For over a century, movie audiences have had a mystifying fascination with the horror genre. There’s something irresistible about the visceral, primitive reactions that scary films cause in audiences—shivering, chills, screaming. Oftentimes, the genre is mixed with magical and supernatural elements. At times, those elements are given such prominence that the movie can be considered not just a horror film, but a fantasy film, too.
From movies about killer goblins, to ones about ghosts and dark magic, to ones about vampires and those hunting them, some of the best horror movies ever are also fantasy flicks. On the other hand, this subgenre also happens to bethe source of some of the most hilariously atrocious films ever made. From so-bad-they’re-good classics to movies that are just bad and nothing else, the worst fantasy horror films prove that magical imagination isn’t always present in the genre.
10’Ghoulies' (1984)
Directed by Luca Bercovici
The trashy, low-budget B-movieGhoulieshasn’t aged nearly as well as other films of its kind. It’s a comedy where a young man and his girlfriend move into an old mansion home, where he becomes possessed by a desire to control ancient demons. Haunted house movies can be some of the most fun in the horror genre, but this one is sadly not part of that group.
Although some accuse the movie of being aGremlinsrip-off, trying to be the same kind ofgateway experience for non-horror fans, it was actually in production at the same time asJoe Dante’s cult classic.So, while a lack of originality isn’t the movie’s sin, it finds all sorts of other ways to be terrible. The visuals look cheap, the humor doesn’t quite work, and the story is silly at best. The poster’s visual of a ghoulie coming out of a toilet has been deeply ingrained in horror iconography for decades, but outside of that, the film itself doesn’t have much to offer.
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9’Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday' (1993)
Directed by Adam Marcus
Although the originalFriday the 13thfrom 1980 isn’t a particularly great horror movie, it became instantly iconic, garnering a cult following that still loves it—and some of its sequels—to this day.Not every sequel was a good one, though. Case in point:Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday(which wasn’t actually the finalFridayfilm and doesn’t actually see Jason go to Hell). It follows the last remaining descendant of the Voorhees family, who has to stop Jason before he becomes immortal and unstoppable.
The Final Fridayis one ofthe worst-written horror movies of all time. It had good intentions, trying to take the franchise in fresh new directions; but, sadly, instead of its ambitions paying off, they resulted in one of the most convoluted horror movies of the ’90s. None of the twists on traditionalFriday the 13thtropes work, and instead, the movie just comes across as stupid and completely dismissive of what fans had grown to love about the franchise.
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
8’Minotaur' (2006)
Directed by Jonathan English
The straight-to-video monster horror disasterMinotauris more of a curiosity piece than anything else, as it stars horror legendTony Toddand the belovedTom Hardyin his first-ever leading role. Its story is that of Theo, who sets off on a harrowing quest to the labyrinth in order to find and kill the evil titular bull-god after the villagers of his town offer their brethren as a sacrifice to the beast.
One ofthe worst fantasy movies of all time,Minotaurdeserves to be avoided by all but the most dedicated Tom Hardy superfans. Every actor (including Hardy and Todd) overact beyond what’s tolerable, the script offers nothing of value, and although the production qualities are quite alright for a straight-to-video fantasy horror flick, that’s such a low standard that the compliment doesn’t mean much.
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7’Beowulf' (1999)
Directed by Graham Baker
PoorChristopher LambertofHighlanderfame starred in several terrible movies throughout the ’90s,one of his worst ones being the deplorableBeowulf. Loosely (very loosely) inspired by the Old English epic poem of the same name, it’s about a man from a besieged land who has to battle against the hideous creature Grendel and his vengeance-seeking mother.
Aside from being a shameful affront to the source material,Beowulfis a terrible film for all sorts of other reasons. Despite its ambition, it’s a cheap-feeling, cheap-sounding, cheap-looking, poorly-written mess that’s proof that, even with a tried-and-true work of legendary fiction as the basis of your story, you can still turn it into one ofthe worst fantasy movies of the 1990s.
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6’Stan Helsing' (2009)
Directed by Bo Zenga
Parody movies were huge during the 2000s, largely thanks to theWayansbrothers’Scary Movieseries. A great number of these films, though—not to say the vast majority of them—were much, much, much worse than that. An example:Stan Helsing, a spoof on many horror movie franchises where Stan, after ending his shift at the video rental story, is picked up by his BFF and two cute girls to go to a Halloween party.
