10 Terrible Horror Movies With Amazing Concepts
When great ideas happen to awful horror movies.
The horror genre is so wildly oversaturated that it's simply impossible for every potential-rich movie to deliver on its promises, but it nevertheless really stings when a truly great concept gets squandered on an atrocious end result.
That's sadly the case with each of these 10 horror flicks, where it's easy to appreciate why they got the executive greenlight given the imagination and intrigue of their logline. However, when it came to writing a compelling script, stocking the cast with talented actors, and actually shooting the thing worth a damn, they all fell down hard.
From low-budget horrors punching well above their weight to splashy studio offerings, these horror films all took their brilliant ideas and squandered them amid a godawful execution.
In fact, inspired by this recent Reddit thread on the subject, there's a fair argument to be made that each of these horror flicks deserves to be remade by someone with a better idea of how their robust core concept could translate into tantalising genre thrills.
Until then, they remain monuments to failed potential - or perhaps, examples of how damn hard it is to make a good horror movie...
10. The Bye Bye Man
If you can forgive The Bye Bye Man's laughably infantile title, it's actually got a pretty damn neat premise at its core - the titular supernatural antagonist gains power from the mere act of people either knowing or saying his name, in turn allowing his influence to spread.
With better execution this could've basically become a new generation's version of A Nightmare on Elm Street, but instead audiences are forced to suffer through a script rife with unintentional comedy, including the now-infamous one-liner, "What do you think I am, a flashlight?"
As for the Bye Bye Man himself, he looks more silly than scary - in turn wasting the brilliant Doug Jones in the role - and his CGI dog-thing-companion doesn't much help either.
Throw in how egregiously the film offers nothing to the likes of Carrie-Anne Moss and Faye Dunaway, and you're left with a flavourless stew of a horror flick which squandered its considerable potential within the first few minutes and never recovered.