Funny Horror Movie Moments That Were Supposed To Be Serious
Horror is a genre defined by themes of terror, existentialism, and dread. Oftentimes to be successful, horror films need to do more than just simply entertain an audience — they also have to find a way to make that audience feel real fear, despite their innate knowledge that they are watching the terror unfold in the safety of a movie theater or their own home. Nonetheless, the best horror films are able to break that barrier and make their imaginary threats feel visceral to the viewers. Because of that, horror films arguably require more extensive suspension of disbelief than most other genres. Horror films attempt to accomplish this in a variety of different ways, such as the use of intense music, gruesome prosthetic effects, or unnerving visuals. The greatest horror films can even scar multiple generations, like "Jaws" or "The Exorcist."
But sometimes horror films don't succeed at their goals to scare people, whether it's due to extremely hokey effects, over-the-top acting, or simply bad writing — all of which can, unfortunately, take away the audience's suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, there are specific scenes from horror films that are meant to be genuinely terrifying but are so ineptly produced that they veer into unintentional comedy instead. In fact, we've rounded up some of the most unintentionally funny scenes from horror films that were attempting to be serious. From bad CG bees and silly exploding sharks, to obviously fake exploding birds and more — we have you covered!
Birdemic - bird explosions
"Birdemic" is a 2010 "animals gone wild" horror film from the self-proclaimed Master of the Romantic Thriller™ writer-director James Nguyen. It's also a film that often shows up on almost every "worst movie ever" list — and not without good reason.
The film is an obvious (and inept) modern-day riff on Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film "The Birds." In fact, one of the stars of "The Birds," Tippi Hedren, is even credited in "Birdemic," since she had previously worked on Nguyen's first film, and her scene from that movie is shown on a TV screen in "Birdemic." The plot of "Birdemic" follows software salesman Rod (Alan Bagh) and would-be model Nathalie (Whitney Moore), who go on multiple dates for what feels like an eternity as practically nothing else happens for almost an entire hour — besides badly-timed claps.
That is until the evil birds that form the titular birdemic finally show up. The film really just had a boring romance plot with uninteresting characters up until then, with no real foreshadowing of what was to come. In fact, when the badly CGI'd birds come flying in on-screen, it's seemingly out of nowhere. Not only that, but the CGI is so bad that it rivals old GeoCities gifs from the early '90s. What really puts it over the edge, though, is the stock WWII plane crash sound effects as the birds explode in badly-rendered fireballs.
Jaws: The Revenge - shark exploding for no reason
Speaking of exploding, 1987's "Jaws: The Revenge," the fourth(!) film in the unlikely "Jaws" franchise, ended up being explosive in more ways than one. First, it was a major box-office bomb — making only a little over $20 million dollars domestically — which is especially disappointing, given that Steven Spielberg's first "Jaws" from 1975 was arguably the first blockbuster ever. The fourquel also didn't bring back many of the original cast members from the original film. In fact, the only returning member was actress Lorraine Gary who played Ellen Brody, the wife of Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider). Worse, it's revealed in "Jaws: The Revenge" that Sheriff Brody was anti-climatically killed off-screen by a heart attack.
Most of "Jaws: The Revenge" is set in the Bahamas, with the reveal that the current great white shark seems to be attacking the Brody family out of revenge (hence the title). It's also mostly a romance between the recently widowed Ellen and a pilot played by Michael Caine.
Despite all that, the most egregious aspect of "Jaws: The Revenge" is the climax where Ellen drives her boat into the villainous shark — and it explodes for literally no discernible reason. While still unrealistic, at least the first had an explanation for the explosion (vis-a-vis shooting the oxygen tank in the shark's mouth). "Jaws 4" has no such excuse, and in fact, uses stock footage from the first film.
Exorcist III - Fabio angel
1973's "The Exorcist," directed by William Friedkin, is a bonafide horror classic. The story is about a little girl named Regan (Linda Blair) who gets possessed by an evil demon and proceeds to fornicate with a cross, turn her head 360 degrees, and puke gallons of pea soup. Eventually, after the massive box-office and critical success of the film, it was followed up by the infamous "Exorcist II: The Heretic" about problematically fake African deities, directed by John Boorman.
Then, in 1990, the author of the original novel the first film was based on — William Peter Blatty — was hired to direct "Exorcist III." The plot of the threequel follows a detective (George C. Scott) tracking down a Zodiac-like serial killer with connections to the occult.
While not as revered as the original 1973 film, "Exorcist III" got decent reviews (especially compared to "Exorcist II"), despite a dismal box office. However, there is one scene in this otherwise decent horror sequel where Scott's detective enters a hospital and sees model Fabio dressed as an angel. While it's a dream sequence, Fabio's get-up is still overly cheesy, with the model dressed in the most cliché depiction of how "angels" should look, bordering on parody — with the white robes, the goofy bird wings ... the whole nine yards. It would be like if the demon from "The Exorcist" turned out to be a guy dressed in a red leotard, with small horns, a goatee, and a plastic Halloween pitchfork.
