Whether you’re a horror aficionado or your scary threshold is at a level 2, you’re bound to be familiar with at least a couple of iconic horror movies. The horror genre is a huge part of our culture, allowing us to explore the darkest depths of the human psyche within the safety and comfort of home—or a theater, if you dare.
As counterintuitive as it might sound, watching horror movies can be more than stimulating entertainment for some people. It can act as a form of exposure therapy, helping reduce anxiety levels. Of course, this is not the case for everyone, but it certainly helps explain why the genre is so well loved and continues gaining popularity. Even in 2020—arguably an anxiety-inducing year for everyone—horror movies were the only ones to actually see a surge in ticket sales. Sometimes it’s just more cathartic to see an actual monster wreaking havoc in a fictional world than it is to think about all real-world worries that haunt our imaginations.
Still, not everyone can shake off that scary feeling that a horror movie elicits, and therefore might not partake in watching. Nonetheless, they might enjoy seeing the edge taken off with a bit of lighthearted humor. After all, it’s often recommended to watch a little comedy after a horror flick to clean out the heebie jeebies.
Jimmy Fallon asked folks to “take a horror movie and add one word to change the plot and tag it with #AddAWordRuinAHorrorMovie for his ever-popular Hashtags segment on “The Tonight Show.” Granted, some people took liberties with the rules—occasionally replacing a word in the title, for example—but nonetheless, grammatical fun was had. And well-known horror movie plots did undergo hilariously drastic changes.
Below are 23 of the best ones. Enjoy, because even those who can’t handle anything too scary deserve a little spooky entertainment.
1. “The Blair Witch Project Manager” – @ ite_mumma
2. “House of Brazilian Wax” – @omg_is_oscar
3. “Awkward Smile” – @jimmyfallon
4. “Zoom Interview With A Vampire” – @Sohnzie
5. “The Snore Ring (you’ll never sleep again)” – @Janasvox
6. “The Hills Have Googly Eyes” – @DunLahfAtMae
7. “Freddy vs Jason Bateman” – @richg6
8. “The Craft Room” – @EvelynRobinson
9. “See SAW” – @BruceCountyGal
10. “Silence of the Lamb Chops” – @EfrainRSosa
— Stephen Poplar (@spoppy74) October 6, 2022
11. “Children of the Candy Corn” – @DjDubay
12. “Man-childs Play” – @DantheDad87
13. “The Amityville Hoarder” – @PamelaMelnick
The Amityville Hoarder pic.twitter.com/nNEwyGCnZ9
— Pamela Melnick (@PamelaMelnick) October 5, 2022
14. “Carrie Groceries” – @mitchbytes
15. “Hellraiser Burn” – @blumspew
16. “Invasion of the Body Shapers” – @LaughOutLander
Invasion Of The Body Shapers #AddAWordRuinAHorrorMovie pic.twitter.com/7M5IeIOOwA
— LaughOutLander (@LaughOutLander) October 6, 2022
17. “Final Destination Wedding” – @EmWilsonMartin
18. “The Invisible Man Bun” – @ryanBartholomee
19. “The Babadook Ellington” – @taradublinrocks
The Babadook Ellington #AddAWordRuinAHorrorMovie pic.twitter.com/7nUrGnHpLN
— 🧛♀️☠️ The Terror Of Dublin 🎃👻 (@taradublinrocks) October 5, 2022
20. “Beetlejuice Cleanse” – @Sohnzie
21. “Rosemary’s Baby Shark…doo,doo,doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.” – @seamirac
22. “Nightmare on Elmo Street.” – @elise_milsssss
@Cantabrana_ added:
“Somehow, this is much scarier.”
23. “The Shoe Shining” – @LauraLizVids
This article originally appeared on 10.25.22