The New Mutants Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs
6. It's Full Of Cliched Horror Set-Pieces
By far the most enticing aspect of the entire movie was Boone's attempt to deliver a superhero horror movie, yet ultimately the film's approach to scares is completely un-creative and cliched.
Even ignoring the restrictions of the film's PG-13 rating, The New Mutants largely offers up the sort of jump scare-assisted "spooky" set-pieces we've all seen in literally dozens of horror films.
The most obvious influence is clearly 2017's It, with the movie's focal characters being haunted by representations of their greatest fears, all of which lack the grotesque, haunting quality of that film.
There's no inventiveness or atmosphere to the horror elements, relying on old-hat scares like Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams) being attacked in the shower by a vision of a Catholic priest.
Considering how tepid and lame these aspects of the movie are, it's little surprise that Fox initially delayed the film so Boone could amp up the horror during reshoots.