Dracula - bat on a string
Universal's "Dracula" from 1931 is based on Bram Stoker's classic epistolary horror novel. While not the novel's first major adaptation — that would be the 1922 silent film "Nosferatu" — it was the first to be officially authorized by the Stoker estate. The story of both the book and film follow the same basic template as most classic Dracula stories, with the titular Count traveling from his home country of Transylvania to wreak havoc in England. What's most notable about the 1931 film is star Bela Lugosi's iconic take on the character, which to this day is still arguably the canonical pop-culture depiction of Dracula.
The movie itself is also very effective in many other respects. Director Tod Browning, also known for directing the cult-classic "Freaks," had a great grasp on atmosphere and the use of light and shadows, as well as utilizing the film's grand, stylized Gothic sets and miniatures. And, of course, there's the aforementioned character-defining Lugosi performance.
However, one element that doesn't really hold up much anymore is the bat-on-a-string effect after Dracula famously transforms into the small, flying creature throughout the film. The effect is laughable and legitimately comparable to cheap Halloween decorations. The thing is, this effect is bad even for the time and stands out since most of the other effects in "Dracula" are relatively well-executed. So this isn't a case of laughing at something simply because it's old — it's laughing at it because it's just bad.
Manos: The Hands of Fate - Torgo's death
"Manos: The Hands of Fate" is a 1966 supernatural horror film that has a backstory more fascinating than the movie itself — which is actually pretty boring, all things considered. Essentially, Harold P. Warren, a fertilizer and insurance salesman, made a bet with a Hollywood producer friend of his that he could make a movie as good as any Hollywood production. Spoiler alert: he was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Written, directed, produced, and starring the aforementioned Warren, "Manos: The Hands of Fate" ended up becoming one of the worst — if not the worst – films of all time. It's also one of the most infamous "Mystery Science Theater 3000" episodes as well, which is saying a lot as that's a show specifically about watching bad movies. In fact, original host and show creator Joel Hodgson thinks it's the worst one they've ever riffed.
Now, narrowing down the worst and most unintentionally hilarious scene from "Manos" is difficult, as you could technically pick any scene at random. But, if we had to choose, we'd pick the death of the wobbly-kneed and creepy caretaker Torgo (John Reynolds). In it, the villainous The Master (Tom Neyman, sporting the world's best '70s pornstache) has Torgo killed for perceived disobedience, by putting his hand in a fire ... and turning it into the most cheesy wooden prop imaginable. It's supposed to be harrowing but ends up being hopelessly goofy instead.
Deadly Friend - basketball exploding head
Horror maestro Wes Craven — best known for gory and hard-edged films like 1972's "The Last House on the Left" and 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" — tried to do something a little different with the 1986 film "Deadly Friend," which was going to be a PG-rated sci-fi teen thriller. The film was based on the sci-fi novel "Friend" by author Diana Henstell, about a boy inventor who re-animates his dead neighbor and romantic crush after she suffers a fatal accident ... with unforeseen consequences. While there were certainly some horror elements in the novel and the original cut of the film, it was supposed to be much more of a tragic love story than a straight-up horror movie. Unfortunately, after a disastrous test screening, the studio forced Craven to turn it into another gory, rated-R horror film due to his previous success in the genre.
Craven was disappointed, but carried on, filming extensive re-shoots. At one point, in one of the re-shot scenes, Samantha (Kristy Swanson) — the titular "deadly friend" — throws a basketball at an old woman's head, and due to Samantha's robotic super strength, the ball causes the lady's face to explode in a burst of blood. Well, an obvious porcelain dummy of her head explodes, at least. It's a very cheesy effect, made cheesier by its placement in the film, as it's very jarring tonally and feels every bit like the desperate re-shoot that it obviously was.
Zombi 2 - zombie vs shark
"Zombi 2" from 1979 is about, you guessed it, zombies. Its franchise lineage is slightly complicated, however. In Italy, George Romero's 1978 "Dawn of the Dead" was re-edited by famed Giallo filmmaker Dario Argento ("Suspiria") and re-scored by the prog-rock band Goblin, who had previously worked with Argento. The re-edited version of "Dawn of the Dead" was then renamed "Zombi."
When the re-edited "Zombi" became a hit in Italy, a sequel called "Zombi 2" was released, which — while technically using "Dawn of the Dead" as the first film in the series — no longer used any footage directed by Romero, and officially became its own thing. It even spawned a direct sequel, "Zombi 3," in 1988. It's actually fairly common for Italian producers to exploit American copyright like that, such as mashing together unrelated films like "Evil Dead" and "House" into the "La Casa" franchise.
What "Zombi 2" is most famous for, however, is the scene where one of the zombies fights a shark. Unfortunately, since this is a low-budget film in the '70s, the filmmakers couldn't just use computers for this kind of thing; it really is just a stunt guy in zombie make-up, underwater, slowly messing around with a shark. Now, that sounds really cool in concept, but it's a lot less entertaining than you'd expect in execution. This is a shame since a zombie fighting off a shark has no right to be this boring.
