10 Overhyped Horror Movies You Wish You'd Not Watched

Hailed as a return to old-school moviemaking sensibilities, Andy Muschietti’s Mama was championed by fans, and yet when it boils down to it the supernatural horror is just a rehash, rather than a reinvention, of old images and tropes.

Sisters Lily (Isabelle Nélisse) and Victoria (Megan Charpentier) disappear into the woods on the day of their parents’ death, and despite a desperate search by their uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annie (Jessica Chastain), they seem to be gone for good.

Nevertheless, five years later, the girls are found in a remote cabin, with Lucas and Annie rushing to adopt them. And they all lived happily ever after. Or they would, if the mystery of who sustained them all these years didn’t hang over the family’s heads and come crawling out of the shadows to find them.

As evidenced by its premise, the film is creepy enough, but there’s not much more to it. The titular ghoul is good for some jump scares (whose presence seem to deny the “old-school moviemaking” claim), but her background - mentally ill mother comes back to haunt the living – feels worn out on arrival. No doubt the name association of Guillermo del Toro as executive producer boosted this one in the public consciousness, but it just doesn’t stand up.