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A horror movie with substance is a pretty great thing. Take a look at The Substance… maybe? That one is almost mindless, to be honest, with how in-your-face it is, with its satire and what it’s ultimately trying to say, but it is saying a lot. And there are other classic horror movies, naturally, that are about more than just being scary, including the likes of Get Out, The Exorcist, and Hereditary.
For those that aren’t too complicated and are all about delivering scares, or maybe entertainment value, in the case of the ones that are more comedy/horror hybrids, you’ve got a few below. These work as great mindless horror movies, and are the kind you can watch and appreciate with your brain more or less switched off. That’s not to say they’re all completely lacking substance, if you want to dig in, but social commentary and deeper messages don’t really feel like they’re focused on, for the movies below.
10
‘Phenomena’ (1985)
Of all the Dario Argento movies out there, Phenomena is easily one of his more underrated efforts. Yes, Suspiria might be easier to recommend, and something like Deep Red feels more important within the bounds of the horror genre and its history… but Phenomena is really fun. It’s kind of goofy, though it never becomes an outright comedy, so its more bombastic elements end up feeling more endearing than tongue-in-cheek or anything like a horror parody.
It’s about a young girl who can communicate with insects, and then there are ways that ability ultimately allows her to assist in an investigation to catch a killer at large. It’s quintessentially one of those “you just have to roll with it” kind of movies, but if you’re in the mood for something more than a little strange, Phenomena delivers. Also, if you’ve liked any other Argento-directed movies and have overlooked this one, remedy that as soon as you can!
9
‘Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter’ (1984)
Most Friday the 13th movies work as mindless horror films, and that’s okay some of the time, because some of them can be fairly entertaining. You’ve got an almost unstoppable killer, and then a group of (usually young) people who have to try (and usually fail) to survive that killer. It’s not like Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter really goes beyond this sort of simple story, but it executes all the recognizable and expected conventions of the series the best.
There are some decently fun characters/victims, the violent special effects are done well, it’s a frequently entertaining movie, and it being framed as a finale does give it a tiny bit more oomph than most Friday the 13th movies. Of course, it was not genuinely “The Final Chapter,” but it did end up being the best chapter, and perhaps the only Friday the 13th movie that’s an actually essential watch.
8
‘Terrifier 3’ (2024)
All the Terrifier movies are mindless, truth be told, though the second and third ones are a good kind of mindless. The first Terrifier might well be too narrative-free and thrown-together. It’s barely got a story or a reason to watch, beyond Art the Clown having an undeniable presence as a villain, and the violence being consistently grisly and over-the-top. Terrifier 2 and 3, make no mistake, are also very focused on Art the Clown doing his Art the Clown thing, and showcasing grisly sights.
Terrifier 3 has more by way of a reason to care, because there was a bare minimum kind of story in Terrifier 2, and it’s continued well in Terrifier 3 (the whole aftermath of it all). It’s still a very blunt and straightforward affair, and Terrifier 3 is not the kind of thing you can watch unless you, at the very least, don’t mind very in-your-face on-screen violence, but at least it and Terrifier 2 feel more or less like actual movies. Also, Terrifier 3 stands out for being perhaps the grisliest Christmas movie ever made, too.
7
‘House’ (1977)
House is about people going to a house, and then weird things happen to them. It is the set-up for a great many horror stories out there, sure, but very few of them play out with quite the same atmosphere and tone as can be found in House. Most of it’s incredibly silly, though the way it feels a lot like a fever dream can make certain parts perhaps a little eerie.
It’s subjective. Some might watch House and find not one second of it actually frightening, and that’s of course valid, but more than that, it’s also understandable. House is essential, as far as comedy-horror movies go, and it’s so well-regarded and widely discussed as a cult classic that it might well have graduated beyond “cult” status, instead now just existing as a flat-out classic comedy/horror film.
6
‘Evil Dead II’ (1987)
Honestly, any of the Sam Raimi-directed Evil Dead movies could’ve gone here. The first is straightforward and generally a bit more frightening than you might expect a low-budget movie made well over 40 years ago to be. The third, Army of Darkness, is, admittedly, barely a horror movie. Evil Dead II exists rather ideally between those two extremes, and works as both a horror movie and a rather goofy comedy.
