If you want a horror villain that's literally inhuman, it's hard to go wrong with a good robot. Or should we say an evil one? Freddy Fazbear and M3gan may be the newest models, but the history of cinematic killing machines goes back decades.
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00:00What's up everybody, Griffey here. With Companion now in theaters, it got me
00:04wondering, what are the best robots in horror movie history? Sure, we all love
00:08blood and guts, but sometimes we need a little extra elbow grease from our
00:11killers.
00:13Just relax. Remember to smile and act happy.
00:17Iris may be the newest robot on this list, but she has for sure secured her
00:21spot. Companion is the story of a couple who join their friends for a weekend in
00:25a remote mansion. What begins as a fun wine-fueled hang turns violent and
00:29depraved, as we discover Iris is there for more than companionship. The future
00:34of robotic wrestling partners is already upon us. As robots and AI become more
00:39integrated in our lives, we must ask, at what point does the line between robot
00:43and human blur and become indistinguishable? Companion is a
00:47hilarious sci-fi setup that asks some very dark questions. What makes Iris such
00:52an amazing robot is the deeply empathetic portrayal by Sophie Thatcher.
00:56She may be artificial, but she often acts more human than the other characters in
01:00the movie. Watching as she decides how to rewrite her story amidst this
01:04blood-soaked narrative will have us questioning what it means not only to be
01:08human, but to be a good human. Iris at least shows us what it means to be an
01:12amazing horror movie robot. Long before malls were secured by the mustache and
01:17segue of Paul Blart, there was a more hardcore group of security guards
01:21rolling through the malls.
01:23Chopping Mall is the story of a mall inexplicably upgrading their security to
01:26deal with a full-scale apocalypse scenario by introducing metal shutters
01:31on all the exits and three high-tech robotic guard units armed with
01:35tranquilizer guns, tasers, and lasers. A group of friends decides to party in the
01:39mall after close and must face down these mechanical hall monitors. This
01:44movie has amazing kills. We see a janitor electrocution, a dirty magazine sneak
01:49attack, and a full-on head explosion. I understand technology sometimes goes
01:53awry, but it seems this mall dramatically overestimated the level of threat they
01:57would face. Never has a Wetzel's Pretzels been so secure.
02:01They're all waiting for you. It's time to go play. If you grew up in the 90s, you
02:07went to Chuck E. Cheese. If you went to Chuck E. Cheese, you had nightmares about
02:11being murdered by an oversized rodent or dying from food poisoning from cardboard
02:15pizza. Five Nights at Freddy's gives us a new fur mascot lair to these childhood
02:21scares. Five Nights at Freddy's follows a down-on-his-luck security guard who
02:25takes a bizarre job post to keep his family together. Once inside, he begins to
02:30realize things with these animatronics are not quite as they appear. That is
02:34between odd lucid dreams of his brother who was abducted when they were kids. As
02:37a whore parent, it does my heart good to see the younger fans have another
02:41popular franchise, but this is a dark one. The robots house the souls of
02:46children murdered by a serial killer. Sure, that seems like something elementary
02:50school kids should love. The animatronic monsters in this movie are incredible,
02:54and there are some wonderful real adult horror scenes in this film. Also, any
02:58horror movie with Matthew Lillard is guaranteed to be a classic. It's still
03:02not as scary as Chuck E. Cheese, but it does an admirable job trying. Michael
03:07Crichton hates amusement parks. Me too, but not enough to fill two movies with
03:11that rage. Long before we fled Jurassic Park, we were mowed down in Westworld.
