5 Horror Movies I HATED But YOU LOVED!
Prepare the shield, I'm about to be flamed!
I already looked at movies I loved that you hated, now I think it’s only fair that I check out a list of movies you LOVED that I utterly LOATHED.
The following movies are a combination of critic and fan favourites. I think there are a few titles on this list that are overwhelmingly loved by critics that horror fans dislike immensely, so I am not in the minority on them.
The scores for this are aggregated from Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb, TMDb and the Chinese movie website Douban, as well as horror movie forums off Reddit, where the best of the best opinions can always be found.
Let’s get this disaster started!
US (2019)
93% Rotten Tomatoes, 6.8 IMDb, 81%: Metacritic, 70%: TMDb, 6.4: Douban
While the IMDb , TMDB and Douban scores paint a more accurate, if still over inflated, score for this film, its the ridiculously high Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic score that has me wondering if I watched the right film.
I suppose this movie, on the surface, has everything. A hot director, diverse cast and a topical social commentary about class and privilege. But boy-oh-boy is this a boring film.
Now before you get your pitchforks ready and tell me that I am the r-word, I thoroughly enjoyed Jordan Peele’s Nope, so I have no issues with the director or what he is trying to achieve in Hollywood, but I do have an issue with how people overreact to a piece of work that would be considered mediocre if directed by a majority of others.
Take this 4-star review from RogerEbert.com, the maximum score a movie can be awarded on that site. If the great man were still alive he would be turning in his grave reading this tripe, considering he was never a fan of horror:
Like “The Shining,” there are a number of different ways to interpret Jordan Peele’s excellent new horror movie, Us. Every image seems to be a clue for what’s about to happen or a stand-in for something outside the main story of a family in danger. Peele’s film, which he directed, wrote and produced, will likely reward audiences on multiple viewings, each visit revealing a new secret, showing you something you missed before in a new light. Monica Castillo
So, you compared this film to The Shining, and then said that repeated viewings of the film will reveal a new secret? No thanks, we didn’t need to keep watch The Shining to reveal new things. If I didn’t enjoy it the first time, I’m not going to keep watching it in the hopes it gets better.
If you get a chance, read the whole review. The gushing praise heaped upon the film and it’s director will have you reaching for a vomit bag.
But that’s not the only 100% or perfect score review. There are 5 more equally as gushing with their praise.
Us is a true genre flick, polished to a fine degree, a pure distillation of the essence of horror cinema. Cinevue
No, the essence of horror cinema is not to bore your audience and talk down to them like they are children.
This is an unforgettable dance with the devil. Chicago Suntimes
That’s a nope - I’d pretty much forgotten what most of this film was about.
A young family on a holiday find their peaceful time at their getaway location is interrupted by family of stalking home invaders - who look exactly like them! These doppelgangers want what they have, and will stop at nothing to get it.
However we find out that these aren’t the only doppelgangers, and soon enough they all want to rise from the hiding spot and take over the world… or at least the west coast of America.
On the surface, it’s a bloody great idea. The problem is that around the half way mark, maybe even earlier, you can work out what the twist of the film is. By the end it becomes more of a “wow that was it” rather than a “wow that was awesome”!
There’s no “The Usual Suspect” moment with this film, even though Peele really wanted there to be.
Reading professional reviews of films like this, its amazing to see the disconnect between the people who desperately want to be noticed by the Hollywood elite, and the rest of us who are told to pay to consume the end product.
But at least I know there are others out there who agree with me, like this awesome user review off IMDb:
Total nonsense and absolute garbage… 2 hours of tedious incomprehensible rubbish.
What the film is really about is stupid people such as idiot movie reviewers and certain movie goers being duped into believing they are viewing some kind of classic.....
......when in fact they are really being shown is a complete" make it up as it goes along" night of the dead gobbledegook.
Laughing all the way to the bank! IMDb User
Not even I could have been that harsh, but my sentiments exactly!
This article is available in video on my SHOCKMANIA YouTube Channel. Watch below:
TERRIFIER 2 (2022)
86% Rotten Tomatoes, 4.5 IMDb, 59% Metacritic, 68% TMDb, 5.8 Douban
Now this one is not quite a critic’s darling, and even the user scores are above average, but it’s the online horror community who really blew smoke up this film’s ass.
A movie for fans of unabashedly wild horror: the madness lasts almost two hours and twenty minutes and will not disappoint fans. Sensacine
Let me tell you a secret Mr Reviewer: 2 hours and 20 minutes was far too long for this film and I was disappointed.
In fact, I didn’t even make it to the end of the film. When the final scene approached, and the idiots were sitting in a car and talking, for what felt like 10 minutes, instead of going to kill or be killed Art, I tapped out and had had enough.
You’re at the end of the film. We want carnage, we want action. We don’t want to watch you sitting in a car talking.
