10 Most Terrifying Horror Movie Curses
Terrifying horror movie curses - from The Ring's videotape to Truth or Dare's deadly party game!
A well-known and equally well-loved premise in horror is that of the old curse. Whether this is an ancient god’s vengeance or the more recent doing of a scorned witch, the scope for terror is fantastically wide.
You’re not hard-pressed to find a horror film with cursed elements, but sometimes it can be a challenge to navigate through all the mess to find the diamonds in the garbage pile.
With a concept’s popularity comes its downfall in a few aspects, and some filmmakers rely on repeating the same tired formulas and tropes until they’ve been done to death.
Certain films, however, took the idea of a curse and stretched and molded it into something new and exciting - sometimes even influential and enduring. Some of the most well-revered horrors are based on curses: think The Grudge or Hellraiser.
Though some are so famous we cannot ignore them, we need to draw some attention to some other equally scary but drastically lesser known gems. With that in mind, here’s a list of some of the most terrifying, life-ruining curses out there in the horror universe…
10. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark - The Cursed Storybook
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark finally came out in the summer 2019, after already showing us pretty much all their monsters through the marketing campaign. This was an... interesting move to say the least, but fortunately didn’t take away from the main essence of the film.
Basically, a group of friends happen across a cursed book belonging to a girl who died long ago. Stories begin to appear in the book, narrating in real time as the friends are tormented or killed by creatures spawned by the curse.
Grisly fates await the kids, ranging from a violent transformation into a human scarecrow to being absorbed by a huge, globulous beast in the world’s least comforting cuddle.
What makes this curse so scary is not just the way you’re forced to read as your friends are hunted, but each time a story begins to appear you’re just waiting, expecting your name to be the next on the list.
The monsters range from horrifying to vaguely comical (I’m looking at you, blob-hug lady), but the idea is solid and you can’t deny you would be quaking in your boots watching that haunted lettering appear.