Amusement parks are not inherently scary, but, in horror movies, they are almost always a terrifying maze of creepy clowns and dangerous attractions. There’s something amiss about seeing something that's supposed to be so much fun in a different light. Amusement parks take on a different vibe altogether in the wee hours of the evening when danger is lurking.
Horror movies love to flip something innocent and turn it into a freaky exhibition. Amusement parks can house any number of monsters, killers, or spirits that are just itching for a gang of teenagers to wander in and test their wills against the creatures of these demonic carnivals.
7 Mr. Dark’s Carnival
One of the most famous carnivals in the world of spookiness, Mr. Dark’s traveling carnival is a grim amusement park that sucks the souls of its attendants in the movie, Something Wicked Comes This Way. The carnival comes in with a storm and offers the small-town residents of Green Town everything they could possibly wish for - of course with an ominous caveat.
The Disney movie based on the classic Ray Bradbury story did justice to the creepiness of the carnival, filled with all kinds of sordid games and attractions. Mr. Dark is probably the creepiest part of this carnival, but his macabre cohorts are pretty scary too.
6 Malatesta’s Carnival Of Blood
One of the weirder amusement parks in horror cinema, Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood is the titular carnival of this forgotten horror movie from the 70s. When their son goes missing, a concerned family explores the strange amusement park they believe him to be located at.
Filled with all kinds of creepy characters, including a man named Mr. Blood, the family finds only more horror as they discover the carnival grounds are home to an evil cannibal cult. This grim amusement park is almost a surreal fever dream, as the family descends into the terrifying madness and discovers gruesome detail after gruesome detail.
5 Leatherface’s Abandoned Amusement Park
By no means as iconic as the original film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre II is half dark comedy and half slasher film. The directors took some artistic liberties in designing the story and its goofball characters, but the biggest artistic liberty has to be the abandoned amusement park the cannibalistic clan has resorted to calling home.
A funhouse of evil, the underground portion of the amusement park is essentially a slaughterhouse dedicated to the depraved cannibals that inhabit it. Much of the amusement park has been refitted to be a creepy prison where Leatherface and his scary family are the wardens.
4 The Traveling Carnival Sideshow
Freaks is an old-school horror movie, one of the very first of its kind in more ways than one. This 1932 movie follows the devious plot of a beautiful trapeze artist and her strongman boyfriend to win the trust of the sideshow performers to exploit them for an inheritance.
Things start to go wrong when the performers catch wind of the trickery and turn on them in an incredibly freaky scene that has since worked its way into popular culture. The amusement park might seem innocent at first, but it is anything but that in this classic horror movie.
3 The Carnival Of Souls
One of the most ghoulish amusement parks in horror movie history, the Carnival of Souls is a grisly story of a woman and her obsession with an abandoned carnival on the outskirts of town as she is stalked by a mysterious man with a solemn expression.
A bit of a different route from the bloody slasher films, Carnival of Souls is more of an introspective and dreamy journey where reality is blended together with dangerous visions of impending doom.
2 The Museum Of Monsters And Madmen
House of 1000 Corpses is Rob Zombie’s freaky ode to slasher movies, and one which highlights the morbid world of evil amusement parks. The Museum of Monsters and Madmen is a freaky backwoods amusement park dedicated to the insanity and depravity of local urban myths.
Naturally, a group of bumbling teenagers stumbles into the claws of the evil family that runs the attraction, leading them into some seriously weird and creepy predicaments. The intricate, yet dusty sideshow is eerily evocative of the old-timey traveling carnivals of the past, but the 70s grindhouse grime of the movie makes it all too intimidating for the modern horror movie connoisseur.
1 The Funhouse
The Funhouse is anything but fun. When some bored teenagers decide to spend the night in the funhouse at a scummy carnival, they find themselves fighting for their lives as they are stalked one by one by a mysterious masked monster.
The dilapidated amusement park only adds to the chilling atmosphere, complete with freaky animatronics and rides. Needless to say, things get more gruesome as the other carnies get involved and the plot thickens. The moral of the story: don’t break into amusement parks at night.