Continuing with the Halloween spirit, for this week’s trailer column I scoured the internet to find the worst (or perhaps the greatest) trailers for some of the least scary horror films ever made.
Enjoy!
Night of the Lepus (1972)
“What is the terrifying mu-tant that strikes from behind the shroud of night?” The voiceover man asks, with the strangest pronunciation of the word ‘mutant’ ever captured on film. Why it is evil bunnies of course.
Dead Beach (1981)
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…you can’t get to it!”
With a tagline like that how can you go wrong? This ‘cult’ horror flick saw Venice Beach-goers mutilated and murdered by an evil lurching in the sand. So bad it’s good?
Basket Case (1982)
“What’s in the basket?” the trailer asks over and over again. And for the majority of the trailer it looks like they are going with the element of surprise, until they spoil it and tell us exactly what is in the basket- the murderous, deformed twin brother of the guy carrying the basket around.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
As someone who finds clowns quite scary (thanks to Pennywise from It) this film could have been quite terrifying, however it turns out Klowns with a K are horror-comedy territory, and the Klowns in this film are actually just aliens who resemble clowns, phew.
Hobgoblins (1988)
This unapologetic Gremlins rip-off looks diabolically bad, with the dialogue featured in this trailer taking awfulness to new heights.
Guy 1“These creatures have a power. They can tap into your brain, sense the things you really want to do…”
Guy 2 “what is wrong with that?”
Guy 1 “they also try to kill you.”
This is a case of calling the film one things and then refering to the character as what they actually are- thank you voice-over man for being the voice of reason “these gruesome gremlins turn it into a nightmare”.
Trolls 2 (1990)
They are goblins, it doesn’t matter how many times you flash ‘Troll 2’ across the screen, this film quite blatantly features goblins. The dialogue and imagery shown off in this trailer illustrates perfectly why Troll 2 is often cited as the worst film ever made!
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
The original was bad enough, then they had to make a sequel.
Feardotcom (2002)
An evil video cassette website is going to get you. After visiting the website you are given a limited time to live, before you are literal scared to death. Does the plot line ring any bells?
Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)
Warwick Davis (Willow, Life’s Too Short), plays the evil Leprechaun for the 6th time in this film, following up from such classics as Leprechaun (which starred a young Jennifer Aniston), Leprechaun 2, Leprechaun 3, Leprechaun in Space and Leprechaun in the Hood (featuring Ice-T), which gave us this brilliant musical number “Lep’ in the hood, come to do no good”.
The Gingerdread Man (2005)
“Evil never tasted so good”
A vicious murderer, who is executed for his crimes, is reincarnated as a gingerbread man. Wait wait, it gets better, Gary Busey (Point Break) is the killer-cum-biscuit.
