there is a bed that is possessed by a demon that eats any poor unfortunate soul tired enough to lay down on it.
From simply the premise alone, it’s easy to see just how stupid of a horror movie Deathbed is. The bed itself is probably the easiest-defeated horror villain because there’s quite a simple solution to the problem: don’t lay on the bed. It seems that a brainless cast of characters doesn’t consider that option, though, because the bed amazingly claims several victims throughout the movie.
Watch on Prime Video
7 ‘The Happening’ (2008)
The Happening sees the United States mysteriously under attack by a terrifying airborne virus that forces those infected to end their own lives. In an attempt to escape the virus, teacher Elliot Moore (played by Mark Wahlberg) leaves the city into the countryside, along with a collective of other survivors, as everyone attempts to discover the truth behind the virus.
While director M. Night Shyamalan has made a number of great horror thrillers over the years, the execution behind The Happening transforms it into a hilarious unintentional comedy. Performances and tone are everything with The Happening, as despite the film’s best efforts to be terrifying, the number of strange moments and awkward line readings make the proceedings comical. While from an objective standpoint, the film may just be one of the worst movies of 2008, it’s endlessly rewatchable from its hilariously bad nature.
Watch on Prime Video
6 ‘Maximum Overdrive’ (1986)
Usually, movies based on horror writer Stephen King‘s works are expertly crafted. Take films like The Shining, The Mist, or It, for example. Sadly, there was no hope for Maximum Overdrive, as the premise itself is just too absurd. The end result is far from anything resembling a standard horror movie, instead becoming a hilariously bad and campy disaster of a horror movie.
The film features a killer truck that gets possessed by something paranormal and resembles The Green Goblin.It begins to hunt people down and kill them, eventually forcing survivors to fight back. With such a loud and obvious threat, it’s not exactly difficult to avoid since it can be seen or heard coming a mile away. Aside from the weak scares, the visuals are ridiculous, and the film tries way too hard to be both a horror movie and a cheesy ’80s action movie, with all the corny one-liners included.
Watch on Tubi
5 ‘ThanksKilling’ (2007)
ThanksKilling makes its absurdity apparent within the first thirty seconds of the film. It begins with a pilgrim woman being slain by a turkey with an ax. The turkey then drops a one-liner over her corpse. Aside from the crudeness of the turkey’s comment, it makes for a moment straight out of a fever dream, as a killer turkey makes for one of the most ridiculous horror movie killers.
The entire movie is just as surreal, with the “fowl-mouthed” turkey being the main villain and killing people in some pretty horrific, albeit hilarious ways. The icing on top of the cake? The turkey looks like something out of The Dark Crystal. Aside from being a great pick for a Halloween-themed bad movie party, it also happens to be a Thanksgiving film, so it fits in pretty well with the autumn season.
Watch on Tubi
4 ‘The Bye Bye Man’ (2017)
The Bye Bye Man tried to be a good horror movie. But that’s pretty much the only redeeming quality it has. The premise is actually kind of neat in that there is a paranormal entity that stalks and kills people who know about its existence. This prompts anyone who knows about him to do everything possible to avoid saying or thinking his name, as that typically summons the killer to their location.
The reason the movie is so bad is, of course, its name. “The Bye Bye Man” sounds more like a Care Bears villain than a demonic killer. The name was why it was widely mocked online before it was even released. What’s more, critics deemed the writing in the movie to be atrocious. The cringe-inducing dialogue is extremely awkward, which can sometimes be humorous.
Watch on Tubi
3 ‘The Gingerdead Man’ (2005)
The Gingerdead Man is another holiday-themed horror flick. This time, it focuses on Christmas. The main reason it is so bizarre is its antagonist – a gingerbread man who has come to life and begins killing people. Yes, really.
A gingerbread man isn’t exactly threatening, as he can easily be disposed of by simply eating him. Aside from that, the gingerbread man looks like something out of an internet meme. His facial expressions make for some pretty whacky moments and prompt more laughs than scares. Don’t be surprised if the movie’s jump scares just end up being absurdly funny.
Watch on Tubi
2 ‘Birdemic: Shock and Terror’ (2010)
Birdemic: Shock and Terror sees a small town under attack by a legion of eagles and vultures who are taking their bloodthirsty revenge upon humanity. As a group of survivors fights off against the avian menace, they are soon forced on the run as they attempt to figure out how to stop the birds before all of humanity is destroyed.
While killer birds have been pulled off exceptionally well in horror before, such as with Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Birds, Birdemic: Shock and Terror fails in nearly every possible metric. From the schlocky acting and editing to the unbelievably terrible visual effects, there is no shortage of laughs and unintentional comedy to be found in Birdemic, as it maintains a legacy as one of the best “so bad, it’s good” movies.
Watch on Peacock
1 ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’ (1978)
Yes, you read that right. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch of tomatoes become sentient and wind up being bloodthirsty killers. It’s creative; you have to give the writers that and the wild horror movie about killer food has gained a small but passionate fanbase for precisely its originality.
However, just like Teeth, this film is more of a parody film and is supposed to be funny apart from being structured like a horror movie. And, just like The Gingerdead Man, this film has a simple solution to the problem – eat the antagonist.
Watch on Tubi
