These 10 Horror Movies Are Hard To Watch — and Not in the Good Way
More than any other genre of filmmaking, horror has a completely different set of rules and expectations when it comes to appealing to audiences, due to the goal of scaring the audience over strictly entertaining them. The steps towards making a great, intelligent horror movie are different from those of making an intelligent film in another genre, with the genre’s inherent strengths requiring a different approach from other films. Many flaws that would drastically affect other films, like lackluster effects or a formulaic story, can often be overlooked in a horror movie if it accomplishes its goal of having a scary good time.
However, this conversely means that horror films can manage to fail and not live up to standards of intelligence distinctly differently from other genres. A horror movie that is unable to scare or even shock the audience can prove to be one of the most painful and uninteresting cinematic experiences imaginable. Without effective scares, the many flaws and idiotic choices that would otherwise be overlooked are now on full display, making these horror films appear even dumber than they would otherwise.
10
‘Cell’ (2016)
Directed by Tod Williams
Few authors have laid claim to as many legendary horror stories as Stephen King, whose work has been adapted a multitude of times into some of the most acclaimed horror movies of all time. However, no writer is perfect with their work, with the sci-fi horror film Cell easily standing out as one of the worst adaptations of King’s works. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where large chunks of humanity have been turned into crazed monsters due to a frequency sent out on cell phone networks worldwide.
While there is certainly potential in an apocalypse story so directly tied to technological dependency, Cell‘s goes well below even surface-level engagement with the concept to be the most generic and underwhelming apocalypse film imaginable. The scares are at an absolute minimum throughout the film, as the overarching feeling from audiences is one of confusion and boredom instead of heightened fear.
9
‘Alone in the Dark’ (2005)
Directed by Uwe Boll
While the original Alone in the Dark videogame was a pioneer for what subtle and insightful horror video cames could be, Uwe Boll‘s notorious film adaptation completely goes against the strengths of the franchise. The film follows Edward Carnby (Christian Slater), a private investigator who specializes in the research of supernatural phenomena and ghostly apparitions. His research and cases find him delving into the deepest and darkest corners of the world, fighting off the occult and finding himself in all sorts of danger.
Whatever subtlety and nuance that was present in the original videogame is completely removed in Boll’s bastardization of the series, instead turning it into a sleazy, generic horror action film. The characters are deeply unlikable and uninteresting, the special effects are laughably bad, and the film has neither effective action nor scares to speak of. It serves as one of many painful adaptations that Boll has created over the years, yet it’s especially egregious due to the critically acclaimed highs of the original game.
8
‘Subservience’ (2024)
Directed by SK Dale
With the ever-rising usage of artificial intelligence in daily life, it only makes sense that horror films would find a way to provide a killer spin on the latest trends in technology. However, while films like M3GAN were able to find success and campy fun with the concept, Subservience is about as brainless and ineffective as a sci-fi horror movie can get. The film stars Megan Fox as an AI cyborg companion who becomes a part of the household to take over motherly duties while the mom is in the hospital, though she slowly gets bloodthirsty as she fights to keep her role as mother forever.
Subservience has little to actually say about the rising threat of artificial intelligence and technology as a part of daily life, but instead uses the premise as an excuse to make Megan Fox an alluring yet deadly robotic sex icon. Combined with an array of unlikable characters and some especially bad pacing, the film quickly becomes a test of patience as it grows more and more tedious to get through.
7
‘The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)’ (2015)
Directed by Tom Six
Few horror franchises are as distinctly infamous for their disturbing concepts and visceral depictions of torture as The Human Centipede series, with their sickening premises giving the films an array of controversy. While arguments can be made for the strengths of the original film, any and all positives are completely missing from The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence). The film sees a sadistic prison warden taking inspiration from the previous films in the series, deciding to create a 500-person human centipede as a solution to chaos and overpopulation in his prison.
Any semblance of artistic weight or restraint that was present in the original film has been completely removed by this final entry in the trilogy, which serves to show shocking and disturbing content for no other reason than to elicit a reaction. The film constantly goes past the line of respectability with its approach to the concept, with the film as a whole feeling like it’s actively taunting and belittling the very audience that is watching it.
6
‘The Bye Bye Man’ (2017)
Directed by Stacy Title
Many underestimate just how important a title and name can make in the world of horror, as if a monster’s name doesn’t live up to its imposing or frightening premise, the entire film experience can fall apart. Nowhere is this more prominent than with the unintentionally hilariously named The Bye Bye Man, which sees the titular supernatural entity taking vengeance against any and all that learn of his name. Maybe the ineffectiveness of the name wouldn’t be nearly as impactful if it weren’t for the film’s plot, placing his name on a pedestal as the prominent component for summoning him.
