20 Horror Movies Nobody Expected To Be Good

There's nothing more important than making a good first impression. Especially within a genre as popular and heavily populated as horror, a trailer can tell audiences if a film is scary enough to be worth their time or if it can be skipped entirely. Just as buzz towards an upcoming release can generate excitement, a poor reputation and franchise fatigue can also have the opposite effect.

While there have been countless terrible horror films that have been as awful as their marketing suggested, with Tarot, Night Swim, and Imaginary being some recent examples, others have surpassed all expectations.

These have included unexpectedly excellent follow-ups to terrible movies or refreshing revivals of series that were thought to be long dead. Other filmmakers have also delighted moviegoers with premises that seemed like they wouldn't work in practice. It's surprises like these that continue to make horror so interesting. Not only are wonderful treats found in the most unlikely of places, but projects that audiences were sure would fail have gone on to be some of the most successful releases in recent years.

It goes to show that you shou

ldn't judge a book by its cover.

Michael Bay-produced horror Ouija was critically derided upon its release in 2014. It holds a measly 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, and film critic Jonathan Romney even mocked the idea of an inevitable sequel in his review for The Guardian, writing, "can you imagine queuing for 'Ouija 2: The Return of Doris'?"

That follow-up came two years later in the form of prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil. Despite the bad taste that its predecessor left in audiences' mouths, this film was unexpectedly excellent thanks to the visionary genius of genre icon Mike Flanagan.

Set in 1967, the picture centres on a family whose lives are thrown into chaos when Doris (Lulu Wilson), the young daughter and antagonist of the first movie, becomes possessed by a malevolent spirit after playing with a Ouija board. Not only did Flanagan inject some genuinely unsettling scares into this atmospheric feature, but he also utilised antique lenses and older filmmaking techniques to make the work feel authentic to its setting.

More importantly, the character-driven narrative at the core of the script gave Origin of Evil a surprising amount of heart and depth, placing it as one of the best horror sequels ever made.