The horror genre has been around for roughly 250 years now. Ever since Horace Walpole’s “Castle of Otranto”, writers and readers, and later film directors and movie-goers, have been transfixed by an art form designed to strike fear into those who dare confront it. Even Horace himself had no clue if people would appreciate feeling “scared and anxious” as they read his book.
It turned out that his appreciation for such stories was shared by many, and his book is now regarded as the first work to have established horror as a legitimate literary form.
The typing together of sport with horror Is a much phenomenon. IMDB lists just 27 movies in the genre “Movie + Horror + Sport”, the first of which is a 1960 Baseball film titles Los Pequenos Gigantes. Whilst the film was excellent, it didn’t do too well at the box office.
The next attempt came in 1984 when director Michael Elliot created “Fatal Games”. His film about a mad javelin thrower killing off as many promising athletes as he could find (including a suspiciously high number of naked girls in dressing rooms and saunas) was also not well received, although it is now regarded as something of a cult classic.
Let’s start our list with the film that kick-started the sports horror genre, which could have been partially responsible for the character of Negan in the contemporary Walking Dead franchise!
The Catcher – 1998
This 90s movie ended up going straight to DVD but featured a young Fred Meyers as a promising young baseball player. All was not well in Taft, California, as Johnny (Fred Meyers) and his stern and demanding father did not get along, leading to a scene where Johnny beats his father to death with a baseball bat in the middle of a baseball diamond. 17 years later, Johnny is released from a lunatic asylum and begins to go on a rampage, killing without mercy whilst his father’s ghost both taunts and directs him.
Downhill – 2016
This is one of the most action-filled sports horror films ever made, and the tying together of the three genres is done with both skill and thought. The plot revolves around a biker star named Joe whose best friend dies in a racing accident, which eventually leads him to an exhibition in Chile where he gets back on his bike for one last time. During a test run, Joe and his girlfriend stumble upon a man suffering from a mysterious virus. Joe and his girlfriend have no idea just how much trouble they have now found themselves in, as a band of relentless killers now have them in their sights.
Frankenhood – 2009
This sports horror film did make it into theaters but was not well received. The plot introduces elements of comedy to the sports-horror formula with mixed results – some scenes do manage to crack a smile or a giggle, but on the whole, the movie just doesn’t work very well. Plot-wise, the story goes that two guys who work at a morgue manage to create Frankenstein-like creature with the aim of teaching it to play basketball and increase their chances in a streetball tournament. Had there been a legal sports betting site in Indiana at the time, you can bet these guys would have been placing huge bets on their monster too, just to make things even more ridiculous! It’s not the best plot in the world, which probably didn’t help its popularity with cinemagoers.
Gutterballs – 2008
It’s easy to see why this one never made it to theatres- the plot is far too simple, yet the movie has something unique about it that draws you in and this has made Gutterballs one of the most well-known sporting horror movies of all time. A group of teenagers goes out to a midnight disco bowl-a-rama for some fun at a local popular bowling alley, but after discovering the victim of a sadistic rape, the group find they are unable to escape the venue and are picked off one by one in horrific blood-drenched deaths at the hands of a black-gloved masked killer. Spoilers: Nobody makes it out alive.
Deadball – 2011
Deadball has an interesting plot with many layers, and it seems surprising this one didn’t make it into theatres. Young Baseball prodigy Jubeh Yakyu accidentally causes the death of his father with his super-powered “fireball” pitch, which leads him down a dark path resulting in him becoming a criminal and eventually ending up in a Juvenile Reformatory at the age of just 17. The Headmistress is the granddaughter of a World War 2 Nazi collaborator, and Jubeh soon learns that his long-lost younger brother had also spent time in the institution after going on an unexplained murder spree before dying mysteriously. Jubeh sets out to discover the truth.
Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.