Watching horror movies, you expect to be scared. You might even settle for being disturbed. When the scares change into unintentional laughs, the allure dies faster than a teen at Camp Crystal Lake. Horror turns into B-movie territory and never escapes its campy infamy. Your eyes will always remember the silly sight.
A genre already exists for being scared silly: horror comedy. Horror allows maniacal laughter, even a sparing morbid punchline, but it’s balanced like a slowly descending pit and pendulum. Unintentional humor can either be a welcomed surprise or anticlimactic. C.H.U.D. is a movie that can go both ways with its googly-eyed, humanoid cannibal. These movies exhibit the goofiness within the grotesque to a degree that is horrible yet laughable.
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8 Critters (1986)
New Line Cinema
Furbies who get hungry, get murderously carnivorous. These reptilian fuzzballs are called Krites with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. They are escaped space-faring prisoners who terrorize the Brown family and their Kansas farmhouse. Their undying chaos was a freak accident just as much as their wide, needle-toothed smile was. Practical effects kept the Krites scary and their petite size and pugnacious spirit kept them silly.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
7 Der Golem (1915)
Deutsche Eclair
The century-old clay monster was inspired by a Jewish folktale in which its creator used it as a symbol of protection against antisemitism. For all the German expressionism from the director and man who played the Golem, Paul Wegener is the opposite of stone-faced. Party City was going to make a costume inspired by the Golem, but they changed their minds. A rock monster sounds mystical and menacing, but the look is dumb as a rock. His awkward limbs and dollish figure don’t exactly turn you into a fearful rolling stone, either. If the face was less expressive and more statue-like, and the hairpiece was more subtle, the Golem wouldn’t have laughing stones cast its way.
6 The Crawling Eye (1958)
Eros Films
Eyes are the window to the soul. One unblinking eye however, doesn’t see eye-to-eye. This spaghetti monster with a meatball for an eye also travels by radioactive cloud on a snowy mountain in Switzerland. Why the monster exists is unknown and unbeknownst to his victims, it can control your mind and force you into a killing trance. A lot of moving parts went into the creature’s design, none of which are hard to follow. Its collage existence looks and feels like an eight-year-old’s scary drawing come to life, which is plenty silly at first glance.
5 Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Universal Pictures
4 Gremlins (1984)
Warner Bros.
Mogwai (Cantonese for “monster” or “demon”) is the Christmas present and pet every family wants. Plush and innocent, except when exposed to life’s simple pleasures: water, sunlight, and midnight snacks. Indulging in the three spawns their dark side transformation into reptilian devils of debauchery. Stripe is the head Gremlin, leading the charge on a not-so-silent night. Morbidly humorous and tastelessly tasteful, the Gremlins have the appearance of a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
3 Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Trans World Entertainment
Clowns have the luxury of making us laugh and cry. Being the embodiment of comical cruelty and creativity is an otherworldly feat. The interstellar circus performers put Pennyworth to shame. Absurd carnival-themed murders and tricks set these alien Klowns apart from the normal Clown College. A decrepit caricature appearance makes them sinisterly silly.
2 The Giant Claw (1957)
Columbia Pictures
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a bird with island gigantism! The overgrown bird of prey attacks manned aircraft, alerting the military and grounded locals. Witnesses call it La Carcagne. Aeronautical engineers and mathematicians put forward a hypothesis that the winged behemoth comes from an alternate dimension, given its indestructible nature. They learn to destroy the Antimatter Space Buzzard with atomized weaponry. What’s worse, they couldn’t destroy its vulture-headed, misshapen beak and gratuitous eyes.
1 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)
Film Arts Guild
One of the original cinematic vampires, Count Orlok looks good in the dark. Nosferatu would look better under a dentist’s oral light. After removing and reconstructing those toothpicks for teeth. His oblong head makes Mr. Potato Head feel better about himself. The creepy centenarian bloodsucker is meant to torment until you turn white as he is, but his visage ultimately startles at best. Now we know why the unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is unauthorized and unofficial. Despite being sued by the Stoker family and almost becoming a lost film, this sore sight got all eyes on him.
