20 Recent Horror Movies EVERYONE Knew Would Suck

And finally, there's no single stronger indication of a film being absolutely terrible than the fearful words "not screened for critics."

If the studio won't show a film to the press before release day, then it's damn-near guaranteed that a dud is on the horizon, as of course turned out to be the case with last year's AI-centric horror AfrAId.

Even with the talented Chris Weitz (About a Boy) serving as writer-director, with a strong cast including John Cho, Katherine Waterston, David Dastmalchian, and Keith Carradine, everything in the film's trailers made this look like a breezy paycheck gig for all involved.

Beyond this, there's the suspiciously short 84-minute runtime, possibly indicating a movie cut to within an inch of its life during post-production, and the simple fact that studio Blumhouse was on a cold streak of terrible releases at the time.

Despite its timely premise, AfrAId failed to do anything interesting with it, squandering a top-drawer cast in the process. Even with Blumhouse's low-budget production model allowing even their worst films to turn a profit, AfrAID is a rare example of one that also tanked commercially, confirming how it failed to appeal to even the most undemanding of genre fans.