Horror movies are great at providing larger-than-life monsters that could have you running in fear. Whether it be Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, great white sharks, or graboids, there are giant terrors everywhere. However, giant monsters aren't the only thing to fear in horror movies.

Some movies focus on smaller--but still scary--beings. One thing many of these tiny horror monsters have in common is that they look a bit silly. Why are so many of these creatures either dolls or monsters that look slimy or wet? Scouring through cinema history--mainly the 1980s-2010s, we found 14 mini movie monsters that aren't quite so scary in retrospect.

1. Ghoulies (1984)

For some reason, when I think about tiny monsters in horror movies, Ghoulies comes to mind first--probably because it's the only horror movie monster that goes to college during the franchise (Ghoulies III). For those who aren't familiar with Ghoules, it came out the same year as Gremlins (1985), but it feels different enough to stand out on its own.

The film follows Jonathan, who has a magic talisman, and his girlfriend Rebecca. He conjures the Ghoulies (small, ancient demons who occasionally come out of the toilet), and he wants them to remain hidden in the house that he inherited from his late father. From there, dwarves are summoned as well, so there are even more tiny monsters. In a weird twist, the bad guys kind of win the battle, and the film concludes with Jonathan and the Ghoulies riding off in a car together.

2. Munchies (1987)

Continuing with "tiny monsters that have 'ies' at the end" is none other than Munchies. But what is a Munchie? Well, it's when a screenwriter watches Gremlins and Ghoulies the same weekend and decides to write something awful. In the film, a space archaeologist (totally a real thing) is visiting a hidden temple in Peru, where he discovers little aliens called Munchies. They want to eat people, and if you chop them up, then they regenerate into new Munchies, so there's a whole bunch of Munchies around. Listen, this is a weird, C-List movie, filled with a bunch of smaller, side plots that are wild.

However, as far as tiny monsters go, this is what you want in a movie. These tiny monsters want to eat people, they have bizarre powers, and they're incredibly annoying. Munchies tries desperately to be quirky and fun like the previously mentioned tiny monster movies, but it falls flat on its face because it's so derivative.

3. Gremlins (1984)

 

Finally, the tiny, mischievous monsters you've been waiting for. Imagine Munchies, but it's one of the greatest movies of all time. During a time when PG movies could dabble in territory now reserved for Rated-R films was none other than Gremlins. Now 40 years old--I feel old--younger generations might not have heard of this movie, and that's okay. However, I'd love for you to watch it.

The movie follows a young man whose father finds a mysterious creature called a Mogwai in a mysterious shop, and he brings it home. The creature is named Gizmo, and there are three very specific rules to follow with this very cute creature.

1. Don't let it get in bright lights, it hurts them--sunlight kills it.

2. Don't get it wet with water--it will multiply into a bunch of Mogwai.

3. Don't feed it after midnight (What time zone, you ask? Who cares?)--it will turn into a nasty gremlin.

Obviously, number two and three happen and out pops a bunch of ugly, mischievous gremlins--after they eat some chicken after midnight (again, how does time work?). It's up to the town to take these gremlins down during the night before everyone is killed. Again, this is a PG movie.

There was also a sequel to the movie as well, which was tonally completely different. This Key and Peele sketch describes it perfectly. Gremlins 2 is seriously bonkers and totally worth your time.

4. Leprechaun (1992)

Many horror films launch the careers of future actors, while some feature well-established actors. But can a movie do both? In the case of Leprechaun, it can. This movie stars future Friends legend Jennifer Anniston and features Warwick Davis (Willow, Return of the Jedi) as the titular character, bridging the gap between new and well-known.

This movie about the myth of a leprechaun follows a few humans who stumble across some gold, which belongs to the magical being in question. Of course, this causes the leprechaun to go on a murderous and magical crime spree in order to get his precious gold.

This movie spawned a slew of sequels that took the evil leprechaun (played by Davis in all but two of them) to many different places: Las Vegas, space, the "Hood," and "Back 2 Tha Hood." There are also two more Leprechaun movies in the series--Origins and Returns--but neither have Warwick in the main role, so what's the point? Well, Origins does feature former WWE Leprechaun Hornswoggle in the titular role, and that's fun.

5. Troll 2 (1990)

Troll 2 is a meme. We all know this. Remember that kid yelling, "They're eating her. And then they're going to eat me! Oh my god!" That's from this movie, which is objectively terrible but was played on secondary TV networks (Who else remembers UHF channels?) constantly during the early- to mid-'90s. Seriously, if you grew up in the early '90s, and you didn't have cable, you probably saw this movie at least once. Let's get to the nitty-gritty of these tiny, green-spewing monsters, which are actually goblins, not trolls.