It goes without saying that The Bye Bye Man doesn’t sound like a scary supernatural figure that will destroy anyone who speaks his name, but instead a goofy kids’ show mascot that teaches toddlers how to say goodbye. The film surrounding him doesn’t help matters in terms of his presence and fear factor, as stilted pacing and array of dumb characters make the entire character out to be a sad joke. As far as so-bad-it’s-good horror in the modern era is concerned, it’s difficult to find many films more infamous and iconic than The Bye Bye Man.
5
‘Night Swim’ (2024)
Directed by Bryce McGuire
Ever since the early days of horror filmmaking, there have been attempts to find horror and suspense out of what were previously unassuming and non-scary places, with new films always wanting to do what Jaws did for the ocean or Psycho did for showers. However, no amount of positioning or cheap scares was ever going to make people afraid of swimming pools, despite the best efforts of Night Swim. The hilariously ridiculous plot of the film follows a backyard swimming pool that is home to a malevolent force that is willing to kill anyone and everyone in order to get what it wants.
Movies where an objectively goofy thing is made the source of horror and death are far from original, with many of these films even finding success in the campiness and fun of their concepts. However, it’s the combination of Night Swim taking the gravitas and weight of its killer swimming pool so seriously with the fact that barely anyone actually dies in the film makes it an exceptionally moronic experience.
4
‘Black Christmas’ (2019)
Directed by Sophia Takal
An undeniable facet of modern filmmaking has become the inevitable remakes of classic pillars of filmmaking, with horror having its own array of high-profile remakes such as Robert Eggers‘s Nosferatu and Luca Guadagino‘s Suspiria. However, remakes always invite a style of direct comparison with the original film, so if a film doesn’t live up to the high standards of the original, it can be rife with vitriol and persecution. As far as unwatchable remakes in the world of horror are concerned, few have been more widely hated than the 2019 remake of the holiday slasher classic, Black Christmas.
A large portion of the issues surrounding the Black Christmas remake are its surface-level, yet non-stop exploration of social issues like misogyny, as it tackles these concepts with no subtlety or nuance whatsoever. This is especially a painful case considering the fact that the original Black Christmas is one of the most timeless and effective horror films when it comes to female empowerment and messaging. It further makes things worse that everything in the film is a strict downgrade to both the 1974 original and the previous remake from 2006.
- Release Date
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December 13, 2019
- Runtime
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92 Minutes
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Lily Donoghue
Kris Waterson
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Brittany O’Grady
Marty Coolidge
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Brittany O’Grady
Jesse Bolton-Sinclair
3
‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ (2023)
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield
One of the most dominating trends that has defined low-budget horror of recent years has been the usage of iconic characters who have just entered the public domain as twisted sadistic horror killers. This trend has largely resulted in some of the laziest and most ineffective horror movies of the modern era, yet the film that started the trend, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, proves to be one of the worst of them all. The film sees the lovable children’s characters of Pooh and Piglet going on a bloodthirsty revenge after having been abandoned by Christopher Robin.
While the film possibly could have been a fun time if it leaned into the inherent goofiness of children’s characters being vicious killers, the film’s execution is surprisingly basic and boring. It feels as if it has no ideas as to how to actually utilize the characters of Pooh and Piglet, only using them for their name recognition instead of telling a compelling story. It also doesn’t help that the film’s lighting is so bad that it’s difficult to tell what is even happening the majority of the time.
2
‘Slender Man’ (2018)
Directed by Sylvain White
While the character has largely been forgotten in the modern era of internet horror, the folklore tales of Slender Man were fundamental in showing just how successful and powerful horror tailor-made for the internet ecosystem could be. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood got their hands on the character for a film adaptation, yet the Slender Man film wound up disappointing at even the lowest of expectations as one of the worst-written horror movies of all time.
Through its main characters being generic and uninteresting, a complete lack of Slender Man himself until the final act, and an overall neutering of the film with its PG-13 rating, Slender Man blunders in nearly every conceivable way. Considering just how much of the original stories were based on subtlety and tension, the film’s brash and complete lack of pacing serves to be that much more distasteful to the character of Slender Man as a whole.
1
‘Frogs’ (1972)
Directed by George McCowan
It’s a fundamental rule in all of filmmaking, not just horror, to be able to deliver on the promises provided not even in all the marketing material, but the very title of the film itself. Very rarely does a film not adhere to its own title, yet Frogs is one of the rare exceptions that miraculously fails to deliver on its simple one-word title. The film follows the extended family of a disabled millionaire all gathering on his island estate before slowly but surely being taken down one by one in an act of revenge by the local swampy wildlife.
Frogs sees all sorts of different creatures taking their revenge on humanity and getting some goofy, nonsensical kills, from poisonous lizards to even butterflies finding a way to take down humans. However, the goofiest part of this unserious pro-nature horror film is its complete lack of the titular amphibian themselves. While the film shows many shots of what one would assume are frogs, all of these shots are actually of toads, with said toads not even getting a kill until the very end of the film.
