Skip to main content
Join The Community
- Join our community
11
Premium Benefits
24/7
Access Available
21K+
Active Members
Commenting
Join the discussion
Exclusive Articles Coming Soon
Member-only articles
Weekly Newsletters
Weekly gaming & entertainment news
Member Badges
Earn badges as you go
Exclusive Competitions
Members-only prize draws
Curated Deals Coming Soon
Tech and gaming deals worth grabbing
GET COMMUNITY ACCESS QUICK
For the quickest way to join, simply enter your email below and get access. We will send a confirmation and sign you up to our newsletter to keep you updated on all your gaming news.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
FIND OUT ABOUT OUR MAGAZINE
Want to subscribe to the magazine? Click the button below to find out more information.
Find out more
GET Community ACCESS QUICK

Join the GamesRadar community for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation, and sign you up to our newsletter.

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Background
Welcome to GamesRADAR+ Community !
Hi ,

Your membership journey starts here.

Keep exploring and earning more as a member.

MY ACCOUNT

Badge picture
Earn your first badge
Read 1 article to unlock your first badge.
Keep earning badges
Explore ways to get more involved as a member.
Latest Games News

Latest Games News

Breaking gaming news and updates

Read Now
Latest Games Reviews

Latest Games Reviews

Expert verdicts on the newest releases

Read Now

See what you’ve unlocked.

Explore your membership benefits.

Explore
Member Exclusives

Stay Ahead with GamesRadar+

Get the biggest gaming news, reviews, and releases straight to your inbox.

Explore

Sign Out
  • TotalFilm
  • Edge
  • Newsarama
  • Retrogamer
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Best Netflix Shows
Don't miss these
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in Sonic 3
Amazon Prime Video The 25 best movies on Prime Video to watch right now
Jacob Elordi as the Creature in Frankenstein
Horror Movies The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
Cillian Murphy as Tommy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
Movies The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch right now
Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later
Horror Movies The 25 best zombie movies of all time
Sam Rockwell as The Man From the Future in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Sci-Fi Movies Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die got me in the mood for more time-travelling fun and these 6 sci-fi comedies fit the bill
Joe Kerry as Travis 'Teacake' Meachum and Georgina Campbell as Naomi Williams in Cold Storage
Horror Movies Stranger Things star's new zombie horror Cold Storage is a love letter to gooey, goofy sci-fi from the early 2000s
Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
Streaming Services The 20 best movies on Paramount Plus to watch right now
Ryan Gosling as Court Gentry in The Gray Man.
Thriller Movies The 25 best Netflix thrillers to watch right now
Keanu Reeves as FBI Agent Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze as Bodhi "Bodhisattva" in the movie Point Break.
Hulu The best movies on Hulu to watch right now
Superman kisses Lois Lane in James Gunn's Superman
Movies The 20 best movies on HBO Max to watch right now
Godzilla in Godzilla Minus One
Sci-Fi Movies The 10 best sci-fi movies on Netflix to watch right now
Billie Roy in Lee Cronin's The Mummy
Horror Movies Upcoming horror movies coming in 2026 and beyond
Bill Skarsgård as Tony Kiritsis and Dacre Montgomery as Richard Hall in Dead Man's Wire
Thriller Movies Bill Skarsgård plays a scorned kidnapper in Dead Man's Wire, a surprisingly funny crime thriller
Michael B. Jordan as 'Smoke' and 'Stack' in Ryan Coogler's new vampire horror Sinners
Amazon Prime Video From Sinners to The Wailing, get scared with our guide to the best Prime Video horror movies
The front cover of Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Horror Movies Warm Bodies director will adapt a horror novel based on a haunted IKEA store, and it sounds like Last Shift meets Clerks
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

50 Weirdest Movie High Concepts

Features
By George Wales published 4 April 2011

Killer beds, airborne snakes and a thing with two heads...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Get the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Join the club

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

Snakes On A Plane (2006)

The High Concept: Poisonous snakes terrorise a passenger jet.

The Weird: The definitive high concept movie in that it does exactly what it says on the tin, with very little deviation towards convincing characters or believable dialogue. The fact that the CGI snakes look thoroughly unconvincing only adds to its cult status.

