10 More Horror Movies Where Pranks Brutally Backfired

Once upon a time, pranks were, at their worst, swirlies and wedgies and, at their best, whoopee cushions, hand buzzers and telescopes with inked eyepieces. Alas, such small-potatoes rotted with the rise of YouTube and social media, morphing the pranking culture into something decidedly less fun and way more public, focused on humiliation and shame on a global scale - all in the name of content.

But, far from being contained to the internet, this new sensibility has permeated all pop culture and media. As such, it should come as no surprise that the majority of the films on this list are from the 21st century. Horror cinema in particular offers the opportunity to frame the new prank culture in a novel way, with dire repercussions coming part and parcel.

Halloween interrogates the errors of dressing up as a serial killer, Candyman gives us good reason never to throw the bee baron's name around in jest and The Butterfly Effect demonstrates the dangers of messing with the post. In short, each of these films contains a fateful prank that leads to big, killer-shaped consequences, with many providing a commentary on the culture as a whole.

Be careful who you mess with, and be careful what you do, because it might just come back to haunt you in 10 movies where pranks brutally backfire.

In an unprecedented move, Trevor Matthews' Canadian slasher movie Girlhouse kicks off with the killer’s backstory and motives. No prizes for guessing that it all begins as a prank.

In,1988, two girls prank an overweight boy nicknamed Loverboy (Isaac Faulkner) by having him drop his trousers on the promise of a kiss, only to humiliate him when he actually follows through. In retaliation, Loverboy kicks one of the girls from her bicycle and throws her off a bridge to her death. Thus begins the plight of an innocent and the rise of a villain. 

And therein lies the real tragedy of this prank, because, while the initial consequences are certainly bad enough, it also engenders Loverboy's (now played by Slaine) descent into becoming a repressed, sexually deficient adult who gets his kicks by watching women online and occasionally stalking them IRL. That's right, he's an incel, in a time when the name and concept was just beginning to gain traction.

Chances are Loverboy would've turned out this way regardless, but there's no denying the ensuing carnage was sparked by this act of humiliation, as Loverboy stalks the titular girl's house (a compound full of cameras where girls act out viewers' fantasies - kind of like 2002's Demonlover but with more consent and less prestige) and lays waste to multiple victims.