First, this movie has zero connection to Troll. It was originally called Goblins, but it was changed to ride the success of the first Troll movie. The film follows a family who goes on vacation to the town of Nilbog (Guess what that spells backwards. It may shock you!). While enjoying whatever there is to enjoy in this weird town, goblins attack, turning people into vegetable matter--because the goblins are vegan or something. And the town is saved and the goblins are defeated because of a bologna sandwich. That's not a joke.

6. Critters (1986)

Critters is pure delight for a tiny monsters movie. The first film came out in 1986, and I'm about to say something you won't believe: There is still Critters content coming out as recently as 2019. A franchise many people forgot existed still actually exists. For those unfamiliar, let's discuss the finer points of this very straight-to-the-point franchise.

Critters are actually called Crites, and they're from space. They escaped a space prison, and have made their way to Earth. They land in a small town, and of course, they want to eat humans--because who doesn't in these types of movies? Side note: There are also shape-shifting, alien bounty hunters coming after the Crites. Much like the Leprechaun series, future Critters films took the Crites many places: another small town, Los Angeles, space (in the near future), and the suburbs. But mainly, the focus is on these adorable, small monsters eating humans.

7. The Gate (1987)

Much like Troll 2, if you're of a certain age, owned a TV, and spent time watching UHF channels, you probably saw The Gate a few times. It's a film riding the "Satanic Panic" wave of the '70s and '80s. However, the focus is really on tiny monsters and a whole bunch of demonic stuff. The Gate was released relatively early on into the PG-13 movie era, three years following the release of the first PG-13 title, Red Dawn. It's probably not worth noting, but we will anyway, that Red Dawn was actually the second movie given a PG-13 title, but was released first. The first movie assigned the rating was The Flamingo Kid, which you've probably never seen. Anyway, The Gate, for its time, is actually pretty scary, considering it's geared more towards children than adults.

The story of The Gate follows a 12-year-old boy and his 15-year-old sister as their parents go away for a few days. There's a hole in the backyard, and it's connected to a demonic world. How do you fully open a "gate" between worlds? Well, you play a heavy metal album backwards. Heavy metal is the devil, don'tcha know? The movie is more about supernatural elements and scares, building up to the tiny monsters--which are a little bit adorable, even though they're hairless and a little damp throughout the entire movie. It's one of the few movies that does well at mixing numerous genres while also including original tiny monsters that are somewhat frightening.

8. Child's Play (1988)

Let's discuss spooky, tiny dolls, shall we? And what better way to start than the most terrifying, sociopathic little doll than the Good Guy toy, Chucky? This little murderer isn't just a killer doll. It's a killer doll housing the sole of serial killer Charles Lee Ray. As the doll, he finds a home with Andy Barclay, and eventually Chucky reveals he's a living doll, and he starts messing with and killing people. It's eventually revealed that Chucky wants to transfer his soul inside of Andy's body.

Chucky is one of the scarier tiny monsters on this list because he's an actual serial killer who continues to be successful, even as a doll. He continued his reign of terror throughout three movies. There was also a reboot, where Chucky was a robot toy, and his AI malfunctioned, causing him to start hurting people. It's still a scary, tiny monster, but nothing compared to the original.

9. Annabelle (2014)

Continuing our journey through spooky, tiny dolls, we come across the second most-iconic scary doll: Annabelle. The only contemporary tiny monster on this list that matters--you heard me, Brahms--Annabelle is a part of the larger Conjuring Cinematic Universe, which consists of numerous spin-offs. The beaten-up and spooky-looking doll is based on a real Raggedy Ann doll that allegedly was possessed by a dead girl named Annabelle. It was discovered in the early 1970s by the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren, who put the doll in a glass case in their occult room so that the supposedly possessed doll would stop being so spooky or whatever.

Annabelle made its first appearance in The Conjuring in 2013 and then again in The Conjuring 2 in 2016. In between these movies, Annabelle got its first spin-off in 2014, which followed the origin story of how the doll came to be possessed. Skip that movie. It's terrible. In 2017, Annabelle: Creation came out, which is a prequel to the first movie and a much better origin story. It shows the dollmaker creating the Annabelle doll and giving it to his daughter, Annabelle. She dies, and the doll becomes possessed. Of course, chaos ensues. Following the 2017 movie is Annabelle Comes Home. It's not as good as the second movie, but it's very much worth watching. It's a prequel to The Conjuring and takes place when the Warrens put Annabelle inside their home. A babysitter takes the doll out of the glass case, and once again, chaos ensues. Out of all the tiny, scary doll movies, it is easily the best franchise.

