There is plenty that can go wrong during a sporting event. The anxiety and pressure that build up can be palpable. It can feel like there is so much on the line at any moment. Whether watching baseball, football, basketball, soccer, hockey, or plenty of other sports, there’s something about a shared experience with other fans that makes it a visceral experience.
It can be hard to bring that excitement to movies, but plenty have done it well. Movies like Hoosiers, which takes a small town basketball team and makes it feel like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders, and The Natural, where a man is trying to overcome a checkered past to do something miraculous, carry a sense of wonder and excitement not found in other genres. And if there is an odd crossover that can ratchet up the intensity even more, it’s a sports horror film.
Looking for some sport-fueled anxiety? Here are 10 scary sports horror movies that have you covered.
‘Wrestlemaniac’ (2006)
A slasher film starring real-life WWE stars seems like it would make sense. Sorry to ruin it for anyone, but not only are professional wrestlers athletes, they’re also actors. Wrestlemaniac is an off-kilter 2006 horror film starring Rey Misterio Sr. It follows a film crew of a low-budget movie that gets lost on their way to a shoot and ends up in a ghost town in Mexico. The town is known for its fable about an insane wrestler who became a killer.
Adam Huss stars as Alphonse, the director of the film, who believes that the ghost town is actually a better place to shoot. But once production starts, it summons El Mascarado, the infamous wrestler. The cast and crew aren’t welcome in his town, and the bloody vengeance he inflicts upon them proves it.
‘Battlefield Baseball’ (2003)
Baseball is one of the biggest games in Japan, and Battlefield Baseball uses that for a unique twist on the sport. It is a brutal genre-swapping film based on a manga series of the same name. It follows a high school baseball team that wants to try and win the Koshiem Stadium Tournament. But in order to do so, they have to take on a high school that is known for brutally killing all of its opponents. The principal tries to field a team that can withstand that kind of brutality and prevail.
As one might guess with this being a horror film, there is not a ton of baseball played in the movie. But there are a ton of bats and balls being used as weapons. The plot rambles between character studies as well as a wild scene with a poisoned bat. The film was directed by Yudai Yamaguchi, and it has gained cult status in the U.S.
‘Fatal Games’ (1984)
Anyone who has watched track and field at the Olympics knows there is one item that can inherently be used as a weapon. Fatal Games focuses on a killer using a javelin to knock off several members of a high school gymnastics team. The movie highlights different high school students who are focused on different sports, like swimming, track and field, and gymnastics, who are all up for Nationals. They are all shot up with steroids before competitions by the team doctor, and someone is not happy about it.
The team members start dying horrible deaths to someone in a black tracksuit. Some of the students have to take it upon themselves to find the killer before they all meet the end of the javelin. The film stars Sally Kirkland, Lynn Banashek, Sean Masterson, Michael O’Leary, and Spice Williams-Crosby. It was directed by Michael Elliot, who also stars as the team doctor.
‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man’ (1951)
There might be some liberties taken with this one, but this classic Abbott and Costello film follows the two as Lou Francis and Bud Alexander, two bumbling private eyes looking into the death of a boxing promoter. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man followed in a long line of horror comedies where the two played characters who meet up with famous horror icons. This one is a fun spin, as they are approached by a boxer who has just escaped from prison and wants to be injected with an invisibility serum.
The man who escaped was falsely accused of killing his manager, and the two must try and solve the crime while dealing with a boxer who actually does turn invisible. As with any Abbott and Costello film, there are hilarious sight gags and plenty of laughs. It’s a lighthearted entry into the pantheon of sports horror films.
‘Teen Wolf’ (1985)
Another more lighthearted entry was the 1985 box office smash Teen Wolf. Michael J. Fox stars as Scott Howard, a teenager who has inherited werewolf traits from his father. It follows his transformation into a werewolf and how he uses it to his advantage. He becomes one of the most popular kids at school because he’s not only a werewolf, but a werewolf who is good at basketball.
It’s a silly ’80s film that earned $80 million against a $4 million budget. It’s not really scary at all, but the horror elements land it on the list. If you’re looking for an easier watch and not one that is going to horrify you, Teen Wolf is it. It’s also much sillier than the eventual TV series that took its name years later.
