10 Horror Movies Test Audiences Loved (And Everyone Else Hated)
9. The Lawnmower Man
New Line Cinema really didn't know what the hell to do with The Lawnmower Man, a loose adaptation of Stephen King's 1975 short story of the same name.
After the movie was shot over the summer of 1991, the studio opted to test the effects-heavy $10 million production in a few key markets - namely Florida, Rhode Island, and California - in February 1992.
Response to these screenings was "strong," enough that it gave New Line the confidence to release the sci-fi horror film on 1,276 screens just three weeks later.
And to be fair to the studio, from a financial perspective it was absolutely the right call: The Lawnmower Man turned out to be a solid box office success, grossing $38 million globally.
But the general critical and audience response to the film was... not good. Today you'll struggle to find anyone who appreciates The Lawnmower Man as anything beyond an early '90s relic of VFX experimentation.
Stephen King even hated it enough to sue in order to have his name dissociated from it, though the film's success did lead to a sequel, Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, which was received with even more vitriol while tanking at the box office.