Now I get it, this movie was a gore lovers paradise, and really played up to the torture porn horror genre, but at one stage it gets to a point where enough is enough and the utter violence inflicted on one of the characters says more about the writer, director and audience who enjoyed it than it should have.
For those who like scares, a memorable antagonist, and gore, it delivers on all fronts. Assignment X
What exactly was scary about the film? The runtime was the only thing that scared me, knowing that’s two hours I could have spent doing something else.
The plot revolves around a resurrected clown named Art who wants to kill a girl and her brother on Halloween. Except Art sees this little girl in the launderette but she’s a hallucination or something, I don’t know. I don’t care anymore.
This was one of the best movies I have ever seen and I completely recommend to all horror fans because it was a great movie and I wish I had seen this in theater but if you really do not like gore I do not recommend, but if you can handle it then I highly recommend plus the first movie was ok but this one was better and the villain in this movie, art the clown, is one of the most funniest villains I have seen but the movie is pretty gory so just be cautious when watching it and as I said I completely recommend this movie to every horror fan and anyone out there who wants to watch this movie, one of the best movies I've ever seen. IMDb User
Firstly, you need punctuation, secondly if you want a good horror movie set in a launderette, watch Bula from the Philippines.
I will admit there was some creativity here, such as scene on the TV set where everything starts to go a little insane, but there was not enough of that.
And gladly, I am not the only one who agrees.
It looks like one big amateur film. Like a bunch of kids decided to film a slasher movie but all they could find to use were CPR dummies, some cheap fake blood and plastic toy saws. IMDb User
Brutal, but I couldn’t have said it better myself. In the end, the movie was just plain shite.
NOROI: THE CURSE (2005)
74% (Audience) Rotten Tomatoes, 6.9 IMDb, N/A Metacritic, 69% TMDb, 7.2 Douban
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “I don’t know what this film is, how can I love it?” Well that just means you’re not part of the very obsessive online J-horror community that thinks this film, and the next one in this list, are the greatest horror movies ever made, ever. Did I mention ever? The greatest ever.
Hyperbole aside, the love this movie gets online is truly mindblowing. You’d think it was a life-changing experience if you’ve ever heard any obsessive fan of the film talk about.
Well, they don’t just talk about it, they force their opinion of this film down your throat and make you swallow it without a drink of water.
Take this banger off Reddit:
Hello everyone. I just started with all movies you've been recommended and… my first one was noroi: the curse, this might be funny for ppl who have been watched many J-horror movies but it really freaks the shit out of me, I've been watched some T-horror movies about curses and they were all scary, but this one really hits different it was honestly a masterpiece tho, Idk why some ppl in comments really found it boring, to be honest the movie was playing on my nervous by the time I was watching, thanks for all people who recommended this. (I gotta bad grammar lol) Reddit
You don’t just gotta bad grammar my friend, you gotta bad taste in movies too.
Now I admit, I was probably one of the people in the comments section who wrote that it was a boring film, but c’mon - the movie doesn’t have an ending.
Yes, that’s right. The movie doesn’t have an ending. It just ends. The reason? Well it’s because it’s supposed to be a documentary style found footage film, and thus the plot indicates that the director of said documentary ends up dead **Belated spoiler alert** before working out the mysteries of what he is investigating.
And what he is investigating is something called the “kagutaba” - an ancient demon who seems to connect a series of seemingly unrelated paranormal events.
The director then starts to notice some odd things are happening to him that could also be related to the kagutaba.
The mystery at the film's core is intriguing to watch unfold. At 115 minutes, the film is never boring and it doesn't feel too long. Big compliment, as hand-held horror typically works better when it's short and to the point. IMDb User
Oh My God! Which movie did you watch? I want to see that film.
One of the things that annoys me about the English title of the film is that if you translated the Japanese part into English, it would be called Curse: The Curse.
Another thing that fans of the movie will tell is that it is timeless. A classic that will always be relevant.
What do you think, Drift B?
Didnt age well quite a snoozefest.
Rotten Tomatoes
That’s a review from 2024, so if you’re sitting there thinking you might want to watch this because you agree with the positive reviews, you might need to reconsider your pending decision!
PULSE (2001)
76% Rotten Tomatoes, 6.5 IMDb, 68: Metacritic, 66% TMDb, 7.2 Douban
Talking about fanbases that force their opinions down your throat, if you thought the Noroi community was obsessive, then let me introduce you to the Pulse community.
These are all from the cesspool that is Reddit, take it away:
Kairo is a masterpiece. I watched it alone when it came out on DVD. Felt like my brain was bleeding from pure horror and trauma. Love it! Reddit
I watched Pulse a few years ago and it remains as the only horror film to scare me. I have watched around 300 horror films and I have yet to find one as scary as Pulse. The pure dread and terror that surrounds this film is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Reddit
Or this masterpiece which was actually a reply to a comment directed at me:
I wish I could understand the brain that doesn't find pulse to be an unsettling experience... I can understand thinking like, the pacing is bad, the dialog is bad, but not that it's not frightening. Reddit
Specifically, everyone who is unnaturally obsessed with this film will cite the following scene as the scariest scene ever in horror cinema. I just need to warn you beforehand on the horror you’re about to witness…
Yeah. That’s the scariest scene in horror cinema. A person walking in slow motion who hilariously trips over their high heels. It looks more like a blooper than something serious.
