The ’90s gave horror fans a strange gift: movies so bad they became beloved. Collider has ranked the decade’s seven worst horror-comedies, and the results are as ridiculous as you’d expect. From a franchise that couldn’t stop to a madman who turns invisible, these films live to be mocked.
The list is built on unintentional comedy, the kind that comes from a movie failing to understand its own premise. Each entry is cheap, tone-deaf, and oddly charming in equal measure.
Critters 4 (1992)
Rupert Harvey directed the fourth installment of the Critters series, and it earns a 17% Popcornmeter on RT. The film trades horror for comedy, recycling ’80s space footage to save money. The result is a mess that barely works as either.
Leonardo DiCaprio appears here in his first feature role, which is the film’s only real selling point. Brad Dourif returns as Al Bert, and Angela Bassett shows up as Fran in one of her earliest roles. The scares are gone, the jokes aren’t funny, and the production looks cheap.
The Invisible Maniac (1990)
Adam Rifkin directs this one, and it’s a clear imitation of The Invisible Man. The story follows a genius scientist who escapes a facility for the criminally insane after murdering fellow scientists who mocked him. He then teaches psychics at a high school while turning invisible and using his powers for lechery.
The special effects involve fishing twine moving things around, and the film stars Shannon Wilsey, known in the porn industry as “Savannah,” in one of her rare non-porn roles. It’s trashy, exploitative, and oddly amusing.
Ice Cream Man (1995)
Clint Howard plays Gregory Tudor, a traumatized kid who grows up to become an ice cream man with homicidal tendencies. He dices children and mixes their innards into his desserts, serving them to other clueless kids. Some children figure it out, but their parents won’t listen, so the kids fight back.
The film borrows its title from the Eli Roth horror of the same name released this year. It’s a mess that can’t decide what it wants to be, bouncing between dark comedy, kids’ adventure, and serial killer horror. The director, Paul Norman, is best known for his porn work, including Bi & Beyond: The Ultimate Sexual Union. The film tastes like curdled cream, but Howard delivers unhinged performances that keep it entertaining.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994)
Kim Henkel directs this fourth installment, starring Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger. The film follows four teens on prom night who wreck their car and get lost, leading them to the Sawyer Family farm.
The plot takes a strange turn when it’s revealed the Sawyer Family members are puppets for powerful businessmen. Leatherface, played by Robert Jacks, dresses in a dress and makeup over his human skin mask, channeling Ed Gein. The film was originally shelved for years before release.
The Full List
Seven entries make up the complete list, and the top spot is the best of them. The list ranks the films from worst to most entertaining, with each one earning its spot through sheer incompetence.
These movies are not good. They are not trying to be good. They are trying to scare and amuse, and they fail spectacularly at both. That failure is precisely why they work.
“Huh?”
The ’90s horror-comedy is a subgenre built on excess, and these seven films are its purest expression. They are cheap, they are tone-deaf, and they are oddly charming failures.
Source material: “7 Best So-Bad-It's-Good Horror Comedies of the '90s, Ranked,” Collider.
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