‘Girls with Balls’ (2018)
Girls with Balls is a French dark comedy horror movie that stars Guillaume Canet, Artus, Manon Azem, Denis Lavant, Dany Verissimo-Petit, Camille Razat, and Anne-Solenne Hatte. It tells the story of a women’s volleyball team whose bus breaks down in a remote area following a match. Unfortunately, the residents of that area are sadistic hunters who treat the team as prey. The girls must fight for survival and try and turn the tide against the killers.
The gore is incredibly over the top in a campy way as the volleyball players must use their athletic skills to survive. The traps that they set are elaborate and clever, as the team channels its survival mode. The film was co-written and directed by Olivier Alfonso.
‘Arena’ (1989)
The 1980s was a time when science fiction films could kind of get away with anything, and Arena is a good example of that. It stars Paul Satterfield as Steve, a cook on a space station who gets into a fight with an alien because of an error-filled order. Amazed that one of his fighters could lose to a human, the alien’s manager recruits Steve to join Arena, a boxing sport that no human has ever really lasted in.
Strapped for cash, he decides to test his luck at Arena. The film costars Hamilton Camp, Claudia Christian, Marc Alaimo, Shari Shattuck, and Armin Shimerman. The visuals of Arena may seem dated nowadays, but they offer a campy look at a new sci-fi sport. There are some comedic scenes as well as some gruesome ones, making a mix of genres.
‘Deathsport’ (1978)
Another sci-fi sports horror is Deathsport, which came 11 years before Arena. Directed by Allan Arkush and Nicholas Niciphor, it has a bit of Death Race and Mad Max to it, taking place in a futuristic wasteland. The inhabitants of this land are mutant cannibals and warriors. Looking for more fuel supply, one of the lords of one of the tribes decides to create a new sport, Deathsport, to highlight his tribe’s superiority in weapons.
Deathsport means that, rather than criminals getting the death penalty, they get to battle other people on laser-equipped dirt bikes to stay alive. It stars David Carradine as Kaz Oshay, a captured warrior who must work with a female warrior, played by Claudia Jennings, to try and win Deathsport. For a movie that makes up rules on the fly, it is a fun time. Some wild scenes make this a good time with a B-movie.
‘Cheerleader Camp’ (1988)
Cheerleader Camp is a staple for many who love 1980s slasher movies. It combines a lot of what the decade and genre loved to put in these movies: sex, teens dying graphic deaths, bullying, and societal tropes. It stars Betsy Russell as Alison, a cheerleader who goes away to cheerleader camp and is trying to make the team better. Her boyfriend, Brent (Leif Garrett), is sleazy and trying to hook up with other cheerleaders at the camp. As bodies start piling up, the group of cheerleaders must try and figure out who is killing everyone and whether or not it’s Alison, who is having dreams that she is.
The movie was directed by John Quinn and written by David Lee Fein and R.L. O’Keefe. It costars Lucinda Dickey, Lorie Griffin, Buck Flower, Travis McKenna, Teri Weigel, Rebecca Ferratti, and Vickie Benson. The movie was initially released under the title Bloody Pom Poms, but the title was changed to its more well-known version for home releases. Cheerleader Camp is a classic of low-budget ’80s horror.
‘The Fan’ (1996)
“Fan” is short for “fanatic,” and Robert De Niro doesn’t let Wesley Snipes forget that in The Fan. Directed by Tony Scott, it is an intense thriller-horror that features De Niro as Gil, a San Francisco Giants fan whose team just signed his favorite player, Bobby Rayburn, played by Snipes. Gil’s personal life is eroding around him, and he begins obsessing over Rayburn.
The movie goes to great lengths to show Gil’s stalker tendencies and just how intense a fan’s passion can be. There are frightening scenes in the stadium, in a sauna, and with Gil endangering pretty much everyone around him. De Niro, who has not stopped working since he began five decades ago, is at some of his best unhinged moments here. The movie also stars Benicio del Toro, John Leguizamo, Ellen Barkin, and Patti D’Arbanville. It’s not a typical horror, but it shows the dark side of sports.