10 Best Fake Horror Movies Within Horror Movies

3. Mant!

Appears in: Matinee The fake film: Producer Lawrence Woolsey, "the screen's No. 1 shock expert" according to his own hype, created Mant! in 1962 and sold it as "a film so terrifying only screams can describe it". Despite Woolsey's dubious claims that the movie was inspired by genuine science of the time, Mant! is a pretty typical atomic age B-picture in the style of Tarantula and Them!

Equally, despite Woolsey's claim that the movie can only be described by screaming, a plot description is quite simple: an ant and a man are exposed to atomic radiation at the same time and become fused into a single creature: "Half man, half ant, all terror". Woolsey's love of a William Castle-esque gimmick (in 1961 he had people take out insurance policies on "death by fright") here manifests itself in the audience participation thrills of "Atomo-vision" and "Rumble-Rama" in an attempt to give Mant! an extra dimension.

The real film: Joe Dante, a Roger Corman protege whose breakthrough film was the silly yet fun Piranha, is no stranger to B-pictures and creature features and his love of both and the trappings that surround them is at the heart of Matinee, a satirical film but one with a more affectionate tone than some of Dante's darker comedic work. Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Matinee features John Goodman as shock loving producer Woolsey introducing his film to small town Florida.

Dante has fun comparing the real world experience of living in atomic fear and the audience desire for a different kind of atomic fear on screen. In this context Mant! showcases a kind of affectionate nostalgia for old fashioned monsters that puts it in direct opposition to Groundhog Day or Garden Tool Massacre's bland 80s fare.