I’m going to say what a lot of people don’t dare to say out loud. Sometimes Japanese movies can be bloody boring, and this is one of those titles. It’s full of typically stoic characters who show very little emotion, and then ramp it up to 11 when they do show some, the movie has many scenes of awkward pause, which is supposed to allow you soak in the horror.
It allowed me time to flick through Reddit to find some more choice comments.
Probably the greatest film of the century. Something that it's undescribable (sic), the whole atmosphere of loneliness spreading through the city, the perception of being alone is the scariest feeling. Kurosawa never loses control of the film, he's much more interested in people than in ghosts. The way this film is paced is one of Kurosawa's greatest achievements… Reddit
What an endorsement! How could you not want to watch it? Oh that’s right, unless you value your time or don’t find a ghost tripping over its own high heels scary.
Did I mention the movie was almost 2 hours long? Part of that 2 hours involves watching a guy installing Internet Explorer on his 90’s PC, where in the background you can see a Playstation controller and wished he had picked that up and loaded up any game he owned instead.
Thankfully, I am not the only one who hates this film.
I trusted those glowing critic reviews. Two hours I'll never get back. Rotten Tomatoes
Bizarrely overrated, probably just because there is a bad Hollywood Remake. The original Pulse is weird, confusing, cheezy, and unbelievably boring. The acting and dialogue are awful, and only one scene is even mildly creepy. Rotten Tomatoes
On paper, I really should like this movie: a horror without jump scares… I am flabbergasted by how well-received it is. This is not the "thinking man's horror" that everyone makes it out to be. It's endlessly boring, full of filler, has a cheesy and goofy soundtrack, poorly acted and edited, and has a hamfisted "message" crammed into the final act. Finally, this doesn't really make the movie any worse than it already is, but no aspect of it is scary. Not wanting to use jump scares is a good thing, but nothing in the movie has any impact, it just feels flat. Rotten Tomatoes
Or as I like to say, it’s just a bit shit. No, it’s a lot shit.
CANDYMAN (2021)
84% Rotten Tomatoes, 5.9 IMDb, 72 Metacritic, 60% TMDb, 5.4 Douban
This final title I am not going to dwell too much one, but in my opinion this is a great example of making a movie where squeezing in social commentary and issues-of-the-day messaging is more important than making a good film.
2021’s Candyman will probably be remembered more for race-changing the main character than any sense of horror. Out goes the scared white girl, in comes the interracial queer couple.
For what purpose?
This Candyman title, marketed as a direct sequel to the 1992 original, was lauded for its social commentary: from police brutality to gentrification. We were all supposed to gush over these themes and ignore the fact there wasn’t really a movie here.
Of course, there are people who “loved” it, and I deliberately use those quotation marks:
Nia DaCosta’s slow-burn sequel makes Candyman feel vital, both building on and course-correcting the movies in the series that came before it. IGN via Metacritic
This is horror with grandeur, a movie that pays homage to history and feels so of-the-moment as to seem fresh out of the lab...Candyman, the glossiest horror movie in ages, isn’t just horror. It’s horror that reaches for the Latin in that MGM (which produced the original film and gets co-credit here) logo we see in the opening credits — “Ars gratia artis,” “art for art’s sake.” Roger Moore via Metacritic
Oh wait, the praise gets worse.
Nia DaCosta does a fabulous job at modernising Candyman; the gore, violent sequences, and general atmosphere are almost suffocating. The Digital Fix
Suffocating huh? The only thing suffocating is me reading all the bullshit, like this:
What so easily could have been a bland sequel that is simply trying to make a quick buck on an established character is instead a motivated and inspired final product that is truly one of the best films of the year. ButteredPopcorn
Slow down champ, it’s just a movie.
I can admit there are times when the movie does feel creepy, but that’s got more to do with the Hollywood machine of being able to make glitzy, creepy moments rather than anything really genuine. I can find creepy moments in the movie Night Swim even thought that was complete and utter horseshit.
But thankfully I am not the only one who feels this way about the film. A BuzzFeed review, of all sites imaginable, wrote this about it:
Viewers of the new Candyman movie get overblown discourse instead of genuine horror. BuzzFeed News
I thought that was the whole point of the film. Discourse first, horror maybe second. Or third. Or somewhere in the pile
So that’s my list of movies I hated that some of you might have really loved. I am sorry if you did - just kidding! We all have different tastes and opinions, and most of the time mine are wrong!
What did you think of them? Are there any titles there you also hated? Or what are some titles that you know you hated that other people can’t stop talking about? Leave me a comment below with your answer.