10 Most Overrated Horror Films Of The Past 20 Years

The dirty little secret about salaried critics is that most of them look down on horror films, particularly the kind that feature rubber monsters, bikinied starlets and drooping microphones. Give them a 3 hour long ghost story from Laos, though, where “dramatic tension” is provided by a door that opens by itself, and they'll reach for their hyperboles faster than you can say, “inveterate culture snobs.”

For the critic, horror is always just a step above pornography, a genre that has no artistic merit and wallows in its own filth. Even John Carpenter’s Halloween, the movie that (for better or worse) changed the direction of the genre, was dismissed by Variety as “just another maniac-on-the-loose suspenser.”

So when critics choose to praise a horror film, that’s your cue to become very, very suspicious. Usually, it either means that the film is a “worthy” (boring) subtitled import or that the reviewer has never seen a genre film before and was swept away by the audience reaction. Or maybe they’re tired old hacks attempting to remain current by seeming “down” with the kids. You know how old people are.

In the era of Rotten Tomatoes, salaried critics are about as useful as a Polaroid camera, but still they lavish praise upon undeserving films. Here are 10 pictures they lined up to endorse.  

What The Critics Said: “Subtly expressive faces and spooky interiors are the order of the day in this original, powerful treat.” (BBC)

Why They’re Wrong: “What we need,” Sam Goldwyn once said, “are some brand new clichés.” There’s nothing startlingly original about this Japanese film, but the image of a long-haired female ghost, who’s using a videotape to haunt the living, provided hack filmmakers with enough clichés for the next decade.

Given its reputation, you’d expect more from the film than a rather ordinary story about a journalist whose investigation into a young girl’s death uncovers dark secrets in a small town (what is this, Hammer House Of Horror?) The characters are cold, the plotting is pedestrian and if you find the sight of a man with a towel on his head terrifying, you deserve all you get.