The Best Crossovers In Horror Movie History

Who doesn't love a good crossover? Besides the fact that they settle nerds' constant debates of "who would win in a fight between ___ and ___?," there's something so exciting about seeing the main characters of two or more different franchises coming together for the first time ever. Another reason why crossovers have so much appeal with audiences is that there are often legal reasons why characters from one series can't mingle with those of another, making the times when they do meet on the big (or small) screen all the more special.

Crossovers got a massive boost in popularity due to the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, crossovers haven't only been relegated to the superhero realm; for decades, there have been numerous other examples of fictional worlds colliding across numerous genres. In fact, well before Nick Fury appeared at the end of "Iron Man" to tell Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative, Universal Studios was bringing their beloved monster movies together. Let's take a look at those, as well as many other of the best crossovers in horror movie history.

The "Lake Placid" series kicked off with a fun first installment in 1999, which followed the culinary adventures of an unusually large crocodile that's been plaguing locals at Black Lake, mostly by eating them. "Lake Placid 2" and "Lake Placid 3" told pretty much the same story, which was followed by the wonderfully mistitled, "The Final Chapter." Alongside these films were the similarly-styled "Anaconda" series, which saw dumb humans getting munched on by giant anacondas. Despite the comparable subjects of each series, "Anaconda" gets the edge in terms of subtitles; it's hard to beat "The Hunt for the Blood Orchid," "Offspring," and "Trail of Blood."

What's better than a movie about an unnaturally large predator chomping on people like they were gummy bears? A movie about TWO unnaturally large predators chomping on people like gummy bears. 2015 finally saw everyone's favorite SyFy channel beasts take each other on in a toothy free-for-all in "Lake Placid vs. Anaconda." While not exactly "Citizen Kane," this crossover makes for a great Friday night viewing with hot pizza and a cold six-pack. It does everything a movie about a giant crocodile fighting a giant snake should do, and its B-movie bona fides are boosted even further with the appearance of the horror movie icon, Robert Englund, most famous for playing Freddy Kreuger.

A mad scientist obsessed with playing god — who's totally not Dr. Victor Frankenstein — promises to build a new body for his hunchbacked flunky — who's totally not Igor. But first, the scientist, Dr. Gustav Niemann, has some revenge to take care of and does what any vengeance-seeking scientist would do by siccing Dracula on an enemy. However, Dracula starts complicating Niemann's plans, so he disposes of the nocturnal Count pretty early in the film. Niemann and his assistant Daniel get back to their quest and end up at Castle Frankenstein (which is not really a house, if we're being nitpicky), whose basement happens to house the preserved bodies of both Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man. And here we thought it was going to just be a wine cellar.

Flying by at a quick 70 minutes, the writer of "House of Frankenstein" clearly didn't care much for developing a layered, complex plot. But nobody came to this monster mashup for character development or narrative intricacy. While the film doesn't hold up well today as a monster crossover, it still has plenty of charm on tap as its creators struggled so hard to concoct clever ways to bring Universal's top monsters together, making it a must-see as an early example of franchise-building. Wrap a burrito in a slice of pizza, then deep-fry it; it's not haute cuisine, but it's probably the best way to bring those constituent pieces together.

The Wolf Man is resurrected when a couple of grave robbers accidentally open up his crypt on a full moon. After causing some trouble, the Wolf Man reverts to his human form as Larry Talbot and is admitted into a hospital by the skeptical Dr. Mannering, who can't seem to put Talbot's lycanthropic explanation and the brutal murder of a constable nearby together. Anyway, Talbot escapes and heads to Dr. Frankenstein's old pad to look for some scientific way to cure himself of his wolfish-ness. While searching among Frankenstein's research, he stumbles upon the doctor's previous creation chilling in some ice, and decides to set him free, only for him to later wreak havoc in the generic Eastern European village of Vasaria.

Here it is, folks, the original crossover movie, and like many of the other titles on this list, it's every bit as contrived as you might think. Still, this is fan service, not Shakespeare. Seeing these two titans of horror share the same screen must've blown minds back in 1943, and despite its silliness, it remains quite watchable today. The climactic showdown between the title monsters is suitably grand, and the high production values lend a surprising amount of atmosphere to the film. Lon Chaney Jr. is charming as ever as Larry Talbot-slash-the Wolf Man, and Bela Lugosi, who previously played Dracula, does an admirable job following in the footsteps of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster.

