20 Horror Movies So Good You Overlook Huge Flaws

14. Kwaidan - The Underwhelming Final Segment

Horror anthologies are usually too uneven to wholly recommend, so Kwaidan is a definite rarity. It helps that it was the product of one director - that being Masaki Kobayashi - and this way, it was a far more consistent work than many horror movies of its ilk. With Kwaidan, Kobayashi adapts several folkloric tales from Japan and blesses these rich stories with some of the most beautiful visuals ever seen in a horror film. 

Those coming for scares will be disappointed; this one is all about the vibes, the visuals, and the story. The result is a horror picture unlike any other, and one that's relentlessly compelling and involving... until the very last section, that is. 

The first three stories are awesome, but then we get this rushed and pointless fourth section, In a Cup of Tea, which involves ghostly faces appearing in a writer's tea. It's far shorter and weaker than the earlier reels, so much so that one wonders why it was even included. Even more inexplicably, there was a shortened edition of Kwaidan for the original American release, but they didn't cut In a Cup of Tea; they cut the second section, The Woman of the Snow, which is a cracking piece of work. 

Nevertheless, In a Cup of Tea only comes at the very end, and it's brief enough to do no significant harm to what is absolutely one of the best horror anthologies ever made.