12 Unwatchable Horror Movies That Wasted Great Ideas

2007’s The Reaping features a killer spin on the “religious possession of an innocent kid” trope, reigniting the subgenre which features classics such as The Exorcist and The Omen amongst its best known offerings by coming up with this inventive spin—it’s not just that the kid is possessed, but the religious angle is played up this time around as her demonic encounters herald a string of terrifying, large scale Biblical plagues.

It’s a singularly terrifying idea which could have fused the large scale terror of disaster movies with more intimate possession horror—and the film fails completely to do anything of the sort, wasting an accomplished cast including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory scene-stealer Annasophia Robb and Oscar winner Hillary Swank with its unbearably slow and portentous execution.