Holiday-themed horror movies are a mixed bag. For every Halloween or Black Christmas, there’s a barely watchable stinker like ThanksKilling. So, it should come as no surprise that the list of decent Easter thrillers is incredibly small. But fret not, gorehounds, with a bit of ingenuity and some imagination, you can still spend Easter Sunday binge-watching horror movies. Believe it or not, several scary movies share a six-degrees-of-Kevin Bacon-style connection to the holiday. After all, if Die Hard can be a Christmas movie, then there’s no reason why Critters 2 can’t be an Easter movie.
We worked hard to curate the perfect list of Easter-related horror movies for those of us who like their painted eggs with a side of bloody mayhem. Some of these movies have more to do with the actual holiday of Easter than others, but the one thing they all have in common is that they’re highly watchable. So kick back, crack open a Cadbury Creme Egg or a package of Peeps, and enjoy these 10 horror movies fit for Easter viewing.
Creepshow
We can all agree that the worst thing about Easter baskets is the fake grass. It looks ugly, and it gets everywhere, no matter how careful you are. Now imagine if it weren’t fake plastic grass getting stuck in your carpet, but rapidly spreading alien grass. That’s the premise behind “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill,” the second segment in the 1982 horror anthology Creepshow. When rural simpleton Jordy Verrill finds a crashed meteorite on his farm, he immediately sees dollar signs, but the meteorite has other plans.
A strange, grass-like vegetation begins growing on Jordy’s hands after he comes into contact with the space rock. Soon, it spreads to his arms and legs and eventually covers his entire body. While we suggest watching the whole film, it’s the tragedy of Jordy Verrill that will make you wish your front lawn were Astroturf.
Alien
What do xenomorphs and Easter have in common? You can’t have either one without eggs. Much like everyone’s favorite pastel-colored holiday, Alien kicks off with an egg hunt — only these eggs should have stayed hidden. When the crew of a deep space mining vessel touches down on an abandoned planet while responding to a distress signal, they stumble across a nest of football-sized eggs, each one containing a hostile organism.
Forgetting the age-old adage about the cat who didn’t mind its own business, one of the crew members gets way too close to one of the eggs, resulting in the hostile organism attaching itself to his face and implanting an eyeless, acid-bleeding alien in his chest. We’ve all been disappointed by the contents of Easter eggs at some point — remember the ones your parents used to fill with pocket change? But at least they’ve never impregnated us with an evil space monster.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
As any kid will tell you, the best part of Easter is the candy, and no horror movie features more scrumdiddlyumptious candy than Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. What’s that you say, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory isn’t a horror movie? We beg to differ. If you’ve seen the movie, then you probably know what scene we’re going to bring up: the boat scene. Willy Wonka — arguably a deranged psychopath in his own right — takes several children and their parents on a boat ride through a dark tunnel as a collage of disturbing images, dubbed the “montage of evil” by the director, plays behind them.
As the terrified passengers hold on for dear life, Wonka starts frantically spewing some truly twisted poetry with creepy lines like, “Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing?” That scene alone should be enough to get this “children’s movie” reclassified as a horror movie, to say nothing of the outright body horror of Violet’s transformation into a blueberry.
Basket Case
So we covered grass, eggs, and chocolate – now we just need the basket. Basket Case is the very definition of a cult classic — low budget and weird, but with just enough charm to elevate it above absolute garbage. Normal-looking Duane and his formerly conjoined twin Belial — basically two arms and a head connected by a blob of flesh — seek revenge on the doctors who separated them as children. To keep the monstrous Belial safe and hidden, Duane carries him around in a basket, hence the title.
Basket Case is a crude, transgressive film full of sex and violence, and a great movie to throw on if you want to make sure your family doesn’t invite you to Easter dinner next year.
Dawn of the Dead
Easter is all about resurrection and the renewal of life, so what better way to honor the spirit of the holiday than with a movie about walking corpses? Not only that, but the movie takes place in a mall like the same kind your parents took you to as a child to see the Easter Bunny. And if that’s not enough to convince you that Dawn of the Dead is appropriate Easter viewing, just look at the film’s color palette.
