8 Horror Movies That Everyone Hates — Except Me

We’ve all been there. You’re sitting with friends, talking about movies you love, and you mention a great flick, and everyone else groans. Then you feel like slime and question your own judgment. Well, I’m here to tell you — we’re not taking it anymore! Yes, there are horror films where I’m the only one in existence who loves them — and that’s okay. If everyone else in the world is too blind to see the unheralded genius of my favorite movies, then they’ll have to sleep at night knowing they’ll never experience the joy and bliss that I have had. But I feel it’s my God-given mission to at least spread the word of these films to those who may never have even given them a shot. There’s no need to thank me — it’s what I was put on this earth to do. So let’s get down to business, looking at some of the horror films that I love — even if no one else out there does.
Raising Cain (1992)
Okay, I’ll admit it — when I first saw this nasty/funny flick by Brian De Palma, starring John Lithgow in multiple roles and Lolita Davidovich as his unfaithful wife, I was not a fan. I found it derivative of his previous flicks, and just slightly odd. Upon watching it a second time, I realized that that’s the point — while it was advertised as a horror movie, it’s actually much more of a satire on De Palma himself, borrowing elements from previous films and bringing them to their ludicrous extremes. This is probably most obvious in a hilarious five-minute single unbroken tracking shot following Frances Sternhagen walking through a police station that, for no apparent reason, looks like a luxurious shopping mall. And yet, even on a thriller level, the film does work wonders, thanks to Davidovich putting in a whopper of a performance that actually has you generating considerable sympathy for an unpleasant character. On top of all that — you get Gabrielle Carteris — that’s right, gang, Andrea “I’m 30 playing 16″ Zuckerman from the original 90210 – playing a slutty babysitter who spends too much time hanging out by public restrooms. This film is genius. Genius, I tells ya!

