Horror movies are meant to creep into our minds and inject a little fear into us, and sometimes they can do that surrounding normal, everyday objects. Once you watch a scary movie, things like dolls, board games, and even trucks carrying logs can send a shiver down your spine. Writers and directors make it their goal to leave a lasting impression in audience's minds to make an effective horror movie.
In the realm of inanimate objects, food is an underutilized medium for invoking fear in a viewer's mind. I'm not just talking the cannibal horror movies, but the movies that take your favorite meal or snack and make it twisted and demented. Here are the freakiest foods from horror movies, from actual serial killing foods to the most memorable food-related kills.
A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Freddy Krueger always has a way to bring a little sarcasm and pizazz to his kills and especially the dream worlds he creates for his victims. In the fourth installment of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, Freddy taunts Alice (Lisa Wilcox) at the Crave Inn, serving her a pizza that he refers to as "the usual." The pizza featured loads of cheese, pepperonis, and mini meatballs that are actually Rick's head. Freddy stabs one of them with his knife fingers and, in true Freddy fashion, delivers an ultimate one-liner with "I love soul food."
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
If you've seen Killer Klowns From Outer Space, you know just how ridiculously campy, colorful, and creepy it is, and it will make you look at cotton candy in a whole new way. Shaped like giant light bulbs, the Klowns use cotton candy as the substance for their creepy cocoons. Inside the cotton candy shell, townsfolk that they have killed are slowly turning to liquids so the Klowns can drink their life force from Krazy Straws. That moment when Mike grabs a piece of the cotton candy thinking it was just the sugary treat and it reveals the face of a victim is enough to make you take a second look every time you grab a piece of cotton candy.
It
In the original and Part 2 remake of It, the gang gathers together for Chinese food and gets more than they bargained for from their misfortune cookies. After finishing dinner, Beverly (Jessica Chastain) opens her fortune cookie and out splatters blood everywhere. The rest of the cookies begin to open and there's a mix of spider-like features, crab claws, and eyeballs among all of them. Anyone who remembers this scene likely thinks twice before opening a fortune cookie, and rightfully so. Pennywise lives to create chaos another day.
Drag Me to Hell
It really is hell to be hexed by an old woman because you turned down her loan extension request. In Drag Me To Hell, Christine (Alison Lohman) goes to have dinner at her boyfriend's parent's house, which features a delicious harvest cake for dessert. Christine's is a little special, featuring the eye of the old woman right in the middle of her slice and it shoots out blood and pus as she stabs it with a fork. Fortunately, Christine is the only one who sees the eyeball and the rest of the family carries on with conversation. That is, until Christine coughs up a fly and the rest of the family looks at the raisin bits in the cake and immediately loses their appetite.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
How could a murderous barber and a baker team up to make a profitable duo? Easy, the barber kills his clients and the baker uses those victims as ingredients for her meat pies. Early in Sweeney Todd we see the baker crushing and rolling cockroaches and other various bugs into her pies because times are tough. So, naturally, having an upstairs neighbor who can provide more high quality ingredients for your pies is a win-win. Chicken pot pies and minced pies may never be looked at the same again.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
A spoof on monster movies, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes is about as B-rated and campy as it can come for a comedy horror. It's exactly what you think it is: killer tomatoes on the loose killing people. The best scene in the movie is when Sam Smith (Gary Smith) is sent to disguise himself as a killer tomato to infiltrate their base and stop them. He blows his cover by, wait for it, asking if one of the tomatoes can pass the ketchup for his hotdog. Rookie mistake!
Ice Cream Man
Ice cream is such a wholesome, heart-warming treat for anyone. It's what we want when we are sad or happy or enjoying moments with those we care about. This scene in Ice Cream Man in particular might have you look at waffle cones a little differently though. Clint Howard plays a deranged ice cream man who uses his victims body parts as soft serve and toppings. Instead of a heaping double scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream, you get a large decapitated head topped with a cherry. That might be strawberry syrup or it could be blood, who's to say?
John Dies At The End
Trying new experimental drugs always goes totally fine and normal, especially in John Dies At The End. One scene in particular is when John (Rob Mayes) and Dave (Chase Williamson) are helping out a young girl and eventually get attacked by a meat man. Yes, a meat man. As they are trying to find a way out of a basement room, a meat cooler opens and the most unhinged version of a man is created, complete with sausages, ribs, hot dogs, and fish. That's about as All-American as it can get.
The Gingerdead Man
A little reminiscent of Chucky, The Gingerdead Man is about a bite size maniac in cookie form. A dead serial killer is reincarnated as a gingerbread man when his witch mother sprinkles his ashes into cookie dough. What does every gingerbread man want when he comes to life? Revenge, obviously. On his path of destruction, plenty of puns and ridiculous kills are to be had and it makes seeing this movie quite the unforgettable experience. Just please, whatever you do, don't mistake him for the Pillsbury doughboy.
The Lost Boys
Chinese food gets another hit on this list from The Lost Boys. The scene when Michael (Jason Patric) goes to the lair of the punk rock vampire posse, he is offered some takeout food in your traditional white boxes. After being assured that it's just rice, Michael looks down and sees maggots in his container. The gang laughs as he looks again and it's just rice. Careful not to fall for the same trick again, Michael hesitates when offered noodles. He's right, as the noodle box is actually filled with worms until he looks again and they're noodles! Tricky, tricky those vampires are. They're only noodles Michael.