10 Horror Movies That Just Aren’t Scary

6. Fright Night

It chapter 2
Columbia

Fright Night just isn’t a scary horror movie. And that statement applies for both the 1985 original film and the 2011 remake.

Both films promise vamp-ish villainy and a thrillride of blood ‘n’ guts that will have you on the edge of your seat. The problem is, the terror just isn’t there in either picture.

The redeeming feature of that ’85 offering, of course, is that it instead decides to yuck up the comedy and place its tongue firmly within its cheek. For the 2011 Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin-starrer, that’s far from the case.

Rather than just being not scary, the Fright Night remake is just a soulless, scareless do-over that spends far too much time on making its colour palette dark and gritty. The film’s core cast are largely great, and the kills are well done and never lacking on the bloodshed, but never once do you feel scared throughout the movie.

While both offerings – not to mention 1988’s Fright Night Part 2 – don’t ever get close to being scary, at least you can say that that first movie and its sequel never truly intended to be. For the serious and brooding remake, that was far from the case.

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.