Horror is a varied and diverse genre, going from complex stories that dive deep into human nature to mostly silly adventures for everyone who prefers their entertainment to scare them a little bit. It’s what makes the horror genre such a fun one to explore—there’s something for every taste in it. Another great thing about horror is that it knows when to poke fun at itself and when not to take itself too seriously.

There are plenty of horror flicks that are one great metanarrative joke about horror’s most common tropes, as well as several movies that rest on premises that would test anyone’s suspension of disbelief. That doesn’t make them any less entertaining, though, and some of these stories are great horror movies despite the ridiculousness of their premise, plot, or characters.

10

Night of the Lepus (1972)

Terrifying Mutated Rabbits

Night of the Lepus has a premise that is as simple as it is outlandish, and it all starts, as it often does in horrors, with a scientific experiment gone terribly wrong. In this case, one hormone-boosted rabbit, part of a larger experiment to try and disrupt the rabbits’ breeding cycle and affect their population numbers, escapes its lab and soon begins to roam around town and mutilate people with a horde of its genetically mutated fellow bunnies.

Night of the Lepus is an absolutely terrifying movie if one stumbles upon it as a child, but a genuinely funny flick to watch as an adult. The special effects are not that advanced and the plot following a horde of murderous rabbits isn’t exactly scary when looked at it rationally. Still, it belongs to that category of movies that might not be the best in quality but that are still so incredibly entertaining to watch.

9

Fall (2022)

Stuck 2000 Feet Above Ground

Fall has no monstrous creatures or particularly gory scenes, belonging instead to the realm of psychological horror where the fear comes from the absolute dread that arrives when one finds oneself in an impossible situation. Except that the situation in question is particularly ridiculous, as is how it’s ultimately solved.

The story follows best friends Becky and Hunter as they climb a 2000-foot-high TV tower in the middle of the desert. Once they try to come back down, though, the ladder they had used breaks off and strands them on the tower, with no signal to call for help and very few provisions to sustain them. Despite its premise, Fall manages to deliver a pretty chilling story that touches on themes of grief and resilience—as well as Fall‘s third-act plot twist and ending.

8

The Boy (2016)

Obligatory Creepy Doll Horror

Horror would not be the same without its creepy doll sub-genre, and The Boy makes very generous use of this particular trope. The main character is American traveler Greta Evans, who is hired as a nanny by a wealthy British family whose son—the boy Greta is supposed to take care of—is actually a realistic-looking doll.

The doll, of course, soon begins to make a whole series of terrifying things happen around Greta. While the movie’s ending will reveal that the doll might not have been supernatural—but still no less creepy—what is really ridiculous about The Boy is that Greta doesn’t immediately run away when presented with a doll that she’s supposed to treat like a real boy. She instead embraces her final girl destiny, which, then again, is something that most horror protagonists do.

7

The Visit (2015)

Not Your Usual Grandparents

The Visit, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, isn’t exactly ridiculous per se. The plot is a perfectly acceptable horror plot, at times unsettling and with its fair number of jump scares—but the whole story is presented with more than a touch of comedy in it. Some scenes of The Visit are meant to evoke laughter more than fear, which makes for an entertaining watch but still a pretty ridiculous experience overall.

The story follows siblings Becca and Tyler who go for a five-day stay at their estranged maternal grandparents’ house. Their mom hasn’t seen her parents for fifteen years and the kids have never met them. Of course, said grandparents soon begin to display a series of peculiar or outright concerning behaviors which all culminate in the revelation that they aren’t related to Becca and Tyler at all.

6

Orphan (2009)

Mandatory Demonic Child Story

Another pillar of horror, just like the creepy doll trope, is The Orphan‘s supposedly demonic child—or a child that errs just on that side of unsettling. Orphan seems like the textbook example of this trope since it follows a couple who decide to adopt a nine-year-old girl after the stillbirth of their third child.

