When sports lovers, like myself, think about the sports movies that they like, they do not usually include holiday themed movies.  

I think of the classics, of course, like “Field of Dreams,” “The Sandlot,”  “Remember The Titans,” even “Air Bud!”

“Field of Dreams” is the best sports movie, but that argument will be saved for a different time.

I am a huge Christmas lover and I have yet to find a sports movie that is also Christmas themed. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. 

However, since I know that people get touchy about skipping over holidays, it is only fair that I focus on Halloween sports movies, or lack thereof.  

Perhaps it is because I do not go out of my way to search for Halloween sports movies, but I cannot name a single one. 

I was sure that it has been attempted to combine both Halloween and sports, so of course, I consulted Google. 

If you were to Google “Halloween sports movies,” you would immediately see IMDb’s list of Top 50 Sports Horror Movies. 

The first movie on the list is called “Gutterballs,” which according to IMDb, depicts “A bowling night will turn into a bloody death match for a team of teenagers, as a deranged serial killer is taking them down one by one.” 

Spoiler alert, I watched the trailer, and it does not look good. 

I think that it is cool that the sport in the movie is bowling, but other than that, the movie does not appear to offer much.

The second movie, “Girl Blood Sport,” is from 2019 and IMDb says that it is “Inspired by shockingly true events” and that it “presents itself as a cautionary tale about the dangers posed in the freelance modeling world.” 

Again, spoiler alert, this move is exactly about sports at all according to the trailer. It does have a level of creepiness to it but it does not fit the “sports horror” category. 

I do not know if I would consider modeling to be a sport, therefore, this movie belongs on a different list.

I think that combining horror and sports could be done in the correct way if it was not done in a cheesy manner. 

If the cheesy sports costumes were avoided and there were no overly obnoxious supernatural elements, I think there could be a good sports horror movie. 

I do not know about you, but I find that the “scary” elements of a movie are really hard to find these days. 

I want a movie to not scare me but instead, get inside my brain and make me think.  

I do not have any doubt that producing a sports horror movie would present some challenges but why have the ones that have attempted to be made been so terrible? 

I am sure that some of the movies are not as bad as the ones that I researched but after seeing the couple that I mentioned, my hopes are not high.

There is a bad reputation following the sports horror movie genre at this point. I hope that in the future, this changes.

Again, if you have any recommendations for sports horror movies, please let me know.

Autumn Schulz can be reached at 581-2812 or acschulz@eiu.edu