How To Make It Weirder:
Replace Sam Jackson with Gary Busey, a sure-fire way of upping the weird-content of any movie.

Killer Condom (1996)

The High Concept: A carnivorous living condom is feasting on New Yorkers’ nether-regions.

The Weird: You might think that title is just a schlocky way of referring to some sort of sexual predator, but no, this really is about a piece of living latex with a taste for genitalia. As the tagline so wonderfully puts it, it’s “the rubber that rubs YOU out!”

How To Make It Weirder: Introduce a Bride Of Killer Condom, in the shape of a toothy dental dam.

Poultrygeist (2006)

The High Concept: Zombie chickens attack a fast food joint.

The Weird: Zombie chickens, eh? How did they come about then? Well, foolishly, the American Chicken Bunker decided to open their latest outlet upon an Indian burial ground. As any horror movie aficionado knows, these should be avoided at all costs…

How To Make It Weirder: If the various fast-food products also became possessed. A fat customer choked to death by some zombie chicken nuggets? We’d watch that.

You may like
  • Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in Sonic 3 The 25 best movies on Prime Video to watch right now
  • Jacob Elordi as the Creature in Frankenstein The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
  • Cillian Murphy as Tommy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch right now

Troll 2 (1990)

The High Concept: Vegetarian monsters attempt to transform a family into plants so they can eat them.

The Weird: A thoroughly ridiculous premise in that it relies on the film’s grisly ghouls perennially attempting to trick their victims into boosting their vegetable intake. Salvation comes in the form of a bologna sandwich which taints our young hero’s blood, thus making him unpalatable to the meat-fearing goblins. Sheesh.

How To Make It Weirder: Include a ghostly grandfather who sporadically drops in to help out. Oh wait, they’ve already got one of those...

Kate & Leopold (2001)

The High Concept: A 19th Century Duke finds love in modern-day New York.

The Weird: Time-travelling culture-clash capers abound as Hugh Jackman stumbles through a time portal and finds himself falling in love with Meg Ryan’s mouthy career-woman. Inexplicably, after knowing him a matter of days, she consents to travel several hundred years back in time in order to become his wife. That’s what a ticking biological clock will do…

How To Make It Weirder: Kate and Leopold return to 1876 to find that the world has been taken over by a race of sentient apes. Noooooo!

Blown (2005)

The High Concept: A sex-doll becomes possessed by a voodoo priestess.

The Weird: A riff on the old Killer Condom theme, only this time, the latex monster is a full-sized sex doll. However, the killer’s motivation is something of a novelty, even amongst trash movies: the voodoo priestess who sets events in motion only does so as a reaction to the constant racket from her neighbours. Worth bearing in mind, next time you host a noisy party…

How To Make It Weirder: By using one of those inflatable sheep, instead of a regular human sex-doll…

The Human Centipede (2010)

The High Concept: Mad scientist plans to stitch three people together…front to back.

The Weird: An incredibly gross prospect on paper, although one that doesn’t really go anywhere on the screen. Once he’s finished with his needle and thread, the Doc doesn’t seem to know what to do next and the whole thing flounders a bit. Even weirder is the head of the chain’s sudden epiphany that he deserves to die…it literally comes from nowhere!

How To Make It Weirder: Chucking the odd pensioner into the chain would have upped the ick-factor somewhat…

Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter

Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

The Gingerdead Man (2005)

The High Concept: A gingerbread man is possessed by the spirit of a murderer.

The Weird:
We should clarify. The Gingerdead Man (got to love that pun, haven’t you?) comes into being when his mother blends his ashes with a gingerbread mix. She’s a witch, obviously, but she still has a little help when an electrical surge animates her sugary creation. Oh, and the Gingerdead Man himself? That’s Gary Busey. Weird enough for you?

How To Make It Weirder:
By including a Jack Frost -esque love scene. Speaking of which…

Jack Frost (1997)

The High Concept: A serial killer becomes a mutant snowman.

The Weird: Jack looks thoroughly ridiculous for a start, not to mention semi-immobile, and we defy anyone to watch his sex-scene with Shannon Elizabeth without laughing. Although you probably shouldn’t, given that she’s being raped by a giant snowman. However, seeing as she lives in a town named Snowmanton, something like this was always bound to happen.