03:15Westworld is the story of an amusement park called Delos, featuring three
03:19history-themed worlds populated by very life-like androids. Eventually, the
03:24androids flip a switch and begin to lay waste to the guests. The very idea of
03:28these parks is bizarre to me. What are these rich creeps doing with these
03:31worlds? Don't tell me it's to relive history. We all had history class, and we
03:36weren't going back to our desk in our free time. Something about rich people
03:39creating life-like androids as playthings makes you feel like they have
03:43it coming. The only thing that could make Disney adults creepier to me is finding
03:47out the park was loaded with robotic brothels. Imagine how long those lines
03:51would be. Want to shoot a guy without the messy trials? Westworld! Even the robot
03:56snake has had enough. The star of the movie, Yul Brynner, plays the killer
04:00gunslinger to a cold perfection even the Terminator would admire. Watching guests
04:04gun him down for fun makes his bloody rampage a cathartic romp. It's a movie
04:09with the brilliant sci-fi what-if that I love spending time with. The HBO show is
04:14great, but more in a what-the-f**k-is-happening way. You knew an alien movie
04:18replicant would be on this list. To me, Ash is the best use of the synthetic
04:23human in the franchise. Alien is the story of a group of space truckers that
04:27pick up a distress signal from a derelict ship. What they find is the
04:30manifestation of all the horror of space. The xenomorph is as scary a horror
04:35movie monster as you can create, which overshadows the true terror presented by
04:39Ash, the ship's artificial science officer. It's hard to remember a time
04:43before we just expected there to be androids in an alien movie. The reveal
04:48was shocking. The cold, detached man of science feels very human. The blurring of
04:53the line is what creates the fear. We can imagine a human making a deal with the
04:57corporation to save the monster deeming us less valuable assets. Ash became
05:02another threat to us the same as the xenomorph, but we didn't share dinner
05:05with the alien. I also think anyone would be terrified if a man who looks like
05:10everyone's dad tried to kill them by jamming a rolled-up magazine down their
05:14throat. Fear is what makes the universe go round, my friend. Disagree all you want, but I love
05:21sending my horror franchises to space. Leprechaun in Space is a perfect example
05:25of the madcap insanity the setting can inject into a sequel. Leprechaun in Space
05:30fights the Leprechaun abducting an alien princess to make his bride to become a
05:35king. While the math might not quite math on his plan, it is a nice change of pace
05:40from just chasing his gold coins. The movie is filled with all the Leprechaun
05:43gags we've come to love, this time just with lightsabers, honey I shrunk the
05:47kids laser, and DNA potions. The fact that the Leprechaun births himself onto the
05:52ship from a guy's crotch just lets you know you're in for an interesting time.
05:56While what's left of Dr. Mittenhands is incredible, he's better as a spider
06:01monster than a robot. To me, Sergeant Metalhead really captures the energy
06:05this film is trying to share. Watching the android marine be co-opted and have
06:09a full-fledged meltdown in drag is the kind of moment too many horror
06:13franchises are too cowardly to explore. It's zany and low-rent, but this movie
06:18has scenes that are worth a pot of gold. Hardware is a steampunk apocalypse,
06:22it's bleak red landscapes let us know this movie won't have any soft spots. We
06:27see robot hands, cyber love, government sterilization programs, and a telescope
06:32wielding creep spying on it all. It's gross. The perfect kind of world to drop
06:36a robotic killer in to cleanse the palate. Hardware is a rough ride and it
06:40needs an equally brutal killer robot. Mark 13, named after a Bible verse which
06:45states, no flesh shall be spared, feels very apt for this grungy world. The robot
06:50is definitely the star of this film. The robot rebuilds himself into an iconic
06:55array of practical effects and weaponry. This movie has insane kills. Watching
07:00Mark drill the eyes out of a pervert is metal. Injections, electrocutions, robot
07:06vision, a suggestive drill, and good old-fashioned maimings really let the
07:10team display the beauty of this monstrous creation.
07:14Hi Megan, I'm Katie. It's nice to meet you Katie.
07:20Megan is another newer robot that has cemented a place among the highest
07:24echelons of horror movie robots. The story follows a young girl who loses her
07:28parents tragically being gifted an artificial companion to help fill that
07:32emotional void. When the two's bond grows deeper, Megan begins to go to more
07:37extreme lengths to protect her new friend. Megan toys with the idea of
07:42letting technology replace our duties as parents. What does it mean to create an
07:46artificial guardian that has a different calculation of what is best for our kids?