There are bad parody movies, and then there’sStan Helsing, which is far and awayone of the very worst.Crude, shallow, and with humor that’s unlikely to make anyone over the age of twelve laugh, it’s the kind of film that feels like poison for the mind. Even those who like bad, stupid movies to play in the background with friends deserve better than this.
Stan Helsing
5’The Crow: Wicked Prayer' (2005)
Directed by Lance Mungia
The originalThe Crowis best remembered both forBrandon Lee’s beautiful lead performance, and for his tragic death on set. As such, the fact that a film as abysmal asThe Crow: Wicked Prayer, the fourth installment in the series, even exists feels like an insult to Lee’s memory and legacy. In it, a gang leader on his way to becoming an immortal demon orchestrates the murder of an ex-con and his girlfriend.
Simply put,Wicked Prayeris arguably one ofthe worst movies of the past 25 years. It’s a dull, low-effortretread of the original’s story, except with none of the charm and stylish excellence, and certainly without the added benefit of a performance as great as Brandon Lee’s. Everything in this sequel, from the script to the direction, is a failure all around.
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
4’BloodRayne' (2005)
Directed by Uwe Boll
Unfortunately for both him and the viewers who have been subjected to his work,Uwe Bollis widely considered one of the worst directors of the 21st century. This is largely due to films like the video-game adaptationBloodRayne, a vampire horror movie set in the 18th century, when a vampire escapes from a freak show and teams up with a group of vampire-slayers to kill the man who abused her mother.
Exploitative, poorly edited, and terribly misguided, it’s a real disaster of an action film.
Since the inception of the horror genre, there have been multipleoutstanding vampire movies. This is not one of them. Exploitative, poorly edited, and terribly misguided,it’s a real disaster of an action film with only slight bits of camp here and there to redeem it. In Boll’s hands, what could have been an entertaining sword-and-sorcery B-picture instead becomes a tonally inconsistent, remarkably unexciting vampire flick with nothing of value.
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3’Leprechaun: Origins' (2014)
Directed by Zach Lipovsky
There are some horror franchises that are beloved for how terrifying they are; others, for how transgressive and graphic they can be; others, like theLeprechaunmovies, for how irreverently silly they are. These movies were never masterpieces, but they had a nice blend of horror and humor to offer, as well as a delightfulWarwick Davisin the titular role. Then, eleven years after the sixth installment, WWE Studios madeLeprechaun: Origins, where two young couples backpacking through Ireland discover that one of the country’s most famous legends is a terrifying reality.
Originsissuch a baffling misunderstandingof what made the past six films so popular thatit’s anyone’s guess whether anyone involved had ever watched anyLeprechaunfilms. Warwick Davis was no longer in the lead (being replaced by wrestlerDylan Postldoing a horrible job), the humor and camp were entirely absent, and the movie wasn’t even scary in the slightest. Thus, fans were left with the most lifeless, painfully underwhelmingLeprechaunentry imaginable, with none of the things that made the originals fun and no redeeming element of its own.
Leprechaun: Origins
2’Alone in the Dark' (2005)
Another Uwe Boll disaster from 2005 (at least the man is prolific; no one can take that from him),Alone in the Darkis an action horror film where a detective of the paranormal slowly unravels mysterious events with deadly results. It’s one ofthe worst horror films of the 2000s,a thriller without thrills, an action movie without fun action, and a mystery movie without any mysterious elements.
With an embarrassing 1% on Rotten Tomatoes,Alone in the Darkis a waste of time that not even fans of trashy horror movies can justify. This atrocious adaptation of a popular Atari video-game is packed with gratuitous violence, poorly written dialogue, forgettable characters, and inconsequential storylines. Some may find it hilariously bad, but others may just find it obnoxiously stupid. It’s not worth the risk of finding out.
Alone in the Dark
Image via Amazon Prime
1’Troll 2' (1990)
Directed by Claudio Fragasso
One of themost beloved so-bad-it’s-good horror moviesof all time, the Italian productionTroll 2(not a sequel toTroll, and not even featuring trolls to begin with) is the kind of terrible spectacle that must be seen to be believed. It’s the tale of a vacationing family who discovers that the entire town they’re visiting is inhabited by goblins disguised as humans, who plan to eat them.
The dialogue is hilariously silly, the performances are hilariously terrible,the story is hilariously nonsensical, and the production values are hilariously cheap. Full of cheesy ’80s badness and with some of the most whiplash-inducing direction that the genre has ever seen, it’s the kind of awful film that’s so enjoyable that every cinephile should check it out at least once in their lives.
KEEP READING:Movies So Terrible They Must Be Seen to Be Believed
