Cursed amulets, possessed dolls, and... flying spheres of certain doom?
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00:00If you were ever foolish enough to think that inanimate objects weren't scary, then you
00:04haven't been watching the right horror movies.
00:07Everything from car tires in Rubber, to refrigerators in The Refrigerator, to beds in Deathbed The
00:14Bed That Eats have had spooky makeovers into objects of insurmountable terror.
00:19Whether they've been cursed by an angsty witch or brought to life by another angstier
00:24witch, what looks like an innocuous little item can hide far more than we give it credit
00:28for.
00:29It comes in all shapes and sizes, as horror movies have proved time and time again.
00:34But let's get serious here.
00:35What are the innocent objects that can really mess you up?
00:39Not all tat is created equal, and some toe the line between life and death with terrifying
00:44consequences.
00:45In any case, I am the angstiest witch, Ash from WhatCulture, and these are the 10 most
00:50powerful items in horror movie history.
00:5410.
00:55Button – Drag Me To Hell
00:57What starts as a simple button is soon transformed into a harbinger of doom in Drag Me To Hell.
01:03Yes, you might look cute in that lovely coat with the decorative flourishes up the sleeve,
01:07but having anything an angry hag can yank off in the midst of a fight is a recipe for
01:11disaster.
01:12And that is exactly what happens to Christine, the poor soul.
01:15After denying an old lady alone and sending her away in shame, the woman comes back to
01:19place the curse of the Lamia upon her, ripping a button off her outstretched arm and muttering
01:24evil and a good dose of bad breath all over it.
01:27The button then becomes a conduit for the Lamia demon to haunt Christine, able to be
01:31shifted only through gifting it to someone else to bear the curse for her, which she
01:35fails to do.
01:36Owning this button really is an unavoidable, horrifying, one-way trip to hell.
01:41Having it in her possession results in Christine's damnation of her eternal soul to the underworld.
01:46And really, what is much worse than brutal, inescapable punishment for as long as time
01:51itself exists?
01:539.
01:54Fantasm
01:55What is so scary about a little metallic ball?
01:58It's just a shiny lump of metal, right?
02:00Nothing more than a hopped-up ball bearing with a self-important size.
02:04At least, that's what you'd think looking at these things in Fantasm before they jump
02:08into the air, whiz to your face, and turn your eye sockets into fine pulpy jelly.
02:13Then you won't be thinking much at all.
02:14Fantasm is one of those wonderfully weird movie franchises that makes no sense.
02:19And really doesn't want to, either.
02:21It features a centre antagonist known as the Tall Man killing and repurposing people
02:25around a mortuary, who commands the use of silver balls, known as Sentinel Spheres, as
02:29one of his tools to do so.
02:31Sentinel Spheres are on this list for a number of reasons, but their swift, supernatural
02:35flight abilities, stealth and speed, as well as their deadly arsenal of weapons that include
02:40everything from lasers to drills, should be enough to solidify their positioning.
02:44They're created by putting a human brain inside, which is then warped to be susceptible
02:48to the Tall Man's telepathic influence, making the spheres themselves, before they even become
02:52anything resembling a weapon, insanely powerful.
02:568.
02:57The Mirror – Oculus A handful of the powerful items on this list
03:00are made scary when they're in the wrong hands.
03:03But what about when the object itself is a thinking, feeling, sentient being, fuelled
03:07only by causing misery?
03:09That is downright terrifying.
03:11Able to incite hallucinations and make anything appear as things they are not, both light
03:15bulbs and apples, and deadly ghosts and loving fiancées get interchanged, for instance,
03:20the Mirror is the ultimate mind-melting machine, and has survived hundreds of years whilst
03:24harvesting the souls of the people it lures to an early death.
03:28Unable to be understood, destroyed, or even just damaged in any real capacity, one crack
03:33is all that shows in an object that can convince you to starve yourself to death or chew through
03:38a power line in the blink of an eye.
