10 Critically Reviled Horror Movies (That Weren't Actually That Bad)

Okay so this entry is sort of cheating, since this film isn’t strictly speaking a “good horror film”. But the 1999 adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s seminal horror novel The Haunting of Hill House is absolutely better than critics gave it credit for upon release—you just need to consider its merits as a comedy.

Jackson’s novel had been adapted as a horror masterpiece before in the form of Robert Wise’s 1963 classic The Haunting, and the same source material would go on to be (very, very loosely) adapted as another masterpiece in the form of Netflix’s 208 Mike Flanagan series The Haunting of Hill House.

With that out of the way, it must be noted that of all these versions, only Jan deBont’s 1999 The Haunting features an over-the-top vampy performance from Catherine Zeta-Jones, more “wow”s per minute than any intentionally comedic Owen Wilson performance, some hysterically dated CGI, and a decapitation scene so funny it’s worthy of the Scary Movie series.

The film manages the ignoble feat of being a funnier watch than the second instalment of the Wayan Bros’ parody franchise, which was intended to satirize this bizarre, unintentionally hilarious flick.