10. The Thing With Two Heads (1972)
While writing the story for this weird film, Wes Bishop probably wanted to blend in the issue of racism with the underlying horror theme. However, the sight of a white-skinned racist’s head planted on the body of a black jailbird (who, of course, has his own head on too!) was way too funny for people to even consider that aspect. Some of the hiphop background music was nice, but overall – it was a huge farce.
9. Dreamcatcher (2003)
If you are the sort of movie buff who likes seeing worms popping out of the human rectum with shit, there is a chance that you might enjoy ‘Dreamcatcher’. For most others though. this Stephen King-adaptation was an unnecessary and extremely poor addition to the long list of Holly sci-fi/horror flicks.
You won’t get a movie that has big names like Morgan Freeman and Timothy Olyphant, that is as unwittingly funny as this one. The novel, admittedly, was not King’s best – but it definitely did not deserve such shoddy treatment either!
8. Child’s Play (Parts 2-6: 1990-2013)
Don Mancini’s movie about the spirit of a killer soul stored inside an apparently cute-looking doll was interesting enough – but it did not need any sequels, and certainly not five of them! As the series progressed ‘Chucky – The Killer Doll’ metamorphosed from frightening, to lecherous, to nothing more than an irritating pest.
Only two things about these films have freaked us out. The first would be the ludicrously shot and seriously ‘eww’ intimate scene between ‘Chucky’ and ‘Tiffany’ (‘Bride Of Chucky’). The other one has curdled our bloods – it has been announced that there would be more Chucky films. Can’t this planet be ‘Chucky’-free?
7. House Of The Dead (2003)
An adaptation from a video game that went bad in all ways possible. Filmmaker Uwe Boll, who later lived up to his ‘potential’ with howlers like the two ‘Alone In The Dark’ movies, donned the director’s hat for this one – and he made a right mess of it.
Practically every horror movie cliche was (most of them forcibly!) included in the film, and if you could recognize even one of the clueless actors – your film-related knowledge must be shooting through the roofs. ‘House Of The Dead’ had skin show in pretty generous proportions – but that cannot be the ONLY standout point in a supernatural flick. Or can it?
6. The Dentist (1996)
Brian Yuzna’s ‘The Dentist’ had potential. It had Corbin Bernsen (a well-recognized face on ‘L.A.Law’), and could very well have turned out to be a thrilling revenge-horror saga. However, Dr. Alan Feinstone’s strange behavior with his patients – after discovering that his wife is having an affair with the poolboy – borders on the gross (he even sexually assaults one of his patients – a celebrity with a toothache!).
After a while, it becomes fun to guess what the maniac doctor would do to his next patient – as things like plot, screenplay, and coherency take a backseat.
5. Hellraiser (parts III to IX: 1992-2011)
The first two parts of ‘Hellraiser’ were not Oscar-winning stuff, but from the third installment, this movie franchise steadily went from bad to worse. ‘Pinhead’ (enacted by Doug Bradley) was supposed to be a fearsome creature from the dungeons of hell – but on screen he looked like a joker and/or lunatic, with a bunch of pins stuck on his head.
Clive Barker’s characters included a wide range of ‘cenobytes’ – each funnier than the previous one. It’s a mystery how the franchise lasted for so long, in spite of not appealing to either critics or general moviegoers.
4. Troll 2 (1990)
To be fair, two things have to be clarified about this movie. First, it is NOT a sequel to ‘Troll’, which was not exactly a horribly bad movie. Secondly (and more importantly), ‘Troll 2’ manages to dupe even moviegoers – since there is not even a single troll in the entire movie.
All that fills the screen in this 94 minute yawn-fest are goblins in various shapes and sizes. Their motive is to turn hapless humans into fresh-n-healthy vegetables, so that they can be eaten. A scary premise? No one thinks so!
3. Burial Ground: Nights Of Terror (1981)
There are zombie flicks like ‘28 Days Later’ and ‘Zombies Of Mass Destruction’, then there are mediocre zombie movies, then there is a huge pile of horseshit – and then there is ‘Burial Ground: Nights Of Terror’.
Directed by Andrea Bianchi, this was a low-budget affair – and that showed in the shoddy sets, costumes, and terribly uninterested performances from the actors. The movie might have stood a chance as a lighthearted take on zombie films, but as a ‘wannabe scary’ ride – it had no scope.
2. Basket Case (1982)
Each of the three movies in this franchise was equally bad, but we here mention only the first – simply because it acquainted us with ‘Belial’. Meant to be scary and evil, ‘Belial’, the Siamese twin of main protagonist ‘Duane’, looks like a badly pressed pile of dough. He irritates his henpecked brother, and in the process, succeeds to disgust viewers too.
We understand that the ‘Basket Case’ series belonged to the human-exploitation genre of horror films – but why on earth did ‘Belial’ try to rape a human lady in this unwittingly side-splitting movie?
1. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
There were zombies, aliens, and vampires in the film – all in a large, convoluted mess. Bela Lugosi, who enacted the role of the ‘Ghoul Man’ in this howler, passed away midway through the movie (let’s just assume that he was not grieving too much over how bad the movie was!), but the shooting went ahead – and the flick was universally panned on release.
An honorary mention has to be made of the special effects used in this movie (what ‘special’?). Some of the aliens even had painted, arched eyebrows. Let alone the horror genre, ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’ can vy for the slot of the worst film ever made, easily!
Author Bio: Ross Smythe is a professional mobile app developer at Teknowledge Mobile Studio. He is a huge movie-buff as well, and often writes on the web about films that he has seen. Over here, he takes a dig at some of the most unintentionally funny horror films of all time.