Drugs are a regularly featured vice in horror movies and are frequently thought of as one of the things you shouldn’t indulge in if you’re trying to survive until the closing credits. And yet, people indulge in them for various reasons. Sometimes it’s to spice up a party, sometimes it’s to help them survive a situation, and sometimes they don’t even know they’re taking them.
Whatever the reason for taking them, drugs can be a fun time or they can be a very bad time. In a horror movie, a bad trip can enhance the terrible time you’re already having. So strap yourself in, because we’re about to look at some of the worst trips in horror history.
10. Revenge (2017)
The minute the peyote shows up in Revenge, you know it’s going to crop up again later in the movie. And when Jen finds herself stranded in a cave in the middle of a desert with a tree brand sticking out of her side, she realizes that it’s time for the peyote to serve its purpose. Jen ingests the peyote, hoping that she’ll be high enough to remove the tree branch and cauterize her wound without dying in the process.
While the experience ends up helping Jen survive, there’s no doubt that it’s a traumatic experience for her and the audience. After the drugs hit, Jen is calm but clearly terrified as she slices into her own stomach, gallons of blood escaping in the process. It’s a risky move for her to attempt self-surgery under the influence of drugs, but luckily for her, it works out.
9. Bliss (2019)
I’ve tried to narrow down the worst trips from each film for this list, but when it comes to Bliss, the entire movie is pretty much a bad trip for our central character Dezzy. Dezzy is a painter, who has been struggling to finish a painting for months. In a bid to get her creative juices flowing, Dezzy gets a new drug from her drug dealer, and things start to get weird from there.
Dezzy’s painting starts getting completed even though she has no memory of her painting sessions, her withdrawal symptoms start to get worse and worse, and eventually, Dezzy starts experiencing an ever-growing craving for blood. Not sure if it’s the drugs or some strange form of vampirism she’s been infected with, Dezzy steadily loses control of her life, even starting to kill those around her to fulfill her creative and blood-filled desires.
8. Synchronic (2019)
In Synchronic, the world is full of designer drugs, each of which has unpredictable and often deadly effects on those who take them. The latest drug on the market, the titular Synchronic, displaces its takers in time, sending them to an unknown place, with most people usually returning when the drug wears off.
However, it turns out you need to stay in the exact same place as the drug wears off as you were when your trip started, or you’ll end up stranded in the unknown time you were thrown into. When Steve starts experimenting with the drugs in order to try and save his friend’s missing daughter, he finds this out the hard way when his latest dose transports him to a different version of his house, with a very disgruntled new owner. Steve has to race against time to make it back to his sofa, and back to his own time.
7. Brain Damage (1988)
Brain Damage follows Brian, a young man with a brain leech called Aylmer attached to his back who supplies Brian with a highly addictive fluid into his brain as long as Brian provides Aylmer with fresh victims.
However, things go wrong for the pair when Aylmer’s old owners, Morris and Martha, show up, needing a hit of Aylmer’s addictive fluid. In the fight that follows, Morris squishes Aylmer while he’s attached to Brian, filling his brain with an overload of the blue, addictive fluid. With blue fluid leaking everywhere, and a huge lump growing on his forehead, Brian ends up shooting himself, only to blow a glowing hole in his head.
6. Mandy (2018)
Most of Mandy feels like some psychedelic nightmare full of trippy rock music and bright colors. However, it’s Mandy herself who suffers the worst trip of any character when she is kidnapped by the Children of the New Dawn and taken back to their headquarters to be presented to their leader, Jeremiah.
Once Mandy is captured she is dosed with a very potent form of LSD, which is dropped into her eyes. To top it off, she’s also stung by a huge wasp, presumably adding to the effects of the drugs already in her system. Mandy then has to deal with Jeremiah trying to impress her, mainly with his penis, leading to her laughing in his face in a drug-induced state, which doesn’t go down too well with the proud Jeremiah.
5. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Look, I know weed is supposed to make you feel calm, but I’m still dubious about whether in the middle of fighting both Freddy and Jason would be the perfect time to spark up. My judgment aside, that’s exactly what Freeburg decides to do, and in his stoned state he ends up seeing a worm version of Freddy with its own adorable little bong.
The worm soon forces its way down Freeburg’s throat, allowing Freddy to possess Freeburg in the real world. While Freeburg/Freddy does prove helpful when he helps subdue Jason, he dies a hero’s death when he gets sliced in half.
4. Hannibal (2013)
He’s a horrible person, and he deserves everything he got, but man, Mason Verger did not have a good time of it in the Hannibal TV series. As revenge for almost killing both Hannibal and Will, Hannibal forces Mason to inhale a large amount of a psychedelic drug.
Once he’s been dosed with the drug, Mason doesn’t have the best grasp on reality and is highly open to suggestion. This means Hannibal is able to convince Mason that it’s a good idea to slice off large chunks of his face, feeding them to Will’s dog, and even snacking on his own nose.
3. Midsommar (2019)
Midsommar is full of drug-taking, with the commune residents being particularly fond of drugs of various types for all situations. However, the worst trip in the film probably happens to poor Dani when the group first arrives at the commune and takes mushrooms. While Dani is initially hesitant to participate, she gets peer pressured into taking part.
While all seems to be well, to begin with, as soon as Will mentions family, Dani’s grief starts to wash over her, and she separates herself from the group so she can try and pull herself together. In the dark, cramped toilet, Dani sees a terrifying flash of her dead sister over her shoulder as she turns on the light.
2. Frankenhooker (1990)
Part of Jeffery’s plan to bring his dead fiance back from the dead is to kill a lot of sex workers and use their body parts to stitch together the perfect woman. Knowing that the sex workers have a taste for drugs, Jeffery creates a type of crack when causes the user to explode after they’ve taken it.
While Jeffery decides not to go through with his plan, as he can’t deal with the guilt of killing so many women, the group discovers the drugs on him and binges on them before Jeffery can stop them. What follows is a scene of absolute carnage as the sex workers explode in a shower of body parts.
1. Shrooms (2007)
It’s perhaps not shocking that Shrooms revolves entirely around drug use, with the story following a group of American college friends heading to Ireland to see their friend Jake, and pick some of those magic mushrooms that Ireland is apparently famous for. Jake is incredibly knowledgeable about which mushrooms they should pick, telling the group to avoid the death bell mushroom, easily recognizable with its black tip.
However, Tara ends up ignoring Jake’s advice, and consumes one of the potent mushrooms, leading to a bad trip that lasts the rest of the movie. While Tara is plagued with visions of the deaths of her friends, and a creepy, stooped-over character creeping through the woods, it turns out the tripping Tara might be a little more involved in the deaths than her mind is letting her believe.
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