10 Horror Movies That Just Aren’t Scary

7. Pet Sematary

It chapter 2
Paramount Pictures

1989’s Pet Sematary is a movie that’s focussed on dealing with the loss of a loved one. In amongst the runtime of that Mary Lambert-directed picture, however, were some fantastic, jarring scares that were used at the exact right moments. For this year’s Pet Sematary remake, mind, things were very different.

Sadly, the 2019 take on Stephen King’s beloved novel struggled with its identity. But one thing the film most certainly was not, was a scary horror movie.

This most recent take on King’s source material lacked the heart of said source material and of that ’89 offering, yet there was still hope that the film might at least offer some gruesome goodness for horror hounds.

Unfortunately, despite a heavy marketing campaign indicating so, and the movie itself seeming to think of itself as scary, the end result was a dour, disappointing dud that struggled to generate even the most minimal of shrieks from audiences.

As the famous tagline of Pet Sematary reads "sometimes dead is better". And for this remake, there was no reason whatsoever to bring the property back to life.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.