8. Theatre Of Blood (1973)
1973 revenge horror Theatre of Blood was written as a horror comedy, so at least some part of its ridiculousness should be attributed to satiric hyperbole. Despite this, it’s still a singularly odd film, as it consistently passes beyond the reasonable parameters of storytelling and into the truly absurd. It’s a slightly campy British film starring horror legend Vincent Price, and it has secured something of a cult following, but that doesn’t make it any less strange.
After a Shakespearean actor is humiliated by a group of theater critics, he is seen committing suicide. However, years later, he returns and begins to exact ironic revenge on each of the men who ruined his career. It’s a fairly simple premise, but what makes it so ridiculous is the excessive melodrama injected into Theatre of Blood‘s story, and that earns it a spot on the list.
It only begins with the premise, because Theatre of Blood gets more and more ridiculous as it goes. After the needlessly dramatic faked suicide, the film includes an army of homeless people, a man being fed his own dogs, with the actor recreating murders from various Shakespeare plays. It’s a premise that leans more heavily into dark comedy, but it’s still presented as a horror movie. That’s part of what makes Theatre of Blood so great, but it also makes it a particularly bizarre watch.