10 Wildly Popular Films That Are Actually Rubbish

2 years before this would-be Hitchcockian thriller reached multiplexes, Gus Van Sant’s ill-starred Psycho remake went down in flames at the box office, apparently proving that audiences were no longer interested in Hitch’s back catalogue. Not only did What Lies Beneath defy the odds but with a $289 million worldwide gross, it was the 10th most successful film of 2000.

All of which must’ve led to a Hitchcock resurgence, right? No, because for everything director Robert Zemeckis plunders from The Master (particularly Rear Window), his movie is really a third-rate supernatural thriller that also steals from Ringu, The Sixth Sense and Richard Matheson’s Stir Of Echoes.

Unbeknownst to housewife Michelle Pfeiffer, hubby Harrison Ford has murdered a young girl whose ghost uses her to take revenge. If that story sounds familiar that’s because filmmakers were so enamoured of it that we saw variations on it in FearDotCom, Gothika, Dark Water, One Missed Call, Mirrors, Shutter and Unfriended.