12 Awful 2015 Horror Movies To Avoid This Halloween

10. Poltergeist

Tobe Hooper's 1982 horror classic wasn't exactly on a list of films from the genre that desperately needed to be remade, and so it's not much of a surprise that this take, though well-directed and solidly performed, feels completely pointless from start to finish. Almost everything memorable about the original is done in an inferior way here, so what's the point? The PG-13 horror flick is always a risky proposition (though remember the original was just a PG when it came out), and that's the problem: 2015's Poltergeist just feels so tame, as if it doesn't want to scare anyone too much. Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt and Jared Harris try hard, but they're subject to a script which indulges far too much in pointless family subplots, while failing to quicken the pulse for even a moment of its screen time, save perhaps for some obnoxious jump scares. The only people this film will really satisfy are a) people who don't really enjoy "proper" horror films because they're too scary and b) young kids who have never heard of let alone seen the original. You probably already know this, but yes, avoid it.