10 Horror Movies That Just Aren’t Scary

4. Child's Play

It chapter 2
United Artists

In Chucky, audiences have undoubtedly got an icon of modern horror cinema, yet can you honestly say that any of the Child’s Play movies are scary.

We all love the nefarious Good Guy Doll, but the Child’s Play series has rarely even touched upon being full-on terror. Sure, the cheese factor was played up hugely by the time that Curse of Chucky and Bride of Chucky came around, although even the first outing for the franchise back in 1988 wasn’t exactly brimming with scares.

At best, that first Child’s Play was creepy, yet it was never all that scary. The tone of the movies clearly got gradually more light-hearted as the series progressed, but that initial offering was pegged as an outright horror effort.

Unfortunately, any horror hound worth their salt was not, and is not, tormented in their nightmares by Chucky. To be fair to franchise creator and longtime writer Don Mancini, he was quick to realise Chucky has more potential as a wise-quipping antihero sort of villain, rather than an all-out monstrous bad guy who inspires pure dread.

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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.