Dead in the End Zone: 10 Sports Horror Movies That'll Have You Screaming

Between Back to the Future, Family Ties and this werewolf comedy, 1985 was the year of Michael J. Fox. Nerdy Scott Howard (Fox) finds out he’s inherited the lycanthropy gene from his father and quickly uses his lupine abilities to become a high school basketball hero. But courtside success isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Spawning a sequel (Teen Wolf Too) and even an MTV series that ran for six seasons and a recently released movie, audiences have been thrilling to this double-dribbling canid for nearly 40 years! 

This over-the-top comedic horror flick blends the wholesome Little League fun of The Sandlot with the gore of 80s slasher classics like Terror Train. As a child, Billy Haskins was tormented for losing the big game. He snaps and kills three people, winding up in an insane asylum. 15 years later, some old friends return to the diamond for a reunion, but an umpire-masked assailant starts picking people off. Who will survive this baseball-themed murder fest?

Adam Green’s harrowing, barebones survival story of three skiers stuck on a lift after a deadly mixup delivers high tension with relatively few frills. Suspended 30 feet in the air, the three friends have to survive the freezing night (and figure out how to use the bathroom). But even if they manage to get down, they’ll have to contend with a pack of wolves. With frightening, high-concept fare, Frozen will make you think twice before punching your next lift ticket! 

Jedi Master Mark Hamill plays former baseball player Brent Matthews in “Eye,” the third segment of this John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper-helmed anthology. After a career of laboring in the minor leagues, Matthews’ athletic dreams are cut short by a car accident that claims his right eye. After undergoing experimental surgery, Matthews experiences disturbing visions of sexual murders. Is the former minor leaguer losing it, or does his new eye have something to do with his horrible nightmares? And how soon before they begin to bleed over into reality? 

Fun fact, the author of this piece also played Brent Matthews in Out There Halloween Mega Tape.

Shot for a mere $5,000, this indie zombie flick offers serious scares on a budget. Former pitcher/catcher duo Mickey (Adam Cronheim) and Ben (Jeremy Gardner) traverse an undead-infested New England, scavenging for food and trying to survive. The film is as much about the relationship between the two men as it is the monsters they’re trying to survive, and the scenes where they stop to play catch subtly hint at the world they’ve lost forever. 

From directors Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, this is actually a remake of the filmmakers’ own 2001 film of the same name. After a cheerleading accident claims the life of her friend Alexis, Mäddy Killian joins the team looking for revenge. Murder, magic, and high school collide in a film that provides plenty of laughs and kills while subverting expectations. Three cheers for All Cheerleaders Die!

Returning to the slopes, we’ve got 2003’s direct-to-video slasher Shredder (no relation to the Ninja Turtles villain), which features the tag line “You can take the chairlift up, but you’ll never come down.” When a group of teens spend the weekend at an abandoned resort, they encounter a homicidal skier who’s out for revenge. Years before, a group of snowboarders murdered a young girl, and soon Kimberly (Lindsay McKeon) and her friends will pay the ultimate price.    

Starring Roy Scheider of Jaws fame, Night Game is a baseball-themed (lot of those, for some reason) film about a murder spree centered around the fictional pitcher Silvio Baretto. Whenever he wins a night game at the Astrodome, women turn up dead on the beaches of Galveston. Scheider’s character, a former minor leaguer turned detective, realizes the coincidence and has to get to the bottom of why the killer’s crimes coincide with Baretto’s wins.

Okay, maybe Jason Voorhees doesn’t actually play hockey, but no list of sports horror movies would be complete without everybody’s favorite undead zamboni. While the series has long been associated with Jason’s iconic mask, hardcore fans know the first two parts featured Jason’s mother and a “bagheaded” version of the man himself. It wasn’t until Part III when the hulking slasher we know and love got his signature look, courtesy of lovable-but-doomed goofball Shelly, who scares another character with the hockey mask, apparently giving Mrs. Voorhees’ son a very good idea.   

While it hasn’t had a wide release yet, this football-themed indie mockumentary has been making waves at film festivals across the world. From filmmakers Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein, it concerns a fictional 70s slasher flick called End Zone 2 and the iconic killer the film spawned, Smash-Mouth. The mockumentary follows the two actors who played the character (The Greasy Strangler’s Michael St. Michaels and Troma alum Bill Weeden) at a horror convention, and lampoons both con life and Hollywood’s never-ending hunger for remakes. While an official release date hasn’t been confirmed, this one is worth watching for!