Unintentionally Funny Moments In Serious Horror Movies

When one watches horror movies, the main reason for doing so is to be scared, disturbed, and entertained… not laugh or left dumbfounded by what you just saw. The following list count downs from the least to the most moments in horror films that were probably not meant to be funny but came out that way, and be warned, there are a lot of SPOILERS ahead.
 
10: Get Out
 

 
 
First, we start off with the 2017 directorial debut of Jordan Peele, Get Out. The film is about a young African-American man named Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) who goes to meet his white girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) family who is part of a family ran conspiracy to transplant the brains of its ailing white family members and friends into healthy bodies of African Americans.
 
 
The Scene: Walter’s Nighttime Run
 
 
In this scene, Chris goes to have a smoke outside in the middle of the night where he has a strange encounter with the family’s gardener, Walter (Marcus Henderson) who runs at Chris in a full sprint before suddenly cutting away and running in a different direction.
 
 

 
 
Many have said the scene was terrifying thanks in part to the random actions of Walter along with the music in the scene, while on the other hand, the scene has made many chuckles. The reason for Walter’s nocturnal scamper is explained later on but has gone over the head of many who have seen the film but was implanted in their thoughts to be something quite random in a silly way which spawned many memes.
 
 
9: Legion
 
 

 
 
In 2010 this action horror film the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) helps out a group of survivors being attacked by people possessed by angles out to kill the unborn child of a waitress named Charlie (Adrianne Palicki) who is humanity’s last hope since God lost faith in it.
 
 
The Scene: The Possessed Old Lady
 
 
Near the start of the film, after some strange occurrences have begun to happen, our unsuspecting victims are in a diner in the middle of nowhere when an old lady name Gladys (Jeanette Miller) comes in and orders a steak before going from being very sweet to downright possessed! What made the scene funny was the sudden change in the demeanor of Gladys who goes from everyone’s grandmother to having a mouth like a sailor and crawling on the ceiling with nasty big pointy teeth!
 
 

 
 
8: Carrie (1976)
 

 
 
Based on the novel by Stephen King, the film follows an awkward teenage girl (Sissy Spacek) who is bullied by her classmates along with her overbearing and zealot mother (Piper Laurie). Over time Carrie discovers that she has telekinetic powers which she later uses to exact revenge on her tormentors.
 
 
The Scene: Piper Laurie’s acting
Many people remember the line “They’re all gonna laugh at you!” that was made famous by Piper Laurie who played Carrie’s mother, all with good reason. Laurie’s performance as the super (and deeply disturbed) religious parent of the main character was over the top every time she was on the screen which some would say was so bad it’s good, ironically it turns out she was acting perfectly but for the wrong genre of film. Laurie was confused by the script and thought it was a comedy, and ended up playing the mother like a cartoon character.
 
 

 
 
7:  The Babadook
 

 
 
 
This Australian film from 2014 made people look at popup books differently for a while. The story centers on Amelia (Essie Davis) a single mother struggling to raise her son Sam (Noah Wiseman) who is starting to act disturbed and has erratic behavior and fears of a creature called the Babadook that’s from a popup book who he believes is real and soon after Amelia is beginning to believe it as well.
 
 
The Scene: The “Why can’t you just be normal?!” Car scene
 
 
Amelia and Sam go to a relative’s child’s birthday party in which the cousin who is having the party, mocks Sam for not having a dad in which he pushes her out of a treehouse injuring her. Being forced to leave the party and driving home in a panic at Sam’s sudden escalated violent behavior, in which his screaming in the backseat does not help, Amelia pulls over and the rest is history. Davis’s line along with Wiseman’s response instantly became an internet meme for how people react to things not working out the way they should.
 
 

 
 
6: Sleepaway Camp
 

 
 
This 1983 slasher that spawned four sequels follows a teenage girl Angela (Felissa Rose) who is attending a summer camp to help get her out of her shell but her shyness makes her a target of bullying by the other kids because as we all know from 80’s slasher films, kids are assholes. As the story progresses whoever wrongs Angela is either hurt or violently murdered by an unseen assailant.
 
 
The Scene: The Killer’s identity revealed (twist ending)
 
 
At the climax of the film, the killer’s identity is revealed that it’s been Angela all along but not only is she the killer; she’s also…a dude. Depending on who you talk to (like most of the films on this list) the scene is either creepy or funny, I’m in the “it’s funny” camp (no pun intended). Angela’s facial expression throughout the scene along with some of the line delivery by the characters at the explosive-free gender reveal along with how the film just suddenly ends makes you sit with your mouth open (like Angela) followed by a laugh. (WARNING: Male Nudity in the video)
 
 

 
 
5: Psycho II
 

 
 
This 1983 sequel to Hitchcock’s classic brought Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) back but this time reformed after spending time locked up for the murders he committed in the first film. Norman sets out to reestablish the Bates Motel while working in a nearby diner. Soon the bodies pile up and Norman is looked at as a suspect all the while he’s trying to keep his newly grasped sanity as someone posing as “Mother” tries to break him.
 