03:40It is a big contender.
03:427.
03:43Laundry Press – The Mangler Based on a novel by Stephen King and starring
03:47horror royalty Robert England, you'd be forgiven for thinking that The Mangler was an incredible
03:52movie lurking in the depths of the 90s, forgotten to time and by fans alike to be rediscovered
03:57as a hidden gem.
03:58Let me tell you, dear watcher, that if you have not seen nor heard of The Mangler, then
04:02it is for good reason.
04:03It is not a good movie.
04:05Realistically, though, it is still stupid good fun, and features a demonic laundry press
04:09eating people up that stand too close to its guzzling metal maw.
04:12But that is not what makes it mad powerful.
04:15Oh no.
04:16Its real power comes from consuming antacids partway through the movie that contain deadly
04:20nightshade, which then transforms the machine into a monster with a mind of its own.
04:25Able to move of its own accord, tearing apart anyone in its way, the laundry press goes
04:29from bad to worse, and sends the movie from ridiculous to outright mental.
04:34Either way, you wouldn't want to meet this monstrous mangler in a warehouse any time
04:38soon, that's for sure.
04:406.
04:41Annabelle and the Artifact Room – The Conjuring Universe
04:44It's easy enough to include the basement and all of its cursed contents from the cabin
04:48in the woods in a list like this, as some cheater's extension of what constitutes
04:52as an item.
04:53Each one brings together a twisted horror story plot, with the room itself serving as
04:58a collective point for monster conjuring items of meticulous design.
05:02And whilst I would love an excuse to include that movie on a list again, even more interesting
05:07and packed to the rafters with cursed crap is The Warren's Artifact Room from The Conjuring
05:11Universe.
05:12The crux of this entry lies with Annabelle the doll, whose demon inhabitant manages to
05:16break out the rest of the entities in the room with her in Annabelle Comes Home.
05:21There, we see everything from a television set that predicts the future, to a ringing
05:25phone that causes death upon answering, to a possessed board game full of evil hands,
05:30each one coming together under the banner of Annabelle to wreak havoc on the Warren
05:34household.
05:35Put together, they are a veritable army of evil that have an arsenal of weapons at their
05:39disposal for every type of pain.
05:41It's not a room you'd want to go poking around in, and one that if unlocked to its true potential,
05:46aka not under the control of Annabelle alone, would absolutely devastate the local area.
05:525.
05:53Sarah Bellows' Book
05:54Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
05:56Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark originated from a novel, so it's only fair that the
06:00power of this film is lodged firmly within the pages of a book.
06:04The tragic story of Sarah Bellows is what underlines the narrative of the movie, a woman
06:08tortured by her own family and locked in a basement.
06:11Her only reprieve comes in writing her own horror stories, which manifest with deadly
06:15consequences when her writing book is discovered by a group of teenagers in the abandoned house
06:20she died in.
06:21The book is powerful for a myriad of reasons, not the least that all the things the book
06:25conjures aren't countered in any way.
06:27It brings about unstoppable, paranormal monsters that always win, written into existence to
06:32deal death before disappearing to never be seen again.
06:35The pale lady, the jangly man, the spider that impregnates a girl's face with thousands
06:40of books.
06:41All are the stuff of nightmares, and all are born from one single, indestructible source.
06:46The book is a powerhouse of horror best left alone.
06:49Disturbing Sarah Bellows comes with consequences written in blood, and there is no way of erasing
06:55them.
06:564.
06:57The Headless Horseman's Skull
06:58Sleepy Hollow
06:59Skulls are a surefire way to making anything look that little bit more badass.
07:04Got a cool band logo that needs making metal as hell?
07:07Stick a skull on it.
07:08Got a bookshelf that's looking particularly nerdy with all those dumb, dusty tomes?
07:12Throw a skull on it.
07:14Got a headless horseman going around separating heads from shoulders in the name of a tricksy
07:17witch's curse?
07:18To be honest, that already sounds badass enough.
