New Discussion: The Most Over-Rated Horror Flicks
Hey everyone. The last discussion was a great one!! If you missed it check it out here. I think between everyone who contributed to the discussion we all came up with a really solid list to convert anyone into a diehard horror fan. But you know I can’t let too many days pass by without posting a new discussion, so here it is:
What do you think are the most over-rated horror films of all times. Your picks can be from any year/decade and from any sub-genre. As always there are no rules here in this discussion; whatever horror flicks you think are over-rated then lets have it!! Once again I have a couple gems as my picks that I’ve kinda thought up off-the-cuff.
Read the tagline ... I don't think so.
My first pick is Danny Boyle’s 2002 flick 28 Days Later. I’ll tell you right off the bat that I am no fan of the Danny Boyle who makes genre flicks. Yes he’s only made two, maybe 3, genre flicks (1994′s Shallow Grave was arguably a psychological thriller), but I think they were both failures for different reasons. Boyles 2007 flick Sunshine is, simply put, a fucking mess. Its slow paced with pretty shallow characters and a final act that just completely falls apart. Completely!! There was nothing I enjoyed about Sunshine.
I think 28 Days Later is an over-rated flick for a few reasons: First; if I hear anyone else say that (for the time it came out) it was the best zombie flick ever … well I’m gonna start tearing out some throats. 28 Days Later is, in fact, NOT a zombie flick at all. The infected weren’t zombies; they were people with the rage centers of their brains working overtime. ”Zombies” are people bitten who die soon afterwards and then reanimate as a zombie. The infected people in 28 Days Later never in fact die. They are infected and immediately become full of rage — which is exactly how I felt watching this.
I needed more originality in this flick!!
Yes there were a couple pretty cool scary scenes in it and 2002 wasn’t exactly a stellar year for genre releases. But come on everyone, 28 Days Later just wasn’t that strong of a flick. I’m not gonna go into it in detail (this isn’t suppose to be a review), but 28 Days Later was a blatant rip-off of Romero … not just of one of his zombie flicks but all three; Night, Dawn, and Day of the Dead. This is in fact the second reason why I thought this was way over-rated: If you have a solid knowledge of Romero’s trilogy than you will be able to see how 28 Days Later rips off each of these movies. Its actually very shameless (the ‘heros’ even end up in a military-like compound run by a sadistic military guy who may as well have been called “Rhodes”). At the end of the day I was entertained with this movie, but the hype it got as being this amazing, groundbreaking flick that re-invented the zombie genre and was made by god himself was fucking ridiculous. That’s why I feel it was over-rated (I thought 28 Weeks Later was way better).
This whole flick left me feeling "Meh".
The second flick I feel is vastly over-rated is Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell. Whereas I admit that I like 28 Days Later (I just hate the hype that came with it), there really wasn’t anything that I enjoyed about Drag. It felt like Raimi ran outta tricks and just used Drag as a “best of” vehicle for his “big return” to horror. There was nothing, and I mean nothing, original going on in Drag. He essentially took all the best f/x and camera angles from his Evil Dead trilogy and crammed them all into Drag. And the framing story around all these done-before f/x was a really pathetic and trite plot. Actually; it just plain sucked. Everything about Drag Me to Hell, from the story to the f/x and camera work, has a “been-there-done-that” feel to it (there was even a scene where an eyeball got smashed outta someone’s head and flew across the room into another person’s mouth. Really?!!??). I think Mr. Raimi has spent too much time on his big budget Spidey flicks (which besides the 1st one pretty much suck) and forgot about how to construct an effective horror movie.
I’m sure I’m gonna get a lot of shit for my picks. If you don’t agree tell me the error of my ways. But I also wanna hear your picks for the most over-rated horror flicks!!
This one is a no brainer for me. “The Amityville Horror” (1979) and “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) are both bloated pieces of crap! When they both came out they got so much hype and were the “Go To” or “Can’t Miss” horror flicks of their day. They both got smothered in their own hype and are both very uninspiring efforts. I was bored watching both and glowing red house windows and bad handicam tricks are neither entertainment nor horror. But man what big hype surrounded these two in their day….amazing!