Wes Craven Presents “They” (2002)
No big shock, but really Wes Craven had little to do with this film other than “presenting” it (he didn’t write, produce, or direct it). But who cares who did it? It got some pretty nasty reviews when it came out, but I suspect people were thinking it would be something other than what it was. To me, it’s one of the genre’s most overlooked recent flicks. It’s so dark, and so grim that I am shocked it got released by a Hollywood studio. It’s rare to get a film that doesn’t focus on how a character can beat the main source of evil, but rather just focus on surviving. Yes, it has a slow middle section, but the opening segment and especially the last 20 minutes are honestly disturbing and unexpected, at least from a horror film aimed at the masses. I’ve never forgotten how I felt upon first seeing it when the lights came up. For the majority of horror films that get released, it’s often hard to remember what they were called, let alone anything else. Pop in the DVD, turn off the lights, and watch it. Then come back and let me know what you think.
Halloween III: The Season of the Witch (1982)
And now we come to what will be the most blasphemous sentence of this blog post: Halloween III is the best entry in the long-running series, including the original. That’s right — I said it. Now, granted, it has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other films in the series. No Michael Myers. No serial killer. It’s a crazy, wonky storyline featuring a businessman who makes Halloween masks that turn the wearer’s face to mush if they watch a particular TV advertisement while wearing the mask. There’s no way this film should work — and yet it totally does. It’s chilling, suspenseful, and so deliriously nuts that you buy into the preposterousness of it all. But to be fair, I was sold on the movie poster’s tag line. The first Halloween carried the tagline “The Night HE Came Home.” Halloween II used “More of the Night HE Came Home.” Halloween III’s tagline? “The Night No One Comes Home.” I know that everyone else considers this the red-headed stepchild of the series. For me, it’s the prodigal son. That’s right. I went there.
Seed of Chucky (2004)
Now, speaking of great taglines, if someone was going to get an Oscar for best tagline, Seed of Chucky would have it. Not one, not two, but three — count ‘em — three fantastic double-entendre-laced taglines used in promoting the film.
“Deliver us some evil.”
“Fear the second coming.”
“Get a load of Chucky.”
Best. Taglines. Ever.
What’s amazing is that the film itself is equally clever. Writer/director Don Mancini (who created the whole series) really went balls-to-the-wall crazy in this fifth installment, allowing Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif to completely cut loose even more than in the fun Bride of Chucky. The gender-bending comedy-horror is both laugh-out-loud funny and impressively gory, and surprisingly unpredictable. It’s easy to see why this one didn’t catch on as much as Bride did — it drops the slasher-film structure of the previous four films in favor of a wildly over-the-top soap-operaesque horror story. But it completely works, and even if you weren’t crazy about it the first time, give it a second shot.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Okay, I won’t pull a Halloween III here — New Nightmare is not a better film than the groundbreaking and genuinely terrifying original (remember when Freddy was evil, and not a comedian?) But Wes Craven really took a huge chance in New Nightmare, and it totally pays off (at least creatively, if not financially for the film’s producers).
Going meta long before Scream III did it, New Nightmare finds the actors (the actors themselves, not the parts they played) from the original Nightmare being haunted by the creation they brought to life. While Seed of Chucky used laughs for its reinvention, New Nightmare goes for the scares, and 90% of the time, it really works. Extremely well acted and directed, smartly written, and damn clever, New Nightmare is the perfect film for those who think the NOES series eventually became a mockery of itself. I may dreading the upcoming remake of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, but at least I’ll always have this to look fondly back on. An underrated gem.
Darkness (2002)
Man, this film got unjustly reamed by most genre folks and critics when it came out. But not by me. It does have a loose, somewhat aimless first half, but it all gels together by the end into a pitch-black film that makes some gutsy choices, and keeps you wondering just how it’s going to wrap up.
Written and directed by Jaume Balaguero (of [Rec] fame), Darkness may not be among the best horror films ever. But while many, many horror films start strong and then self-destruct, Darkness smartly goes out on an ultra-high note, getting better and better as it goes. Anna Paquin is wonderful, and it’s beautifully, creepily shot. I think it’s worth watching for anyone who digs atmospheric, ambitious horror films. And if that means that everyone else’s opinion on this film is wrong — well, that’s a burden I’m prepared to live with.
The Grudge 2 (2006)
The poor critical reception this one got really shocked me. Directed by Takashi Shimizu, who did the original Asian Ju-On “Grudge” movies, Grudge 2 is not a remake, but an original sequel to the U.S. remake of The Grudge. Got that? Grudge #1 — remake. Grudge #2 — not a remake, done by the guy who did the original Asian films.
What’s particularly amazing about Grudge 2 is that it’s the strongest storytelling of any of the Grudge films, Asian or American. The original Ju-On flicks and the Grudge #1 remake are essentially ghost serial killer flicks — not a ton of story, but picking off victims one by one in inventive, albeit supernatural, ways. Grudge 2, on the other hand, got very ambitious, playing with 3 alternating storylines told in 3 slightly different times, bringing it all together at the end. And it totally works. While I’ll grant that Grudge 2 is not quite the scariest of all the films — I think the theatrical version of Ju-On 2 is probably the most terrifying — I think Grudge 2 is still a damn freaky movie, and the tight storytelling elevates it a notch above the others. And come on — within 3 minutes of the film starting, Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance and “L” Word fame) smashes a guy’s head in with a frying pan! Are you really telling me that’s not worth $8 right there? Because it is. It so is.
Student Bodies (1981)
It’s been a long time since this spoof of slasher films came out, and yes, a lot of the jokes don’t hold up. But if you thought Scary Movie was hilarious, you oughta check out the people who did it first. The jokes are massively hit or miss, but there’s an unquestionable love here for the genre. And there’s a sheer level of bizarreness that is unexpected. The killer — or “The Breather” — gets most of the good lines (”I’d like to kill the kid with the gum”) but if this film has done nothing else — and maybe it hasn’t — it has established that horsehead bookends are an infinite source of levity. And the 2 minute “break” in the middle of the film remains one of the most surprising, laugh-out-loud moments of any ’80s comedy.
So let’s hear it. What films do you love that everyone else hates? Maybe you’ll find a kindred soul in me. Although I have to warn you – if the remake of The Fog is on your list, you’re on your own.

– Matt Schwartz