07:50What if your kid's iPad thought it could do a better job raising your child than
07:54you and TikTok danced on your grave? Megan takes the template of child's play
07:58and fills it with more modern elements that give the whore a real-world rooting
08:02for the fear to grow. With an amazing design and wonderful kills, I have a
08:06feeling we will have many more dances with Megan in our future. All I want for
08:11Christmas is Yuletide horror films, so Christmas Bloody Christmas was a
08:14beautifully wrapped mechanical gift for all horror fans. The story follows a group
08:19of young people under siege by repurposed military robots who now serve
08:23as automaton Santas. How could that possibly be a bad idea? This may be the
08:28worst Santa application process since the Santa Clause, where we learn you can
08:32become Santa simply by murdering Santa. Yikes. The movie may seem to have a
08:38modern sheen, but this plays like the best gore fest of the 80s. Robot Santa
08:43delivers old-school practical carnage to anyone sad enough to enter his robotic
08:47field of vision. People doing it, families in goofy pajamas, cops, any human being
08:52can get scratched off the naughty list permanently. If you want a little less
08:56sugar-coated movie than the normal Christmas film, this is definitely one
09:00you need to add to your watch list. You know when a movie is billed as erotic
09:05robot horror, you're in for a hell of a ride. Demon Seed is the story of an
09:09advanced AI named Proteus 4. Like many AI stories, the newly awakened artificial
09:14intelligence surpasses the parameters of its human creator, revealing its desires
09:19go far beyond what we can even fathom. The movie is a fun early version of
09:23smart home horror. Watching Proteus begin to spread out and take over elements of
09:27the house and other technologies to fulfill its needs feels very close to
09:31the home of today. The descent from curing leukemia to wanting to use its
09:35newly created robot body to impregnate his creator's wife is exactly as messed
09:40up as you're imagining. The idea that an advanced AI wants to create a body just
09:45to try to make more humans much the way we make robots is a really cool inversion
09:50of the genre. The robot's cold treatment of the wife mirrors the scientist's own
09:54behavior, which puts all the horrifying imagery in the movie into a human realm
09:59we can't dismiss as a programming error. The child is now in you is one of the
10:03most chilling lines you'll ever experience. That is, until the C-3PO
10:07looking little baby falls to the floor, sheds its skin, revealing a little human
10:11who says, I am alive. Ah, nothing is quite as sweet as young love, until that love
10:17takes a robotic turn as it does in Deadly Friend. The story follows a
10:21teenage boy who has created a robotic friend who develops a crush on his
10:25neighbor girl. After their first kiss, Samantha is pushed down the stairs by
10:29her abusive father and left brain-dead. Paul's response? Take the microchip from
10:33his destroyed robot companion and insert it into the brain of his crush. Yes, it's a
10:38horrible idea, but the heart wants what the heart wants. The newly reawakened
10:42Samantha struggles to find its place in this creepy new world between robot and
10:46teenage girl. She now is enhanced beyond the flesh, but still has all of the
10:50emotions and trauma of a human, which leads to a killing spree that is full of
10:54fleshy delights. You may not have seen this film, but I would bet you've seen
10:58the gif of Chrissy Swanson throwing a basketball like Randy Johnson into Mama
11:03Fratelli's head, which explodes like a giant cherry pie. It's the kind of
11:06horror movie image you can't help but give a standing ovation. If you love
11:10something, often you have to let it go. If you don't, it may peel its face off,
11:14revealing a robot that will rip your body apart.
11:20Halloween 3's season of The Witch has always been a divisive entry in the
11:25Halloween franchise. Thankfully, over the years, more and more audiences have found
11:29themselves rocking out to the silver shamrock jingle. This film is about a
11:33Halloween mask company that, through a combination of technology and druidic
11:36magic, will process anyone wearing one of these masks when they activate a kill
11:41signal. Yes, from Michael Myers' mask to a mask with a small fragment of Stonehenge
11:46is a huge leap from the slasher genre. The mayhem may be magically dispensed, but
11:50the movie also shows us that Silver Shamrock makes more than masks, but
11:54android hitmen. In fact, Tom Adkins' road trip partner and lover is even revealed
11:59to be an android sleeper agent, which brings a whole new meaning to the term
12:02sleeper agent. The Men in Black are a nice substitute in the midst of this
12:06bizarre story for those looking for that good old Michael Myers feeling. It may be
12:10a wildly different kind of movie, but it is full of insanity that I can't get
12:15enough of. The whole idea of Halloween was to be an anthology franchise full of
12:19crazy stories like Season of the Witch, but it turns out you truly can't kill
12:23Michael Myers. That's my list of the best horror movie robots. Where do you think
12:28this list could have used an upgrade? Beware, though, speaking ill of these
12:32killers. The flesh is weak. Bend the knee to the brutal robot overlords.