How To Make It Weirder: By having him turn his victims into snow-people like himself, leading to a massive final stand-off between a snow-army and the national guard. Guess they didn’t have the budget…

Mannequin (1987)

The High Concept: Man falls in love with a possessed shop-dummy.

The Weird: A man falling in love with a mannequin? That’s ridiculous! Oh, but the mannequin is actually the reanimated form of an ancient Egyptian girl transported 5,000 years into the future? Well that makes perfect sense.

How To Make It Weirder: If Emmy never came to life at all, but Jonathon still fell in love with “her”…

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Current page: Page 1

Next Page Page 2
George Wales
George Wales
Social Links Navigation

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.

Read more
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in Sonic 3
Amazon Prime Video The 25 best movies on Prime Video to watch right now
 
 
Jacob Elordi as the Creature in Frankenstein
Horror Movies The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
 
 
Cillian Murphy as Tommy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
Movies The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch right now
 
 
Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later
Horror Movies The 25 best zombie movies of all time
 
 
Sam Rockwell as The Man From the Future in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Sci-Fi Movies Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die got me in the mood for more time-travelling fun and these 6 sci-fi comedies fit the bill
 
 
Joe Kerry as Travis 'Teacake' Meachum and Georgina Campbell as Naomi Williams in Cold Storage
Horror Movies Stranger Things star's new zombie horror Cold Storage is a love letter to gooey, goofy sci-fi from the early 2000s
 
 
Latest in Movies
Baby Krypto in Supergirl
DC Movies New Supergirl teaser reveals how Kara and Krypto meet and, yes, Krypto is an adorable puppy
 
 
Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
Drama Movies Peaky Blinders creator was "having trouble" figuring out Tommy Shelby's fate in The Immortal Man
 
 
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Marvel Movies Andrew Garfield thinks Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer looked "very cool", even without sound
 
 
Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary
Sci-Fi Movies Project Hail Mary has a massive opening weekend at the box office
 
 
John Boyega in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars Movies John Boyega says he's spoken to Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni about coming back to Star Wars
 
 
Spider-Man Brand New Day
Marvel Movies Tom Holland compares Jon Bernthal's Punisher to RDJ's Tony Stark in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
 
 
Latest in Features
Starfield screenshot showing the new Anchor Point location
RPGs How your feedback helped shape Starfield's biggest updates: "We're always checking in," says Bethesda
 
 
Invincible VS screenshot showing Dupli-Kate using her abilities
Fighting Games Invincible VS director wants players to feel like "a f**king superhero," so expect matches that are a "knock-down, drag-out fight until the death"
 
 
A close-up of Grace talking with someone through glass in Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Resident Evil Requiem's Grace actor did "a lot of research" into panic disorders, which makes playing the game with a real-life anxiety condition the scariest the series has ever been
 
 
A painted Legio Custodes miniature on a wooden surface
Tabletop Gaming The new Warhammer Custodes look amazing, but my god, I wish they were easier to build
 
 
LG OLED TV running Steam OS via a Steam Deck
TVs & Monitors The Steam Machine is capped at 60Hz in 4K, but these are the TVs I'd actually pair with the new PC
 
 
A zombie police officer bits a poker in Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Resident Evil has shaped survival horror as we know it – and the next decade will be the proving ground
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. LG OLED TV running Steam OS via a Steam Deck
    1
    The Steam Machine is capped at 60Hz in 4K, but these are the TVs I'd actually pair with the new PC
  2. 2
    The Last of Us season 3 has found its Lev and Yara, as Skeleton Crew star joins the cast
  3. 3
    Crimson Desert developer apologizes for AI-generated assets slipping into the RPG's final release: "This is not in line with our internal standards, and we take full responsibility for it"
  4. 4
    As Sony removes over 700 shovelware games from the PlayStation Store, one impacted publisher pledges to continue using Xbox, Nintendo, and Steam: "This was just as unexpected for us as it was for you"
  5. 5
    New Supergirl teaser reveals how Kara and Krypto meet and, yes, Krypto is an adorable puppy

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...