The narrative here kind of remixes a lot of what went on in 1981’s The Evil Dead, though with a few new elements to ensure it never runs the risk of feeling like a retread. Even when things are familiar, the goofiness gives it all a whole new flavor. You can find some of it creepy, and then find the rest of it hilarious. Emotionally/viscerally, Evil Dead II is a great and varied ride, and finding deeper meaning here would require some stretching of the sort that would make Mister Fantastic blush.
5
‘The Return of the Living Dead’ (1985)
If you’re talking about mindless horror movies, and you don’t mention anything zombie-related, can you really/honestly say you’re talking about mindless horror movies? It’s more than fitting to talk about something like The Return of the Living Dead here, since zombies themselves are kind of brainless/mindless foes, a lot of the time, and surviving them can be a rather simple affair, at least as far as what the characters have to do is concerned.
Maybe you get some Cold War/nuclear weapons-related paranoia explored in The Return of the Living Dead, but it largely exists to be a zombie-related romp.
The original Dawn of the Dead has a fair bit by way of social commentary, of course, and maybe you get some Cold War/nuclear weapons-related paranoia explored in The Return of the Living Dead, but it largely exists to be a zombie-related romp. Like Evil Dead II, it rides the line between horror and comedy quite well, and it’s certainly an entertaining watch if you like yourself some B-grade (or maybe B-plus-grade? Since it is good) horror.
4
‘Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack’ (2001)
There are certainly Godzilla movies that are more frightening (or at least more intense) than Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, but Godzilla himself is frightening enough here that you can still consider this something of a horror film. He’s unforgiving and driven by vengeful spirits here, with this Godzilla film also having a fantastical/supernatural spin by making Mothra and King Ghidorah legendary/mythical figures.
You get a bit of science fiction here, but less than you usually do with the Godzilla series. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack is ambitious with the genres it tackles, and is a highlight for the series. It unpacks a little by way of substance, by making the Godzilla series have some ties to folk tale sort of things, and through it exploring certain traumas around World War II that linger, yet it’s also extremely entertaining and approachable (at least as much as the recent Godzilla Minus One, though that one did ultimately have more crossover appeal, internationally speaking).
3
‘Dead Alive’ (1992)
Sam Raimi was mentioned before, as someone who made a fair few great horror movies before moving on to bigger (and maybe not entirely better, aside from Spider-Man 2) things later on. The same can be said for Peter Jackson, whose low-budget horror movies mostly come from his first few years as a feature film director, all before he became legendary to most by helming The Lord of the Rings (2001– 2003).
Of his smaller horror movies, the best is Dead Alive, which is called that in America, but referred to sometimes as Braindead in other parts of the world. If your brain is genuinely dead, then you can’t experience it, sadly. But if you’re more, uh, braintired, then Dead Alive/Braindead is very much worth watching. It is a broadly funny, kind of silly, and very much over-the-top zombie movie that quite gleefully doesn’t try to be much more than sheer entertainment for 103 minutes, which it thankfully very much succeeds at doing.
2
‘Gremlins’ (1984)
The least scary movie here would have to be Gremlins. It would be a bit intense if you watched it when you were a kid, and it is pretty dark how it feels so much like a family movie before things go off the rails. Though if you watch it when you’re an adult, you won’t be too alarmed by it going off the rails. Gremlins is more successful as a comedy than it is a horror movie, because it feels more into being silly.
There is Gremlins 2: The New Batch as well, which feels even less worthy of being called a horror movie. So, Gremlins is being snuck onto here, even with it only just being a little horror-related. It’s a fantastic monster movie where the monsters are much tinier than what you’ll find in the majority of monster movies out there, and it works so well as a Christmas film, too (even more so than the previously-mentioned Terrifier 3).
1
‘Grindhouse’ (2007)
There is another epic-length movie Quentin Tarantino was involved with that’s also kind of two movies in one (Kill Bill), and that whole bloody affair is probably better than Grindhouse, but also, it’s not a horror movie. Grindhouse more or less is, even if Planet Terror (directed by Robert Rodriguez) has more by way of horror elements than Death Proof, which is Quentin Tarantino’s segment.
Death Proof is more of a thriller, and then it’s got one fantastic action sequence near the end, though the central villain there does feel like he’s out of a horror movie. Planet Terror sees Rodriguez doing a tongue-in-cheek and ludicrously gory zombie film (of sorts), and it’s pretty glorious. There are also fake trailers for “horror movies” that didn’t exist, included in the overall cut of Grindhouse, with a bunch of those movies ultimately actually getting made: Machete (2010), Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), and Thanksgiving (2023).
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Jeremy Urquhart
Almontather Rassoul
