10 Horror Movies Hated By Critics But Audiences Loved

There's surely no movie genre which critics are more inherently biased against than horror.

So many horror films are released each year that you can't entirely blame reviewers for having little patience for generic, by-the-numbers slasher flicks, but at the same time, there are way too many great horror movies out there which were summarily eviscerated by the press upon original release.

And that's absolutely the case with these 10 horror movies, each of which found little love among critics of their era, yet were more fondly embraced by general audiences, especially in the years and decades that followed as they were re-discovered by new generations of horror fans.

All the same, the gulf between the critical and audience reception to these horror films is staggering, again confirming that horror is the most critic-proof of all genres, and that just because a horror movie gets panned upon release, that doesn't mean it won't find cult classic status a decade later.

None of these horror films were perfect - far from it, in fact - but they're all so much more entertaining than critics en masse ever dared to admit...

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 36%

Final Destination genuinely might boast one of the most brilliantly original concepts in all of horror - a group of teenagers narrowly cheat death by departing a soon-to-explode plane after one of them experiences a premonition, prompting Death itself to pick off those who escaped its clutches.

All the same, critics were resoundingly frosty in their assessment of the film, calling it stupid, badly acted, and comparing it derisively to TV shows like The Twilight Zone and The X-Files - a fitting critique given that screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick originally penned Final Destination as an X-Files script.

Despite this, audiences went gaga for the concept and the movie as a whole, which netted over $110 million globally against a mere $23 million budget, kickstarting a franchise which led to four commercially successful-yet-critically dubious sequels.

Almost 25 years (!) on from the original's release, though, it remains hugely popular as a campy, deliciously-premised supernatural slasher, enough that a sixth film is currently in development.