The oddly blue-tinted zombies mixed with the weird pinkish hue of the film’s fake blood give Dawn of the Dead a festive, pastel look that’s perfect for Easter.
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a classic ’80s thriller that doubles as a PSA on why you should never cheat on your spouse. It also features an infamous scene involving a rabbit like the one that delivers candy on Easter. Dan Gallagher has an affair with a woman named Alex while his wife and daughter are out of town. Though Dan intends it to be a one-night stand, Alex has other ideas. What follows is a series of deranged incidents carried out by Alex in an attempt to punish Dan for breaking off their affair.
This culminates in a scene where Dan’s wife returns home to find a boiling pot sitting unattended on her stove. At the same time, his daughter Ellen notices her pet bunny is missing. You can guess what happens next, and yes, it’s just as disturbing as it sounds.
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie is another horror anthology, and just like with Creepshow, we encourage you to watch the entire movie. The part that relates to Easter, however, happens during the film’s third segment, “It’s a Good Life.” Anthony is a little boy with the god-like power to shape reality around him. His favorite way to utilize his unique gift is by torturing his family for his own amusement.
After a dinner of peanut butter-smothered hamburgers, Anthony insists that his uncle Walt do the “hat trick.” He’s given a typical magician’s hat and reluctantly sticks his hand inside, relieved when he pulls out a cute little bunny. Unfortunately, when he goes to do it again, he pulls out not a cute bunny but a disgusting rabbit monster with fangs and sharp claws. The mutant hare is only on screen for less than a minute, but it’s a horrifying enough visual that you’ll never look at any rabbit the same way again, including the Easter Bunny.
Night of the Lepus
On a day when we celebrate a bunny far larger than a normal rabbit, it only makes sense to watch a movie that also features overgrown lagomorphs. Night of the Lepus is one of those “so bad it’s good” horror movies where the real fun doesn’t come from any genuine scares but from the earnest but laughable attempt to make giant bunnies scary. When thousands of rabbits invade a rural community, a scientist comes up with a plan to inject them with hormones to disrupt their mating cycle. The hormones instead cause the rabbits to quadruple in size, making them an even bigger threat than before — at least in theory.
In actuality, the big floppy fuzzballs remain too cute to be taken as a serious threat, unlike the rabbit in our next entry.
Holidays
Holidays is yet another horror anthology, but this one has a direct connection to Easter. In the film’s third segment — appropriately titled “Easter” — a little girl gets up on Easter Eve to get a drink of water and sees a grotesque creature leaving eggs in her basket. The creature, much like the modern Easter holiday, is a hybrid of secular and religious iconography. A mutant rabbit man wearing a crown of thorns and bearing some biblical wounds, this “Easter Bunny” is nothing short of terrifying.
Easter is hands down the best segment in Holidays, with the rest ranging from “meh” to “Wow, that’s bad.” Unlike the other anthologies on this list, we wouldn’t blame you for just checking out the “Easter” segment by itself, but be warned: it’s not for the faint of heart.
Critters 2: The Main Course
After a trio of films featuring evil rabbits, you’re probably going to want something where the tables are turned: a film where the Easter Bunny goes from predator to prey. May we suggest Critters 2: The Main Course? Not only is this horror-comedy set at Easter, but it also features a scene where a man dressed as the Easter Bunny is eaten to death by a group of carnivorous, pint-sized aliens. The Critters franchise isn’t high art by any means, but if you’re looking for something like Gremlins with a little more — ahem — bite, this is the series for you.
Far from just an excuse to see the Easter Bunny devoured by tiny creatures, Critters 2 boasts many fun scenes, including one where a shapeshifting alien bounty hunter morphs into a centerfold model complete with a giant staple in her stomach and a scene where a bunch of critters form together to make a giant critter ball. It’s just the goofy fun you need after a stressful day spent coloring eggs.
What horror movies do you watch on Easter? Let us know in the comments below!
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