Grotesquely Gratifying Goodies Guaranteed to Satiate Your Sweet Tooth, Inspired by the Silver Screen's Most Frightening Flavors

Walking dead, otherworldly beings, blood suckers, or just the human brain malfunctioning, horror movie nights sure are thrilling, and what could be better than us suggesting desserts based on your favorite horror flicks?

The horror movie genre debuted in 1896 with Le Manoir du Diable, also known as The Haunted Castle. It's been decades since then and horror has evolved beyond religion and exorcisms. That continues to be a staple for many filmmakers, but there are also the slow burns and grey characters that leave you befuddled. Whatever might be your liking be it gore or ear-curdling screams of broken bones, we picked some of the most liked horror movies out there.

The Menu’s Blood Orange Panna Cotta

Ralph Fiennes is known for his portrayal of unsettling characters that are difficult to hate, mostly, but the noseless demon in the Harry Potter franchise is an exception. As for his character in The Menu, it's undeniably one character you will end up sympathizing with. A nod to Fiennes’s character where he's the head chef of an island that serves only the elite, we combine the humble panna cotta with the posh blood orange. It fits his character quite well as it captures his frustration and carefully planned dark plot to go up in flames. He is an artist of the culinary world that the world kept slinging mud at, misunderstood, and not appreciated the way he wanted and needed to be. As sinister as his character is, it was Margot’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) character that exposed his vulnerable and ‘suffering artist’ side. Let the simple panna cotta, with its dominant blood orange sauce, be a companion the next time you watch this underrated masterpiece.

Bram Stoker's Dracula’s Chocolate Mousse Cake

Gary Oldman delivers an incredible performance in Bram Stoker's Dracula, widely considered one of the best movie adaptations of the classic novel, it is swoon-worthy and downright scary. His portrayal of the seductive yet terrifying Count Dracula is both swoon-worthy and genuinely unsettling; for the young ones reading this, he’s Sirius Black of the Harry Potter series. The gruesome plot is best represented in the form of a chocolate mousse representing Dracula’s former princehood when he was alive and an appearance he takes on to woo the reincarnation of the slain princess from his former life. Spoilers, the romance, and the enchantment aside, there also runs a parallel plot of the disturbing and menacing presence of the bloodthirsty, literally Dracula, who was a menace to society. The chocolate in the ultrasmooth mousse and in the cake perfectly captures that. Take a bite of this delicious cake the next time you watch Dracula and muse on how good it would’ve felt to have been wooed by the delicious prince, erm... good-looking prince, instead of Winona Ryder’s Mina Harker (the reincarnation of Dracula’s dead wife).

Parasite’s Mille-feuille

A subtle line separates two families and that line blurs when the poorer one uses their mettle and brains to secure multiple jobs with the richer household. What follows is a series of horrifying events that touch upon the struggles and seedy underbelly of the world of the working class. The film portrays the stratified multi-layered themes quite well and Mille-feuille’s multiple thin sheets of crisp puff pastry separated by cream mirrors the clear stratified class divisions in Korean society (and society in general). The cream filling represents the blurred lines and hidden connections between these clearly defined strata. Taking a bite into the confection is tasting the mix of several layers together which parallels how the characters' lives ultimately intersect in the complex web of class divide.

American Psycho’s Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies

This one is the most gruesome one in here and follows the life of Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) as he plays an investment banker by day and moonlights, not as Batman, but as a psychotic serial killer. It starts out slow as the narcissistic Bateman tests the water to introduce his sadistic side to his fellow coworker friends and as insanity clutches at him, he grows bolder and downright bloody. What else but a red velvet stuffed cookie? No cakes or anything soft for this movie and like Bale’s character here, a crunchy and hard cookie with a molten filling is perfect. The molten core is the censored version of the spattering of blood that covers Bateman during his killing sprees. A light snacky dessert for a gruesome movie is perfect if you aren’t into the ‘bloodworks’ and gore this will leave you nauseated and weak in the stomach.

Mother’s Crushed Oreo Pudding

Ever got wrongly blamed and reprimanded for something that isn’t your doing? That is the exact confusion, fear, and anger that the protagonist (Jennifer Lawrence) feels as the plot of the movie keeps thickening. The dessert soulmate for this actually terrifying movie is a simple pudding with crushed Oreos on top. The crushed Oreo pieces scattered on top represent the underlying cracks and fractures of the protagonist’s calm demeanor—subtle at first but increasingly prevalent. She continues to lose her grip on reality as the movie progresses and the audience gets to experience that firsthand through her eyes. The sweet flavor of the pudding initially brings comfort, like her desire to preserve the happy domestic life, before the complex cookies introduce a surprising texture and leave you with, “what the eff did I actually watch”.