 
The Scene: Norman killing “Mother”
 
 
At the end of the film, after Norman was cleared of any wrongdoing, Emma (Claudia Bryar) who is a coworker at the dine Norman works visits and reveals that she is Norman’s real mother. After some explanation, Norman calmly asks her if she wants a sandwich before bonking her on the head with a shovel, breaking the chair, and sending her to the floor dead! The action of the swing, the sound effect, and how seamless the scene played out to make you want to play the moment of impact again and again!
 
 

 
 
4: Dead Silence
 

 
 
James Wan’s 2008 film gave people more of a reason to fear puppets with this one. The film tells a story about a curse of a famous ventriloquist Mary Shaw (Judith Roberts) as she takes vengeance against the descendants (Ryan Kwanten, Bob Gunton) of the family that wronged her through her haunted dolls where she kills people who scream when they see her ghost by ripping out their tongues.
 
 
The Scene: Donnie Wahlberg’s Death
 
 
Wahlberg plays Detective Jim Lipton who throughout the film believes Kwanten’s character Jamie is responsible for his own wife’s death at the start of the film along with the new deaths when Jamie returns to his hometown. During a climactic showdown between these two opposing forces and possessed dolls, Wahlberg’s character is killed. It’s not necessarily that his character bit the big one, just how it was revealed to the audience that he was now dead with a cartoonish reveal and how the body moves when it’s dropped after its reveal.
 
 

 
 
3: IT (1990)
 

 
 
This miniseries that was split into two parts gave us the most iconic horror villain performed by one of the most beloved actors in modern cinematic history. Based on Stephen King‘s novel from 1986, the story follows a group of outcasts who are tormented by the otherworldly killer clown Pennywise (Tim Curry). The story was split up into two parts, the first half of the story following our heroes The Losers Club as they encounter Pennywise as kids while part two shows them all grown up and having to reunite after they find out that Pennywise returned.
 
 
The Scene: Pennywise haunting Adult Richie in the Library in Part II
 
 
Fans and critics of both the original 1990 miniseries and the 2017 and 2019 films agree that the first part of the IT story shown in these films showing the Losers as kids were the best part of the films while their respectfully second half’s involving them as adults seemed to lack the terror, but fans of the original 1990 one will all agree, the scene when Pennywise haunts Richie (Harry Anderson) while he’s in the Library and only her can see him. Tim Curry was so funny in this scene you almost forgot he’s supposed to be scary, especially when he does that iconic laugh at his own jokes.
 

 
I will make this my ringtone someday…
 

 
 
2: The Visit
 
 

 
 
Night Shyamalan’s 2015 found-footage told the story of siblings Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are visiting their maternal grandparents for the first time in their lives and document the whole visit. The siblings quickly learn that there’s something wrong as they’re not allowed out of their bedroom at night and witnessed both their grandparents acting strange which at the end they learn they were not their grandparents, to begin with, but escaped mental patients that murdered their grandparents.
 
 
The Scene: YAHTZEE!
 
 
Towards the end of the film, the siblings are forced to play Yahtzee with the imposters, Becca leaves in order to find an escape route out of the house leaving Tyler alone with their “grandmother” (Deanna Dunagan) who is in a middle of a psychotic breakdown and nibbles cookies before rolling the dice and looking into the camera and screams “YAHTZEE!” to Tyler’s terror. What makes this film interesting was that it was loved by critics, who called it a great horror-comedy in which the film’s classification seemed to have been changed to being a “Horror (dark) Comedy) while other critics panned the film saying they were confused by what direction the film was going in as they were told that film was a “Horror Thriller”. As it turns out in a twist of its own, Shyamalan edited three versions of The Visit, one that was horror, one that was a comedy, and the one that was released (a mix of both) even though the film was advertised as a thriller. A theory is that this was done as a way to try to desperately win over critics after his two consecutive box office bombs The Last Airbender and After Earth.
 
 

 
 
And the Number One Unintentionally Funny Moment In A Serious Horror Movie:
 
Cabin Fever
 

 
 
This 2002 film directed by Eli Roth follows a group of your typical circa early 2000’s college students going on spring break away from home for beer and debauchery in a cabin in the middle of the woods but the fun quickly stops because of course teen drama, oh, and a flesh-eating virus that infects them and causes them to turn on each other while their bodies fall apart and the virus spreads as paranoia grips the close circle of friends as to where the virus came from… and they killed a hermit by accident and want to keep it a secret. The film was the first of a four-film series in which the fourth installment in the franchise was a complete remake of this film in 2016.
 
 
The Scene: Dennis…Pancakes
 
 
The legend goes that on set Eli Roth noticed the child actor playing the odd boy Dennis (Matthew Helms) practicing Tai Quan Do, he wanted to film him doing it with the hopes it would help boost Helm’s worth in tinsel town. What ended up happening is possibly one of the most “What the F*ck” moments in horror movie history, the infamous “PANCAKES!” scene where Dennis attacks Bert (James DeBello) for no apparent reason. If you’re curious, Helms is no longer in films but he is currently doing ballet professionally in Boulder Colorado, is it all thanks to Roth’s decision? Who knows, but we do know that he gave us this loveable pancake wanting-roundhouse kicking scamp to cherish.