For those not familiar with "Dollman," it was another attempt by Full Moon Features to jump on the bandwagon of movies featuring tiny creatures running amok. However, to differentiate themselves a bit from the rest of the pack, the "creature" is actually tough-as-nails cop Brick Bardo from the planet Arturos, who gets sent to Earth and shrunk down to 13 inches tall along the way. Even though he's the size of a Barbie doll and is trapped on an unfamiliar planet, that won't stop him from taking down a gang that's been terrorizing the Bronx.

Before the "Demonic Toys" faced off against the "Puppet Master," they first had to test their mettle against "Dollman." Here, Bardo teams up with another minuscule person (Nurse Ginger from "Bad Channels," yet another Full Moon Features film that deals with tiny characters) to stop the demon that possessed the toys from "Demonic Toys" from rising again, which is now trying to become human. Despite the fact that this film recycles a lot of footage from the previous installments to pad out its already-short runtime (it's barely over an hour), "Dollman vs. Demonic Toys" is a ton of cheesy fun. Every cast member completely throws themselves into their respective roles, with their enthusiasm more than making up for a thin plot. If you're in the market for a bite-sized "Avengers: Endgame," give this one a try.

"Dinocroc" and "Supergator" were produced by Roger Corman, who built so much of his career on making movies that shamelessly "borrow" elements from big-budget Hollywood blockbusters and from other Roger Corman movies. I'd be repeating myself if I gave separate summaries for each film, so I'll just give the following catch-all description: A giant crocodile-slash-alligator is created through dubious scientific means, escapes from the lab, and eats a bunch of people. In Corman's "Dinocroc vs. Supergator," the ersatz croc and gator bust out of their respective research facilities (as expected) and eat lots of people.

"Dinocroc vs. Supergator" may not be Oscar-worthy, but it has a delightful simplicity that's hard to resist. On their own, "Dinocroc" and "Supergator" are just peanut butter and jelly, but it's Corman's genius that realized this and put them together to make an uncomplicated, yet wholly satisfying, sandwich of a movie. Who can't get into a movie that forces its poor actors to scream bloody murder while pretending to be chomped by a giant, poorly-animated lizard? So much of the fun is derived from thinking about how the cast had to play low-grade material as straight as possible. The highlight of the film is the fiery climax between Dinocroc and Supergator that looks like it was rendered on an Apple II. By the way, my comments are totally complimentary; "Dinocroc vs. Supergator" is some of the best Friday night trash entertainment you could possibly ask for.

Audiences were treated to the grand return of Godzilla in his 2014 reboot, which positioned him as less of a villain, and more of a protector of humans against other monsters. This was followed by 2019's "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," which sees the titular titan team up with Mothra and Rodan to take on King Ghidorah, further cementing his reputation as a (somewhat) benevolent force of nature. This film also tied into 2017's "Kong: Skull Island," wherein the U.S. government organization Monarch sends a team of military personnel and other experts to a newly discovered island for a research mission on giant primordial creatures, only to encounter too much of what they were looking for in the form of the massive ape himself.

Following in the footsteps of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was only a matter of time before Godzilla and King Kong met in a blockbuster whose budget was probably equal to the GDP of a small country. Like 1962's "King Kong vs. Godzilla," the plot is merely an excuse to get these two titans together, and boy does it work. One of the great things about the film is the attention that's paid to the massiveness of each monster, treating their fight more like a duel of gods than just a big lizard and a big ape punching each other. The true highlight is when they team up against Mechagodzilla, as it approaches "Avengers" levels of fan service fulfillment.

Ever since Freddy Kreuger's glove burst out of the ground at the end of "Jason Goes to Hell" to grab the infamous hockey mask, fans had to wait a whole decade before the two horror icons shared the screen together to see who was the king of slaughtering teens. Part of what made the matchup so enticing was how they would be pitted against each other, as they both have completely different modus operandi: Jason hacked up horny teens in the real world, while Freddy hacked up horny teens in their dreams.

Luckily, "Freddy vs. Jason" devised a way to bring them together in a way that perfectly blends the worlds of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th." Freddy uses Jason as a means to return to his old job of supernatural killer. The two then go on a delightfully bloody competition to see who's the best at what they do. What's great about this movie is that it does a great job paying tribute to the styles of the original franchises; Freddy's scenes embody the surrealistic dream logic that characterizes the "Nightmare" films, while Jason's scenes capably recreate the suspense of his best kills from the "Friday" movies. All of this leads up to a slasher clash for the ages that's filled with all of the brutal slicing, dicing, and hacking that fans could want. Props to Robert Englund, who showed no loss in his typical swagger as Freddy, even after 20 years of playing the character.