10 Recent Horror Movies That Didn't Deserve To Bomb

Horror has consistently proven itself to be among the safest, most commercially reliable of all genres because, as other trends come and go, people always want to get scared to death in a safe space. But even with horror fans being such passionate cheerleaders, no matter the budget level, it's simple economics that not all movies can be hits, and it's especially crushing when a really solid horror flick fails to connect with audiences on the big screen.

With that in mind, the following 10 recent horror flops all deserved to do better on the basis of their quality, but as a wise man once said, deserve's got nothing to do with it.

There are so many factors beyond a film's quality that determine its box office performance, and that's certainly true of these films, which were undone by misjudged marketing campaigns, distributors without the funds to sufficiently sell the movie, or bold creative gambles which simply failed to hook the masses.

Whatever the reason, it's a damn shame that these bold and entertaining recent horror movies tanked at the box office, after which we can only hope they get a more fruitful second life on streaming.

Considering that 2022's killer bot movie M3GAN was a surprise hit, grossing a superb $181.8 million from a mere $12 million budget, it just didn't seem possible that the quickly greenlit sequel could fail. But on double the budget of its predecessor, M3GAN 2.0 topped out at a disastrous $39.1 million worldwide - barely 20% of the first film's haul, indicating a near-total rejection from those who paid to see the original.

This was largely attributed to director Gerard Johnstone's decision to shift the sequel away from campy horror into sci-fi action-comedy territory, while severely tamping down the horror elements that made the first film a viral hit. Audiences opted not to follow Johnstone down this rabbit hole, with producer Jason Blum later admitting that the filmmaking team "classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was" with the M3GAN character.

M3GAN 2.0 certainly isn't for everyone, but it's at least a bold, ambitious swing of a sequel that doesn't simply repeat the same movie all over again. But in doing so, it also alienated most people who dug the original, in turn ensuring that M3GAN 3.0 is incredibly unlikely at this point.