Since terror is a completely subjective emotion, some horror films work for audiences and others don’t. A24’s new slasher Pearl has been panned by critics, but according to Variety, it received a rave review from legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who said that it was so “deeply disturbing” that he had trouble sleeping after he saw it.
Oftentimes, horror movies don’t live up to their potential. According to Redditors, horror movies like Us, Halloween Kills, Crimson Peak, and It: Chapter Two could have been great, but ended up being disappointments.
The Nun (2018)
One of the only successful cinematic universes outside of Marvel’s output is The Conjuring Universe, spun off from the supernatural horror gem of the same name. But not every movie in this franchise has been a resounding success. The Nun, based on the character from The Conjuring 2, was one of the series’ falters.
Redditor u/minibutmightyx wrote, “That one scene with the nun in The Conjuring 2 was so scary, I hoped the spin-off would be good. But no, it was just jump scares.”
A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)
Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street has one of the greatest high-concept horror premises of all time. Craven added a paranormal element to the familiar slasher formula with the sinister Freddy Krueger stalking unsuspecting teenage victims in their dreams.
But according to Redditor u/AJ24773, the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street managed to botch that premise with its “extremely boring” execution.
Antlers (2021)
Based on the tantalizing trailers and the involvement of horror legend Guillermo del Toro as a producer, genre fans got really excited for Antlers. And thanks to a handful of pandemic-related delays, they had plenty of extra time to get their hopes up.
According to Redditor u/ballofbitter, Antlers’ “creature design was great,” but the movie was let down by a narrative that was “bland as s**t.”
It: Chapter Two (2019)
After Andy Muschietti adapted the first half of Stephen King’s enormous opus It into one of the most iconic horror films of the 2010s, fans were excited for him to adapt the second half into It: Chapter Two. With its overlong runtime, scare-free set-pieces, and heavy-handed approach to delicate themes, Chapter Two paled in comparison to its predecessor.
Redditor u/Critical_Bill echoed many fans’ feelings when they wrote, “I really liked the first one and couldn’t wait to see what they did for the second one. I was underwhelmed.”
The Deep House (2021)
Last year, Blumhouse released The Deep House, directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. It tells the story of a pair of YouTubers who produce content at supposedly haunted houses. In the movie, the haunted house they investigate is in an unconventional place: underwater.
According to Redditor u/lilsmudge, the premise of an underwater haunted house was “such a conceptually cool idea... but they just did absolutely nothing with it. Super trope-y and cliché without using the unique environment at all.”
The Predator (2018)
The Predator franchise had its first critically acclaimed follow-up this year with Hulu’s historical prequel Prey. A couple of years earlier, before the Disney merger, Fox attempted to reboot the series with Shane Black’s The Predator, a mix of horror, sci-fi, action, and comedy.
According to u/Dankey-Kang-Jr, The Predator is “an absolute dumpster fire with some atrocious editing and a bafflingly dumb script.”
Crimson Peak (2015)
Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak is a beautiful movie, but it suffered from misleading marketing. The trailers focused heavily on the horror elements, but the movie is more of a straightforward gothic romance with hints of a ghost story. According to Redditor u/Klumfph, these expectations ruined the movie.
The Redditor “thought it was going to be a spooky ghost haunting movie but it was something else completely. Visually amazing but I didn’t jive with the story.”
The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
Jim Jarmusch is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers working today. In the 1980s, he helped to launch independent cinema with his debut movie Stranger Than Paradise. In the decades since, Jarmusch has dabbled in a number of genres and styles. In 2019, he made the dryly comedic zombie movie The Dead Don’t Die.
According to Redditor u/TrashNovel, The Dead Don’t Die has an “incredible cast and director,” but it’s “not a great movie.” The ensemble includes such A-list talent as Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, and Danny Glover – but actors can only do so much with the material they’re given.
Halloween Kills (2021)
After the Halloween franchise received its best reviews in years thanks to David Gordon Green’s 2018 reboot, it went straight back to receiving negative reviews with Green’s 2021 sequel Halloween Kills.
According to Redditor u/NoirPipes, “Halloween Kills was a disappointment after liking Halloween 2018. The vigilante group led by Tommy from the first movie was a disbelief that was a little too heavy for me to suspend. It didn’t feel connected to any natural human behavior.”
Us (2019)
After the universal praise met by his debut feature Get Out, Jordan Peele suffered from the sophomore slump with his second directorial effort, Us. Redditor u/alexkr97 wrote, “The movie Us by Jordan Peele was such a let-down. His first movie Get Out was amazing and one of my favorites of all time. I just expected so much more from his second movie.”
There are certainly memorable moments in Us – the Tethered family’s arrival in the driveway is suitably intense – but it falls apart in the third act with an overcomplicated yet underwhelming explanation of the movie’s mythology.