10 Horror Movies That Just Aren’t Scary

2. Prince Of Darkness

It chapter 2
Universal Pictures

John Carpenter is rightly known as The Horror Master amongst film fans, and Carpenter is one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, period, let alone in the horror genre.

With horror classics such as Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, and Christine already to his name by that point in time, 1987 saw JC bring Prince of Darkness to the silver screen. Headlined by the iconic Donald Pleasence, Prince of Darkness put a new spin of the idea of Satan, as this most sinister of figures was reimagined as a liquid being waiting to be unleashed on the world.

The film has an interesting premise that puts a different skew on Satan, there are a good amount of tense moments throughout, and there are some ghoulishly fun practical effects on display. It's just that the film itself plays out in such a way that no major scares present themselves, and a slower, more signposted narrative is on offer in Prince of Darkness.

There's no disputing John Carpenter's place as a special talent who is a horror great, but this 1987 movie doesn't drum up the same petrified reaction as so many of his other horror outings.

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.