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Poll: What are the most overrated horror movies?
What are the most overrated horror movies? Why do you think they are overrated?
Name them & shame them. You can vote for as many as you want.
Name them & shame them. You can vote for as many as you want.
What are the most overrated horror movies? 217 votes
The Ring
4%
![[Deleted User]](https://w2.vanillicon.com/v2/2280b8684980eec0684f822d0bc8ef16.svg)
9 votes
The Exorcist
7%
16 votes
Haute Tension
2%
5 votes
Psycho
1%
3 votes
A Nightmare On Elm Street
2%
6 votes
Let The Right One In
1%
4 votes
Saw
5%
![[Deleted User]](https://w4.vanillicon.com/v2/4d836726aa5a0d149739badcc1131bc6.svg)
13 votes
Hostel
7%
16 votes
Friday The 13th
4%
10 votes
The Blair Witch Project
16%
35 votes
Paranormal Activity
10%
23 votes
The Shining
3%
7 votes
Rosemary's Baby
1%
![[Deleted User]](https://w3.vanillicon.com/v2/3ceb610a111167097a6d20bec8283c28.svg)
3 votes
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2%
![[Deleted User]](https://w6.vanillicon.com/v2/6cb19629865d8dc9dc76141673be048d.svg)
6 votes
Suspiria
2%
6 votes
The Howling
3%
7 votes
The Cabin In The Woods
5%
12 votes
The Conjuring
3%
7 votes
Ginger Snaps
2%
6 votes
Insidious
5%
12 votes
Something else
5%
11 votes
0
Comments
You rightly include widely acclaimed films The Shining, Psycho, Rosemarys Baby, The Exorcist and Suspiria. All of these could be considered overrated by certain viewers. But id expect to see mainstays like Alien, Carrie, Halloween or The Thing in a poll. Or Romero's dead trilogy (which i personally think are overrated). Or older classics like Nosferatu, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula (Hammer version), Curse of the Cat People, etc.
For me personally, those early black and white horrors are overrated. Groundbreaking in their day and important in cinema history but they dont hold up against later classics like Alien simply because theyre not scary (although I did quite enjoy Bride of Frankenstein and Val Lewton's stuff). Alien was 30 years ago but still manages to terrify.
I really have no idea how it became so big. Slashers had already been around for years so it wasn't exactly new and the killings weren't any more gruesome than other films of the same era. Aside from that, the construction of the story is woeful and the script is shit.
There's literally nothing about it that deserves a place in a list of classic horror movies yet it seems to have shoehorned itself in there anyway.
All right. I'm going with The Cabin in the Woods. It's a Tarantinoseque bingo card of genre conventions, clichés, tributes and metafictional references. I still feel odd for being among the few who found it predictable and boring.
I voted Paranormal activity but it is definitely not the worst film out of the bunch
It's a pretty terrible film, I agree but the fact that it's been copied or parodied or paid homage to (eg Scream) so often says something about its influence. It had the same genre staples as the much better Halloween and between them they built the template: teens being stalked, silent killer in mask with dark back story and vengeance motive, obligatory sex scenes and tit shots, 'final girl' survives (virginal and resourceful), twist ending.
I did have genuine nightmares about Kevin Bacon getting knifed from under the bed though. Made my sister take the bottom bunk after that.
Friday the 13th is dire, but I'm not surprised it was popular at the time of its release, it rode the wave of Halloween's popularity. I don't think a lot of the teenagers and young adults back then (or now) were looking for a really good script or acting, they were looking for gore, sex and cheap thrills. I think the fact that the film was released in 1980 before the market became highly saturated with cheap, over-the-top, gory slasher/horror films has helped it keep its cult status. Plus it's one of the most profitable slasher films in history which has helped its legacy out over the years.
It was a combination of many things which made that movie so financially successful. Memorable elements were taken from movies Black Christmas, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. Then they used the setting and even murder set pieces from Bava movies. Lastly, it came only 14 months after Halloween hit big and was given a huge marketing campaign after Paramount picked it up.
A very entrepreneurial movie, what with its marketing, whodunnit story and open ending. Ironically, it is one of the weakest of the early 80's slasher movies. The sequels had not to live up to and were mostly total crap, yet they had somehow created this iconic horror series due to Crystal Lake, hockey mask, Jason etc. The endless sequels and that iconic factor has made many cinema goers somehow think the original was a masterpiece when it was actually forgettable trash. Hence how it found itself on great horror lists.
I seriously don't know why people rate his films so much. They look cheap and amateurish, with Argento's eye for arty surrealism a total distraction rather than an asset
It was awful.
Only Americans could think that it was real.:D:D:D
I mean everyone. Critics and us regular folk.
Mainly it's the way it looks.
So it's another nod for The Cabin in the Woods. A film designed to flatter the unawares into thinking they're in on something clever.
I only checked this thread to see comments like this one. CitW is a genius movie. I know each to their own but the number of people who say "it's a crap horror movie" - it's funny because that's exactly what it is, and is not!
At least as a homage to other movies it excels.
Same with Blair Witch. It was absolutely revolutionary when it came out and spawned entire genres. It's also extremely adept at creating something horrific with layer upon layer.
That said, sometimes you're just going to watch a movie and it's never going to appeal to you for a million reasons, and that's fine, too
Whether you like or hate a movie, at least try to see what the creators were doing. Watch some of these movies in the same brain-dead way as half the viewers on Orange Wednesday and you're never going to see the subtle nuances...
What the creators of CitW are doing surely couldn't be more obvious.
as it was; the film,needed a laugh track adding!
Especially near the start,when the sound of a lion roaring
came from the attic,and the handyman chap said something
like' Must be rats..I'll get a trap'!
Regards
Mark
Plus I also voted Haute Tension, as the twist felt way too cliched and has been done far better many other times.
*arched eyebrow* I never said I expected it to be a horror film nor did I say it was a 'crap horror movie'. I did see what the creators were trying to do, and it bored me. I've seen that kind of attempt before, especially in short films and graduate films. Wheldon and Goddard weren't the first to try turning a genre inside out and they won't be the last. In fact, it's a favourite with many directors and writers since the 1940s, especially Tarantino. Hence, my tongue-in-cheek mention of the Tarantinoseque bingo card.
Thanks for amusing me with your implication that I'm a brain-dead film goer, though.
When first released, it had many bad reviews, one said it was a blot on Hitchcock's career, one said it was just a gimmick film and another that it was a cheap TV show padded out. That was in the US, in Britain it was universally panned.
Of course it made a lot of money because the public paid to see it in large numbers. But you can not under rate or over rate the cash made, the money is just a number of an amount. So if you think that being a blot on his career, being just a gimmick and a cheap TV show padded out, is overrating it, what do you think of it?
OK I realise that you are just trolling and I am just falling for it, but in the hope that you decide to have a go, how is it overrated and who by?