The Wicker Man - not the bees!
The 2006 Nicolas Cage-led "Wicker Man" remake, directed by Neil LaBute ("Nurse Better"), is a notoriously bad horror film. It is based on the 1973 original of the same name and is about a religious and brutish policeman (Edward Woodward) who goes to an isolated hippie island commune run by a charismatic cult leader (Christopher Lee) in search of a missing young girl. The policeman is eventually tricked into being sacrificed by getting burned alive in the titular "wicker man." Also, it's a classic.
The remake is similar to the original in terms of the basic plot, where Cage plays a police officer who investigates a weird isolated island community to find a missing young girl, only to be tricked and sacrificed by the end. However, most of the similarities end there. The remake instead focuses on women controlling the men on the island — which is a departure from the pagan rituals vs. religious faith theme that anchored the original.
Like most of the films on this list, there are many scenes we could choose from that were unintentionally funny. But the one we had to land on was the infamous and infinitely meme-able "not the bees" freak-out scene. It's supposed to be the harrowing climax of the film, but due to the terrible mid-2000s CGI and Cage's extreme over-acting (even for him), it only works as a high-camp comedy ... if even that.
Silent Night, Dearly Night Part 2 - garbage day
One of the earliest meme videos that gained traction on YouTube was simply a snippet of the main character of the 1987 horror "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2" (played by actor Eric Freeman) yelling "garbage day!" and shooting some random guy before laughing maniacally. It was uploaded to the site 17 years ago and currently has almost 10 million views; it's even still a popular meme to this day. And while the randomness and lack of context are what spurred the video's initial viral popularity — as well as just how over-the-top and ridiculous Freeman's line delivery is — it doesn't make much more sense in context either.
Freeman plays Ricky Chapman, aka the brother of Billy Chapman, the main killer in the original 1984 "Silent Night, Deadly Night." The sequel finds Ricky following in his brother's footsteps, opening with him in a mental institution after committing a series of random murders. The film is then told mostly in flashback, with a large portion of the sequel's runtime simply being re-used footage from the first film. The famous "garbage day" scene happens while Ricky goes on a random shooting spree at one point, explaining how he ended up in the mental institution in the first place. Again, as we alluded to earlier, the scene doesn't make much more sense in context, as the victim was literally just taking out his trash when Ricky shoots him for no reason.
It - Pennywise's hoedown jig
"It" began as a massively-successful 1986 novel written by famed horror author Stephen King. It was then adapted into the classic 1990 television miniseries starring Tim Curry as Pennywise, the infamous evil clown from the book (even though technically Pennywise is a shape-shifter that just often takes that form). The basic plot synopsis involves adults discovering past memories of defeating a supernatural entity known as Pennywise as children, and then having to fight and defeat him once again as adults.
Years later, in 2017 and 2019, "It" was adapted into two big-budget horror films, split between the kid and adult sections of the story (which are interconnected throughout the original book and miniseries). It also had a star-studded cast, especially "It Chapter Two," which included James McAvoy, Bill Hader, and Jessica Chastain — and actor Bill Skarsgård played Pennywise in both films. Meanwhile, although the visual effects for "It" and "It Chapter Two" were more modern and expensive than the aforementioned Curry-led TV miniseries ... that doesn't always mean they were better.
While it's debatable how much CGI was used, the scene where Pennywise dances a little hoedown jig is just goofy rather than scary, leading to many YouTube mash-ups and memes. It's admittedly meant to be off-putting and weird — but the execution is still lacking regardless. The fact it's in perfect sync with "Cotton Eyed Joe" doesn't help matters.
Prometheus - alien snake kill
The history of the "Alien" horror franchise is a slightly convoluted one. The first film in the series was directed by famed director Ridley Scott in 1979. Then, four sequels (or six if you count the "Alien vs. Predator" films) later, Scott decided to come back to the "Alien" franchise that he helped create with 2012's "Prometheus." However, he didn't want to do a straight sequel. Instead, he wanted to tell the story of man's creation and relationship to God ... or something.
The plot set-up is actually pretty basic: a group of scientists is on a deep space expedition, funded by an eccentric billionaire, to go to an extraterrestrial site and study what's there. However, the script goes off the rails pretty quickly. The most unintentionally hilarious moment involves the biologist Millburn (Rafe Spall) getting lost and finding a hissing snake-like creature (called a "Hammerpede"), and ... trying to pet it. Which would be illogical for anyone to do, let alone one of the top biologists in his field (which is why he was hired by the billionaire in the first place).
Furthermore, before that, Millburn got spooked by a hologram of an alien corpse, which was in no danger of hurting him. So when the Hammerpede eventually kills him, it's almost cathartic. Like, what did you expect, man? Even if it wasn't an alien creature, hissing usually means "Don't touch me."