Are These Popular Horror Movies Overrated?

I think it has been well established here on this blog (or at least this October!) that I love horror movies. If I’m watching any movie, there’s at least 50% chance it’s going to be a horror movie (there is honestly never a bad time to watch a horror movie!). But as much as I love horror movies, there are so many out there that I’m not the biggest fan of of. Whether it’s the type of horror genre (and there are so many out there! Supernatural/ghosts, sci-fi, body horror, psychological horror, slasher, creature features, zombie, vampire, werewolf, comedy horror, etc.) I’m not into, or it may just be the movie itself. I personally love supernatural horror and psychological horror, with a smattering of some other in between, but that doesn’t mean I love every single supernatural and psychological thriller out there. In fact, I find a lot of horror movies overrated. Especially some of the popular ones (gasp!).

Now, don’t hate me, but I’ve put together a list of some of the most overrated (in my opinion!) horror movies I’ve seen. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think they’re good movies (well, some on this list are), but I just don’t think they’re as great as a lot of people say they are (again, just my opinion!). Whether they were marketed the wrong way or were just given too much hype, here are a few movies that I thought weren’t as great as people made them out to be.

My apologies in advance if I’m going after your favorite horror movie! These are just my own opinions, and if you love these movies, don’t let my silly ol’ thoughts on them stop you from watching them! Also:

*Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Artisan Entertainment

I feel like this one is a bit obvious. While it was ground-breaking for its time, and for the found footage horror genre, The Blair Witch Project had so much promise and was scary in the beginning in its initial watching, by the end it just crashed and burned. You get the sense of dread from its student filmmakers, but none of the payoff at the end. While very low-budget, you still wanted to have some intense ending, whether it was clear one or not. And the end was not clear, and definitely not intense. Though I did love that imagery of the branch figures hanging everywhere, it was the eeriest part of the entire movie. But the props being the scariest part of the movie? A bit sad.

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Universal Pictures

I really wanted to like this movie. I really, really did. A woman gets cursed by an old woman and tries incredibly hard to do whatever it takes to break this awful curse that in a few days will send her straight to hell. It seemed like a big budget B-horror movie and pretty fun, but instead of taking on its campiness, it took itself way too seriously. Instead of rooting for the main character and her desperate attempts to shake the curse, I kind of found myself rooting for this old lady. I mean, she gets denied a loan from this little blonde woman trying to be all tough all because she wants a promotion and this old lady really needs this time extension on her loan and blondie can’t be lenient just this one time? If I had the power to curse someone, it would definitely be on someone like the protagonist (if that's what you want to call her!). Karma can hit you and sometimes karma comes with a curse. Keep that in mind the next time you’re a bit rude to someone.

Also, she totally got dragged to hell at the end. Kind of satisfying, honestly.

Orphan (2009)

Warner Bros.

I loved the premise of this movie and was super into it when I first watched it. A family adopts a seemingly cute and somewhat foreign sounding little girl (did we ever determine which country she was from?), but it turns out Esther isn’t as sweet as she appears, especially to the other kids in the family. What seems like it’s going to be a take off of The Bad Seed or The Good Son, it turns into a crazy mess of a woman pretending to be a little girl in order to get with the dad and off the other family members. Yes, you read that right. Talk about looking younger than you actually are. It’s an insane twist and one that is too out there to work- at least for me. If nothing else, she should have gotten into the acting biz and made her living playing younger roles and cashing in that way! What’s the point of seducing the dad and killing the family when you can possibly play a cute kid on a sitcom and earn coin that way? (Meh, she’d probably join Scientology and just get crazier. It’s a lose-lose situation here.)

It Comes At Night (2017)

A24

This movie was...interesting? And by interesting I mean disappointing. A family in the middle of nowhere is sheltered from an unnatural but unnamed horror that is happening out there in the world, but their safe and secure life is upended when another family comes looking for safety themselves. After taking them in, paranoia overcomes the father of the family and suspicions fill the entire household, ending in something even more horrific than they could ever encounter out in the real world. Like a lot of these movies, I loved the premise of it, and while I love psychological horror movie, this one was a bit too ambiguous for me to follow and empathize with the characters. It was almost like a weird morality tale plus a mix of the insanity of The Shining (all work and what not) mixed into one and it didn’t work. At all. At least not for me. Plus, I barely remember any of it, and that doesn't bode well for any kind of movie you watch!

The Ring (2002)

Dreamworks Distribution 

You guys remember this one? I remember when this movie came out and everyone was talking about it. Everyone was terrified of watching the movie and then hearing their phone ring afterwards. The movie scared me a bit, but after thinking about it and rewatching it years later, it just makes me shake my head. A videotape that curses you to die in seven days after watching it via phone call? Sigh. While it did introduce a lot of the western world to Japanese horror (because it was, of course, a remake), I've heard a lot of people say the original Japanese version way better (I think they say that about most American remakes anyway!). But we can all admit that Samara and her dark, wet hanging hair crawling out of a well and a TV is total horror icon. She deserved better than this movie!

