Even though we're talking about silly and over-the-top murders, you should probably know that some of these could be considered graphic and/or disturbing. But mostly they're just hilarious.


10. Decades of decapitations 

michael myers

In a genre known for last-minute scares and fake-outs, a beheading is the quickest and surest way to let the audience know someone is a goner. Even though necks are not exactly prone to splitting in half when merely glanced by a sharp object, horror movies give the impression that everyone is essentially a Lego person waiting to have their noggin popped off. As you can imagine, this often looks pretty silly. 

Even the classiest flicks have a hard time pulling it off. Remember this iconic scene from the original Omen

It was harrowing back then, but it seems more than a little hokey nowadays. Granted, watching that GIF loop itself over and over again is a slightly different experience than watching the film, but in the end it's still kind of funny to watch that rubber Ken doll head tumble along the surface of that glass. And that pane must be white-hot, because there's no way a decapitation of that magnitude is going to be so bloodless. 

Take Cellar Dweller here. He's got the grisly neck stump thing down pat.

So many of these kills use the same quick-shot switcharoo, cutting back to the camera to the millisecond before the action so you don't have time to see how silly it is for a dummy to be decapitated. It will never not be funny to watch a bloody prosthetic head bounce around.

Case in point -- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

Why on Earth was Jason using a machete that whole time if his fists are such deadly weapons? And are all dumpsters equipped with severed head-detecting technology?


9. Dinocroc eats that annoying kid from Lizzie McGuire


Remember Lizzie McGuire? It was a show about a preteen girl on the Disney Channel, back before starring in one of those meant that you'd eventually develop a disease that prevents you from wearing clothes while also making you stick your tongue out all the time. One of the big takeaways from the show, besides the fact that Lizzie and Gordo are absolutely not right for each other, is that little brothers are the absolute worst. 

If you hated Matt McGuire as much as most other humans do, this scene from the Roger Corman schlockfest DinoCroc should sate your unhealthy bloodlust.

Okay so yes, on one hand it's kind of terrible to be cheering on the death of an adolescent, but the actor was 14 at this point. Once you hit the teenage years, you're fair game as far as gruesome and entertaining animal-related attacks go.


8. The many deaths of Final Destination

final destination

When it comes to ridiculous, over-the-top death, it's hard to beat Final Destination. The world in which it takes place is just far enough removed from our own that the mayhem is cartoony and silly, as opposed to Saw-levels of torture porn depravity. Plus it's just fun imagining the spiteful spectre of Death taking time out of its busy schedule to plot needlessly complicated and painful ways to die. 

See what I meant by cartoony? In the Final Destination universe, people can apparently be born with raspberry Jell-O instead of bones. 

To be fair, these kids should already be dead; they were only saved from their destined demises through supernatural intervention. Throughout the Final Destination movies, Death finds myraid ways to restore the balance. It just so happens that these methods are incredibly elaborate. The needlessly brutal kills can at least be explained by a petty Grim Reaper with a grudge, but there is still no discernable reason why people's heads explode like Fruit Gushers. 

final destination death

These people are still dying horrible deaths, but at some point it stops becoming horrifying and starts being... kind of delightful. The Rube Goldberg-esque deathtraps are basically the whole reason this franchise exists. These movies make you root for the murder of innocent strangers. 

If we're all going to hell anyway, might as well travel in style.