07:21But there's still a skull involved.
07:22The big old head bone of a Hessian mercenary is used throughout Sleepy Hollow to command
07:27his undead body to kill whoever the owner desires, with the vengeful Lady Mary Van Tassel
07:32using it to wipe out the families that wronged her as a child.
07:35Unkillable, determined, and pin-sharp in his pursuit of his victims, owning the skull of
07:40the Hessian is a powerful position to be sitting in, with the ability to murder any and all
07:45with little resistance thanks to his honed and deadly skills.
07:49Fortunately, even though he's too evil to set foot in church, he's luckily a dab hand
07:53with a harpoon too.
07:543.
07:55The Black Coltrane
07:57Dark fantasy at its finest, Disney's dabble in animated horror is one of the best movies
08:03of its kind.
08:04Telling the story of Taran and his prescient porky pet, the young pig-keeper must stop
08:08the uprising of the evil Horned King by locating the Black Coltrane, an artifact of power that
08:13the king desires to take control of in a bid to create an undead army and, naturally, rule
08:19the world.
08:20Really, undead army and rule the world spells out quite how powerful this item really is.
08:24A chalk full of magic that breaks the laws of life, death, and just about anything else
08:28a user might want from its spooky depths.
08:31When the Coltrane is eventually reached by the heroes of our adventure, it spirals out
08:34of control and takes down a whole castle, then consumes the Horned King whilst returning
08:39the skeletal army it had begun to raise back to their eternal slumber.
08:42That is some serious wallop.
08:45The Black Coltrane is an underrated movie by all counts, and its titular pot is one
08:49of the strongest supernatural items to grace a horror movie.
08:52For a PG rating, this one really raised the stakes.
08:562.
08:57The Device – Kronos
08:59The vampire legend has been taken in just about every direction in cinema since its
09:03inception, but none have quite the charm and strangeness of Guillermo del Toro's Kronos.
09:08The Device is that of a weird golden scarab, a mechanical thing that has been crafted by
09:12an alchemist to grant the user youth, vitality, and a healthy appetite for blood.
09:17But not only that, it essentially makes the user indestructible.
09:21Our protagonist is drowned in the boot of a sunken car, stabbed, beaten, and eventually
09:25throws himself off a building, each time reviving when he should have faced certain death.
09:29Imbibed with the power of the Device, he is a vampire in all but name, avoiding the sun
09:34and thirsting for the red stuff throughout the movie in exchange for becoming this all-powerful
09:39being.
09:40In the wrong hands, the Device of Kronos could change the face of the world as we know it,
09:44or at the very least, cause an uprising in vampiric shenanigans which would be almost
09:48impossible to eradicate.
09:51Good thing it's easy enough to stamp on, I guess.
09:531.
09:54A Crucifix
09:55The most powerful item in horror movie history is in a one-off design that grants the characters
09:59insane abilities, or houses a malicious entity, or even one that conjures unknowable, immeasurably
10:05strong beings into our plane of existence.
10:07It is the one thing that stands a chance at fighting off malicious spirits time and again
10:12throughout horror movie history.
10:13And that is the humble Crucifix.
10:16Or at the very least, the faith that it represents.
10:18Able to burn creatures that get too close with a swift jab, dispel evil with a simple
10:23flourish, or protect wearers from harm and possession through good old accessorising,
10:28the Crucifix has long stood as the go-to for religious figures and desperate non-believers
10:32alike.
10:33And a lot of the time, the bloody thing works.
10:36Holy Water is a close second place, with Christian paraphernalia serving as the backbone of protection
10:41against the forces of darkness in a ridiculous number of horror movies.
10:45Whilst the trope is often subverted now that we've grown and moved on from the cliche,
10:49faith still remains an integral part of fighting evil in horror movies.
10:53And it's the most powerful weapon you can deploy against tricksy ghosts, demons, and
10:58even the odd alien, if you're asking M. Night Shyamalan.