10. Puppet Master (1989)

Riding on the heels of Child's Play is Puppet Master, a movie about even tinier spooky dolls. I'm about to say something that may blow your mind: There are 15 movies in the Puppet Master franchise, with the latest coming out in 2022. But also, the chronology is all over the place. The first Puppet Master takes place in the middle of all the other movies. Also, none of these movies were released in theaters, believe it or not.

The first film follows a group of psychics being hunted by a group of tiny puppets who are trying to kill them. What distinguishes the Puppet Master series is that the puppets are exceptionally memorable. There's the one in the black trench coat with blades for hands, the one with a drill for a head, the one with a tiny head and huge body, the one that spits leeches from her mouth and others. And that's just the first movie--there are plenty of other memorable puppets from future movies, too.

11. Dolls (1986)

Before Chucky, before the Puppet Master, there was Dolls, released in 1986. It's about a family stuck in a storm who find themselves staying in a mansion with an elderly couple who are dollmakers. A few more people seek shelter at the mansion, and they turn out to be thieves. What happens next? The answer may shock you! The mansion is filled with dolls, and when one of the thieves tries to rob the place, they are attacked by the dolls. Very quickly, everyone realizes that if you're a bad person, you're turned into one of these dolls and stuck in the mansion forever.

It's one of the few movies on the list where you're rooting for the tiny monsters, until you realize the dolls have bodies of bad people inside of them–it's an internal struggle for the audience. They are the reckoning for bad people. If you are a do-gooder, your life is spared, and you're allowed to go on your way. If you're a garbage person, your fate is sealed. You're trapped within a tiny doll and looking for more people that visit the mansion who also are garbage people to trap within more dolls.

12. The Boy (2016)

Okay, this is cheating a little bit. For most of the movie The Boy, we're led to believe that the tiny doll Brahms is the spooky tiny monster of this movie. It is a representation of an elderly couple's son who is to be treated like a real person by the recently-hired nanny. As Brahms isn't treated as a real boy, mysterious things happen, and it becomes clear that the doll is responsible for the chaos ensuing in the house. It's a slow-burn horror movie before we reach the weird conclusion. Warning: Spoilers for a bland movie below.

It's revealed that it isn't this tiny monster doll causing all the issues in the house. It's actually a grown-up weirdo in the walls that's actually causing all the trouble. Madness! It's not the doll causing the issues, it's a creepo inside the walls of the house that the elderly couple totally knew about and kept him a secret the entire time. Isn't that wild/confusing?

13. Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)

Remember that time Ernest P. Worrell was so scared that he became stupid? Ya' know what I mean, Vern? For all of those screaming, "That's not a horror movie!" You're wrong. It's a horror movie for kids. There's a bunch of mid-sized trolls taking kids and making them into wooden dolls in this film, and all the trolls are very gooey. It might be the gooiest monster in a movie since The Blob. The Trolls always have boogers streaming down their faces. They must all have allergies…to Ernest? At no point in time does Ernest ever get "scared stupid," though, so the title is super-misleading. The end of the movie features a troll who gets superpowers, which makes him regular-sized. And how do you beat trolls? You have to love them unconditionally. No, seriously, that's the key to beating them: a hug, a dance, and a kiss. I would typically say, "Don't believe me? Then watch the movie!" But I suggest skipping this one entirely.

However, if you want to see the scary version of this movie, Ernest Trailers recut this to look like an A24 movie, and it's pure perfection. It's also a huge departure from the actual trailers for this movie.

14. Basket Case (1982)

Listen, the song "Basket Case" by Green Day may be in your head right now. However, 12 years prior to the release of that song, the movie Basket Case came out, which has nothing to do with the band Green Day. This is a movie about a tiny monster living in a wicker picnic basket. It's easily the most bizarre tiny monster on this entire list.

Basket Case follows a man who had a conjoined twin that was separated from him without his consent. And the separated, deformed twin decides to live in a basket and wants revenge on those who wronged him--doctors and whatnot. It's a series of weird murders committed by a tiny man in a basket, and what makes this really work is that the tiny monster is pretty terrifying to look at.