Random Unexpectedly Funny Moments In Otherwise Terrifying Horror Movies (14 items)

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  (#2) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

  • Patricia Arquette, Laurence Fishburne, Zsa Zsa Gábor, Robert Englund, Dick Cavett, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Jennifer Rubin, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson, Nan Martin, Brooke Bundy, Ken Sagoes, Ira Heiden, Penelope Sudrow

  Freddy (Robert Englund) stalks a new set of teenagers in this sequel, targeting those in a psychiatric hospital where his former victim Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) works. He hunts Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette), a girl who can pull other people into her dreams. Nancy understands what is happening and attempts to teach the patients how to fight Freddy while they sleep.

  One night Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow) attempts to stay awake by watching television and burning herself with cigarettes to avoid Freddy. It's tense, and audiences are readying themselves for a bloody attack from Freddy when, suddenly, Zsa Zsa Gabor appears on the television with Dick Cavett on a talk show. She answers a question and Cavett insults her before turning into Freddy and slashing her.

  The moment is unexpected, and completely pushes the audience out of their frightened expectations into laughter at seeing such a strange celebrity encounter in the franchise. 
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  (#9) Halloween

  • Jamie Lee Curtis, Kyle Richards, Donald Pleasence, Sandy Johnson, Charles Cyphers, P. J. Soles, Nancy Kyes, Nancy Stephens, Nick Castle, Brian Andrews, David Kyle, John Michael Graham

  After Michael Myers (Nick Castle/Tony Moran) escapes from Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence) and stabs a mechanic, he begins stalking Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Haddonfield. Already off to a gory start, writer and director John Carpenter switches gears to a lighter scene involving Laurie and her friends Annie (Nancy Kyes) and Lynda (P.J. Soles).

  Most of the trio's chatter involves exposition about their plans for Halloween night, but one exchange between Annie and Laurie strikes a funny chord:

  Laurie: I'm babysitting the Doyles, it's two houses down. We can keep each other company!

  Annie: Oh terrific, I've got three choices: Watch the kid sleep, listen to Lynda screw around, or talk to you!
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  (#13) Midsommar

  • Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe

  Ari Astor's unsettling psychological horror film is full of harsh moments for the audience. Every scene takes any previous fright and unease up to a level no one expects and takes no time to allow anyone to breathe or calm themselves. That is, until a pivotal scene required for the climax of the film takes place. 

  Dani's (Florence Pugh) boyfriend Christian (Jack Raynor) is targeted by a village girl that intends to seduce him by using a ritual involving menstrual blood and pubic hair on him. Although audiences see the preparations for Christian's meal, it still evokes hilarity when Astor actually shows the ingestion of the items. Perhaps unintended, but chuckles are definitely had.  
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  (#10) The Exorcist

  • Max von Sydow, Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb, William Peter Blatty, Jason Miller, Mercedes McCambridge, Jack MacGowran, Barton Heyman, Peter Masterson, Titos Vandis, Donna Mitchell, William O'Malley, Eileen Dietz, Kitty Winn, Robert Symonds, Robert Gerringer, Mason Curry, Arthur Storch, Rudolf Schündler, John Mahon, Roy Cooper, Mary Boylan, Dick Callinan, Toni Darnay, Ron Faber, Wallace Rooney, Vasiliki Maliaros, Bernard Eismann, Joanne Dusseau, Gina Petrushka, Vincent Russell, Thomas Bermingham, Paul Bateson, Elinore Blair, John Nicola, Yvonne Jones, Don LaBonte, Beatrice Hunter

  The Exorcist is a movie so layered that the terror felt by viewers changes with them, from a fear of being possessed to the idea of being a mother whose child is possessed and being unable to help them. Everything about The Exorcist is filmed and planned so as to be unsettling and catastrophic to the point of real unease and fear felt by the audience. As such, one character's demeanor and scenes seem out of place in the film. 

  A larger part of the book, Detective Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb) is more of a strange addition to the film. At no time is his awkwardness more apparent than in the scene in which he calls on Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) with questions about the passing of Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran) and Regan's (Linda Blair) possible connection to it.

  Amid his attempts to portray lightness in a serious house call, Kinderman asks actress Chris for her autograph, likely prompting most moviegoers into laughter.
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  (#6) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

  • Robert Englund, Hope Lange, Clu Gulager, Marshall Bell, Lyman Ward, Robert Rusler, Kim Myers, Christie Clark, Allison Barron, Melinda O. Fee, Tom McFadden, Mark Patton, Sydney Walsh, Edward Blackoff, Donna Bruce, Hart Sprager

  The horror films of the 1980s come with a certain amount of cheese, but Freddy's Revenge manages to remain scary while allowing it to flow. A new family is living in the former home of Nancy Thompson and her mother, setting Freddy's (Robert Englund) sights on their teenage son Jesse (Mark Patton). The movie has lots of gory scenes featuring Freddy and his victims - and some body horror thrown in for good measure, as Freddy takes over Jesse to annihilate people. 

  One scene stands above the rest in its goofiness, and involves Jesse dancing in his room. From the generic music Jesse plays on his radio to the use of a tiny golf club as a phallic substitute during a dance move, this scene is genuine comedy in an otherwise frightening flick.
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  (#7) Alien

  • Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Helen Horton, Eddie Powell, Bolaji Badejo

  Amid the psychological and physical terror shown onscreen in Alien, one moment is so jarring that it pushes the viewer into laughter for just a moment before terror seizes them again. Unlike some movies, this moment of levity and giggles doesn't cloud the rest of the film. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is attempting to make a plan, but Parker (Yaphet Kotto) just keeps mumbling interruptions in the background. 

  In a moment felt by every woman who ever attempted to be heard in a tense situation, Ripley forcefully tells Parker to "shut up," forcing him to close his yap and prompting audiences to laugh in spite of themselves.

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