The Lost Village had the chance to be a truly creepy story. The concept of a group of strangers being trapped in a strange village and forced to survive otherworldly entities from the mind that just screams good horror. Unfortunately, The Lost Village failed to deliver thanks to some silly looking monsters and a cast of characters that scream idiotic. The Lost Village ends up being so not scary that it lasted 12-episodes and wasted our time. Even those who aren’t critical of the flaws found in The Lost Village can agree that the series could have been done better had the story made more sense and the monsters weren’t giant oppai beings or a strange bus that looked made from human parts.

Who doesn’t love short horror stories that feel semi-realistic? This is why series like The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits send shivers in the spines of American audiences. The World of YAMIZUKAN seemed to be the answer to these similar series but in anime form and we were excited to see the stories within. Unfortunately, The World of YAMIZUKAN rarely ever gave us a slight chill as the stories were often predictable and pretty lackluster. Add to that pain, every episode was only 4 minutes and all done in still images—with the exception of a still image live-action episode—that ranged from beautiful to child-like. The World of YAMIZUKAN could have been a truly strong anthology-like series but in the end, it can’t even scare a child.

Famed horror mangaka Junji Ito is easily the face of the manga horror genre. Ito’s works are famous for being downright creepy to truly nightmare-inducing but Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack! wasn’t one of them. Gyo is a story focused on strange fish-like abominations rising out of the ocean and onto land killing/infecting anything they cross paths with. The idea is a bit intriguing when you realize how the fish were mutated but the acting and silly nature of the overall plot tend to undermine the actual horror elements. Gyo, in the end, feels like a Western B horror flick that while not horrible to watch—it can be enjoyable with friends or family—isn’t horrific despite trying to be.

If you scour the internet looking for lists of the worst anime movie of all time there’s one series you’ll probably come across, Mars of Destruction. This horrendous anime movie released in the early 2000s and looks as if it was created before the 1980s. Bad animation, bad storytelling, unlikable heroes/heroines, and terrible voice work are just a few elements to why Mars of Destruction earns its 2.25 rating on MAL. The saddest part of Mars of Destruction is the idea should be horrifying. Alien invasions are a fear shared by many people and the concept should be perfect for a horror-themed anime movie. Sadly, Mars of Destruction is just bad and the fear you’ll get watching it is that it doesn’t end fast enough.