Horror moviesare known for drawing inspiration from folklore, including vampires, witches, ghosts, and mummies. Many of thebest horror moviesare supernatural in nature, with the genre having a high degree of familiarity with magical elements. But sometimes, they’re willing to make nightmares out of seemingly benign mythical creatures, leading to mixed results.
Being supernatural in any sense is sometimes good enough to warrant an entire horror movie around a given fantasy creature, even if they aren’t usually considered to be dangerous. Buthorror movies likeBlood and Honeyhave proven that filmmakers are willing to try to mine scares even out of the most whimsical and good-natured concepts, leaving such mythical beasts wide open.
When most people think of leprechauns, images of Saint Patrick’s day might be the first thing that come to mind, full of merriment, green food dye, and chocolate coins wrapped in golden foil. However, the horror comedyLeprechaunturns the pint-sized fae creatures into nightmarish, jive-talking murderers obsessed with their treasure hoard.
Amazingly, the originalLeprechaunhad enough fans to warrant the creation of an entiresprawlingLeprechaunfranchise, with star Warwick Davis entering into increasingly absurd situations while wearing the character’s signature ghoulish makeup. Recognizing the absurdity of the idea, the original movie was smart enough to make the Leprechaun a wise-cracking killer a la Freddy Krueger or Chucky.
For the most part, critically-acclaimed horror director Robert Eggers' relies on psychological warfare to squeeze scares out ofThe Lighthouse, which posits Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as lighthouse caretakers who quickly succumb to the madness of isolation and the sea. But the film also makes a brief pit stop to make a beloved mythical creature, the mermaid, into a terror of the deep.
At one point, Pattinson’s Winslow dreams of an eerie mermaid washed up on the shore, admiring her disturbing beauty. He quickly decides against any romance, however, when she awakens, unleashing an unsettling, ear-piercing scream that almost seems to manifest into reality. Mermaids have never looked scarier than inThe Lighthouse.
Anya Taylor-Joy petitioned for the role of the Mermaid inThe Lighthouse, but Robert Eggers ultimately denied her request.
By the time ofKrampus’release,Christmas-themed horror movieswere already a dime a dozen, but few of them actually took the time to popularize the then-little-known dark counterpart to jolly old Santa Claus. In Austrian and German folklore, Krampus is a sort of demonic evil counterpart. While Santa rewards good behavior, Krampus terrorizes naughty-listers with unspeakable punishments.
The first half of Krampus is admittedly a lot stronger than the second half, in which Krampus' goofy minions like the Gingerbread Men and Elves begin to lose a lot of their chilling appeal. But overall, the film manages to mix the eerie terror of a horned figure lurking at the edges of a snowstorm with the hilarity of its talented cast playing a dysfunctional family.
The idea of something as colorful and whimsical as a unicorn being a horror movie villain was first explored in the clever horror comedyThe Cabin in the Woods, but such a concept wouldn’t get its own movie until the recentDeath of a Unicorn.After unicorns are discovered, a billionaire hopes to make a fortune off of their restorative properties.
Of course, this plan goes awry when it’s revealed thatthe unicorns aren’t the passive, gentle creatures of fantasy legend, but instead vicious killers who can take away life just as easily as they grant it. The film deserves points for making more out of unicorns than simple horned horses, but the painfully ham-fisted message and cringey sense of humor drags it down a bit.
4Trollhunter
A Faithful Recreation Of Its Home Country’s Signature Creatures
“Troll” is a bit of a catch-all term when it comes to Western European folklore, but Scandanavian myth has a very specific idea of what a troll actually is. Enter 2010’sTrollhunterto clear up the confusion, centering on a group of students who become aware that trolls exist when they meet a professional hunter of them.
Trollhunteruses a mockumentary style that’s surprisingly fun, avoiding the same pitfalls of many similarfound-footage horror movies. Able to acknowledge how silly it is with some well-placed comedy while still respecting itself well enough, the film is an endearing effort to make such a generic storybook creature scary again.
By now, Bigfoot might as well be a mythical creature with folklore all his own, with equal number of claimed witnesses supposing he’s friendly or dangerous. Another found footage horror movie,Existsdecides on the latter, describing a camping trip gone wrong when a group of friends have a deadly encounter with the famous cryptid of yore.
The film actually manages to make Sasquatch fairly scary, with the practical effects rendering actor Brian Steele into a hooting and hollering simian nightmare. That being said, it’s easy for a viewer to find themselves rooting for Bigfoot asExistspresents some of the dumbest horror movie characters ever created, a title that isn’t doled out lightly.
In Western culture, genies are best known for being friendly wish-granting spirits voiced by Robin Williams or Will Smith. In their native Middle East, however, the djinn can be quite frightening spirits with grand cosmic powers.Wishmastermakes a pass at bringing the public perception of genies in pop culture closer to their actual origins.
The premise of an evil genie killing his masters with their own wishes in a series of monkey’s paw twists of irony makesWishmasterworth the price of any admission alone. While the genie’s special rules and appearance may make it a horrormovie derivative ofA Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s a creative take on a typically helpful mythical being.
CallingHellboy II: The Golden Armya horror movie is admittedly a bit of a stretch, but there’s no denying thatGuillermo del Toro put forth one of the most horrifying takes on a friendly folklore creature everwith the film’s tooth fairies. Rather than being cute pixies that buy baby teeth at a quarter a piece, these nasty little bug-like creatures eat teeth.
Despite their name, these ravenous little monsters aren’t that picky, and while they prefer teeth, they’ll strip a full-grown man’s flesh from his skeleton in a matter of moments. Flying in terrifying swarms, their mouths whining like a dentist’s drill, the tooth fairies are one of the most geniushorrorversions of a normally good-natured mythical creature.