The girl, Esther, soon begins to behave weirdly around her new adoptive parents and is outright hostile to her two adoptive brothers. These behaviors increase and grow more concerning as the movie hurtles towards its climax and plot twist—which is where things take a slight turn into the ridiculous. While the third act reveals is pretty entertaining, it comes so far out the left field that it’s impossible to not see it as just a little bit puzzling, a little bit too strange.

5

The Platform (2019)

Peculiar Dystopian Horror

The Platform is a pretty odd horror movie, one that is more bizarre than ridiculous. While most movies have an undercurrent of social commentary, The Platform makes its intent of criticizing current society very explicit—a narrative choice that inevitably impacts the movie’s plot and flow.

It all starts when the main character, Goreng, wakes up in a mysterious cell. He soon discovers, thanks to his cellmate, that they are in a tower-like prison, where food descends each day on a self-moving platform. Those at the higher levels eat as much as they can, leaving very little for those at the lower levels. Despite its uniqueness, The Platform remains an entertaining movie to watch, especially thanks to the varying cast of characters that Goreng meets as he’s ᴀssigned to a new level every month.

4

Final Destination 2 (2003)

A Movie That Marked A Generation

The entire Final Destination franchise—consisting of six movies, as well as ten tie-in novels and two comic books—is made up of movies that have ridiculous-sounding plots and are still incredibly entertaining to watch. The very premise of the whole franchise is peculiar, to say the least, with each movie focusing on a group of people who try to escape certain death and who inevitably end up dying in the most bizarre and convoluted ways.

No movie in the Final Destination franchise, though, has left an everlasting mark on an entire generation like Final Destination 2. The opening scene, involving a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly encounter with a logging truck first and a car carrier later, has been so impactful that the Internet is filled with people joking that they never drive behind one if they can avoid it, just to be on the safer side.

3

Barbarian (2022)

Bizarre And Yet Terrifying

Barbarian is director Zach Cregger’s screenwriting and directorial debut and the perfect example of the fact that a horror movie might have a bit of a ridiculous or bizarre premise but still be utterly terrifying. Like several other horrors, Barbarian takes place inside a single house with an extensive basement, which is where the frightening monster known simply as The Mother lives while she waits for people to kidnap and hold prisoners, acting as if they’re her children.

The premise is a bit of a ridiculous one and The Mother’s character design is at times a bit goofy, stretching the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Still, Barbarian makes for a great watch with its fair share of jumpscares thanks also to its cast, which includes horror aficionado Bill Skarsgård—this time not in the role of the monster du jour.

2

Midsommar (2019)

Chilling And Unsettling

Midsommar isn’t ridiculous in the most traditional sense of the word, but it is bizarre and at times obscure—which only serves to make it that much more unsettling to watch. The main characters’ otherness in the community they are staying with radiates off the screen and expands to the audience, who are left uncomfortably squirming in their seats as they watch the events unfold.

Events start when a group of American students, including protagonist Dani who is reeling from the tragic loss of her sister and her parents, arrive in a small Swedish village to attend midsummer celebrations upon their friend Pelle’s invitation. The atmosphere is immediately strange, with disturbing rituals happening almost as soon as the outsiders arrive, and the village soon reveals itself to be a brutal and murderous cult which slowly draws Dani into its ranks.

1

Us (2019)

A Most Peculiar Premise

Us, directed by Jordan Peele and starring an ensemble cast led by Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, is one of the best horror movies of recent years. After the great success of Peele’s directorial debut Get Out, Us proved once more the undeniable talent he has when it comes to crafting horror stories that really stay with audiences for a long time after the movie has ended.

That, however, doesn’t change the fact that the monsters threatening the movie’s main characters are bizarre. The story centers around a family, on vacation with another family of friends, who soon realize they are being targeted by a ground of “Tethered,” their döppelgangers, who are trying to free themselves of the bond that ties their soul together with that of the real person they are a copy of. Despite its sci-fi premise, Us is a fantastic horror film.