10 Horror Movies Loved By Critics But Hated By Audiences
Do these spine-tinglers deserve critical acclaim or bargain bins? See if you agree with the experts.
Horror movies are like heavy metal music: Both are loved by legions of loyal fans, but neither gets enough respect from the mainstream. Rather than critical review, it's the fans who are responsible for a horror film's popularity and demand in the market.
Saw, a wildly popular movie that arguably changed the genre, earned a meager 49% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Even absolute classics like John Carpenter's The Thing were originally panned by critics. Every now and then though, we enter Bizarro world. Sometimes a scary movie manages to sit better with critics than their target demographics. These tend to be headier films that try to surround the blood and guts with original, intriguing plots and sympathetic characters.
These movies, for better or worse, check many of the boxes for which critics are looking. Dedicated horror fans view these movies through a different lens. When "heady" bleeds into "pretentious" or, God forbid, "boooooring!", one is left with a pretty, shiny dud. These ten movies passed muster with the experts, but viewing audiences found them about as popular as a Michael Bolton cover of Enter Sandman.
10. The Blair Witch Project
Let's be honest: In hindsight, The Blair Witch Project was original. It wasn't, however, particularly scary. The hype for this was huge, which likely contributed to the disappointing 56% audience score. Critics showed up for the "found footage" pioneer, giving it a fresh 87%.
The Blair With Project tells the tale of three film students who've traveled to a small town to shoot a documentary about the Blair Witch, a murderous local legend. Much of the movie shows our protagonists interviewing townspeople and gathering clues about the legend. The project takes a hard turn once the students get lost in the woods and eventually discover a ramshackle, abandoned house.
Critic Lloyd Rose of the Washington Post wrote that The Blair Witch Project was "The scariest movie I've ever seen". The film does have ambience, and the disorientation of the cast as they foray deeper into oblivion is convincing. The ending, while not gory, is still unnerving.
Viewers weren't as convinced. The pace was a bit slow, and some of the tension-building scenes lacked payoff. As one viewer stated on Rotten Tomatoes, "So, this is what all the fuss was about. Yawn."