The Babadook (2014)

IFC Midnight

“If it’s in a word or in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook.” Okay, if there was one movie I was excited for back in the day, it was The Babadook. I couldn’t find anywhere that was playing it near me, so my boyfriend at the time pre-ordered it on DVD for my birthday and when it finally arrived, we both were eager to hear what all the (good) fuss was about. But by the end, we were...confused. Not scared or freaked out, just really confused. Was this a horror movie? It had all the elements. A grieving mother. A weird kid obsessed with homemade weaponry. A kid’s book with a malicious main character that kept showing up and starts influencing the mother. Is this really a malevolent creature or is it all in the woman’s (and child's) head(s)? It wasn’t until I rewatched the movie a bit later (post breakup, so I had some thoughts of my own that weren’t influenced by anyone else, ahem), that I realized that while it was marketed as plain horror, it was a straight up psychological film posing as a horror movie. And not only that, it was a great metaphor for grief and acceptance. So on a deeper level, it was actually quite brilliant and I ended up really liking it when I thought of it that way. But horror? No. Not at all.

Though we can ALL agree that The Babadook rhymes are scary as hell. They still send a bit of a shiver down my spine when I think about or hear them!

Hereditary (2018)

A24

Oh boy. This one. This movie. I know we all heard those great reviews about Hereditary. I really wanted to see it in theaters, but in the end, I’m glad I didn’t. I honestly don’t get why this movie was so popular and considered scary. It was just bizarre! From the miniature making (that can be a career?? Making miniatures based on your life and people actually buy them?? I guess art really is subjective), to the convenient nut allergy and premeditated yet accidental beheading (yes, you read that right), then to the sudden paranormal events, and then to the coven, I was just not expecting any of that. And it didn’t scare me. It worried me. What was all of this? I remember just watching it at home with my dad and looking at it at the end and saying at the end, “I didn’t like it.” Plain and simple. My father, however, was more concerned that after his sister was just accidentally yet not accidentally beheaded, the brother drove off and my dad kept saying “he left the scene of the crime! That’s against the law!” Hereditary was like a weird art house horror movie that I wasn’t supposed to get, because I’m not an art house person. Which made me sad, because I feel like horror should be for everyone, not just a certain elite demographic. Very disappointing. Sigh.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Paramount Pictures

Please don’t despise me for saying this: this movie was pretty overrated. John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, real life couple and now onscreen couple? Brilliant. A movie about creatures who attack you if you make noise so you have to stay quiet at all times and pretty much sound proof your house? Cool premise, but sort of like Bird Box, but trying to cut out another sense. But the overall story? Meh. Also, the family dynamic was a bit messed up. Just because they had to be quiet most of the time doesn’t mean the father and eldest daughter couldn’t have talked (quietly) about the son’s death at the beginning of the movie before the father *SPOILER* sacrifices himself at the end to save them. Communication in any relationship, whether it’s familial or romantic is key, people!

Also, did the mother and father run out of birth control that was at the drug store they frequented in town? Because having a baby (aka the noisiest creatures in all of the animal kingdom) when monsters who are attracted to sound are hunting you at all times is possibly the dumbest decision they could make. Seriously. Though Emily Blunt was a total boss when she was in the bathtub, trying to be quiet while she was in labor and a monster was lurking in the house. But seriously, this could have been avoided if they had just picked up a prophylactic pack or two. Just sayin’.

Poltergeist (1982)

MGM/UA Entertainment Company

“They’re heeeere.” I know, I know. This movie is considered a classic. Who am I to be judging a classic? But I guess I still kind of am. I’m sorry! But this movie was all over the place. If you’ve read anything about poltergeists, you know that they don’t make clowns come alive, nor trees, nor drag little girls into a television and keep her in another dimension. While disturbing AND scary upon watching it, (I mean, the guy pulling the skin off of his face and the crawling meat with the maggots popping out of it? Urgh!) it was just a hot mess of anything that could and would freak you out. Plus, we all know now that building anything on top of an ancient burial ground, let alone a moved Native American one, is very disrespectful. Back when the movie was released, I think this was news to everyone. Plus, the skeletons they used at the end were actual real human skeletons. Apparently, they were cheaper to acquire than prop skeletons. The 80’s were a wild time, man.

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Ta-daa! That was my list of what I thought were some of the most overrated horror movies ever. But this was just one weird girl’s opinion! I know some of you probably thought some (or all!) of the movies on my favorite horror movies to watch for Halloween were overrated (read my latest here!), so I want to know what you thought of this list. Did you agree or disagree with what I thought of these movies? Let me know in the comments! (But please be nice. We're all horror fans and are allowed to have our own opinions!)

Stay Weird!