How the fuck could I forget “Blair Witch”?? Nice call Bill. I hated that flick and still get all the hype surrounding it. If for nothing else that shitty flick should be studied in every marketing program in every university in America. It was the marketing of that flick that made it so successful!! I remember sitting in the theater watching that, the entire time thinking to myself, “What the fuck am I watching; this is a piece of shit.” The funniest was as I was walking out of the theater 1 teen girl in front of me asked her friend, “Oh my god; do you think those people really died?” I couldn’t help myself and practically yelled at her, “Are you serious? They were hosting the fucking MTv awards next week … it was a moooo-vie.” Nice call on that one Bill.
And “The Amiityville Horror”. Blech. My parents saw that in the theater and were talking it up about how scary it was. When I finally saw it I was severely disappointed. The 1st thing I thought was that there was no way anything that I just saw up on that screen actually happened in real life. And the pacing, acting, and f/x were at best TV-movie quality. I agree; very over-rated!!
Both of your choices suck.
28 Days Later is a zombie film, al-be-it with no zombies. As with all zombie films the enemy is the survivors, not an instinct driven enemy (also how can you exclude these as zombie but include the rats on Mulberry Street?).
Drag Me To Hell is really good. Okay, you see where it’s going from a mile away but it’s a sterling example of the genre. Funny, gross, jumpy and camp where it needs to be. It’s an excellent piece of horror cinema and I’d be far more inclined to show it to people over
These aren’t horror but since we’re picking on Raimi, Spider-man 1 and 2 would fall into this catergory. 3 outright sucked which would lead onto the X-men films sucking but we’re getting too far off-track.
Blair Witch though I can agree with.
I seem to have posted before I finished my thought
*show it to people over the Saw series or various Japanese horror originals or remakes.
You’re crazy Zombie Command!! Especially being, I’m assuming, a connoisseur of zombie flix, how could you say 28 Days Later is a zombie flick?? Zombies and dead people who reanimate; the infected never died in 28 Days Later. Like I said in the review; I enjoyed the movie but just didn’t understand why it got so much hype and was called the best zombie flick ever. It just wasn’t. And surely you see what I’m talking about it being a shameless rip-off of the Romero trilogy!! Its not the rats from Mulberry Street that are zombies; they simply carry the virus. And I will proudly shout from the mountain tops that Mulberry Street is a better film than 28 Days Later!!
And I don’t get it about Drag Me to Hell. I didn’t think it was gory or scary. He used cheap tactics to scare the audience. If it wasn’t a Raimi flick I may not be so hard on it. But come on; Raimi helped define the modern horror flick so yes, I’m gonna hold him up to a higher standard.
Spidey 1 is awesome; I was completely bored during Spidey 2; and I was laughing out loud at how bad Spidey 3 was. I’m actually really happy that Spidey 4 is dead in the water.
I’m glad we can all agree on Blair Witch!! LOL
By the way; I totally forgot to list your website on the right hand side of the blog!! Sorry about that …. I’m gonna do it right now after I finish this answer.
28 Days Later is a zombie flick the same way Batman Returns and The Dark Knight are superhero movies.
As I said above, zombie movies share concepts which make them zombie movies. I also said that 28 Days Later didn’t actually contain any ‘zombies’.
Then again though where do you draw the line? Does your only definition of a zombie involve them dying and coming back to life?
Preparing for the zombocalypse involve preparing for anything that can reduce humanity to a primal, instinct driven creature. Returning from the dead would suspend natural laws, but a parasitic, viral, voodoo (by which I mean some sort of mind control), biological (along the lines of radioactive or genetically modified) zombie could happen.
I’m not sure but we may be splitting hairs here Zombie Command. I don’t think I have only one criteria for what makes a zombie flick a “zombie flick”, but yes; I do think that to be considered a zombie movie you need to have “creatures” who are undead and who “come back to life.” That’s pretty much the definition of a “zombie.” 28 Days Later was, for lack of a better term, an “infection flick”.
And I am isolating this discussion solely to movies. If we open this up and start talking about the inevitable zombie apocalypse then this is a much bigger discussion. I guess for zombie movies I’m rather “old-school”. I need to see dead people coming back alive (although I’m not a fan of the dead coming up outta their graves).
I like your comment that “28 Days Later is a zombie flick the same way Batman Returns and The Dark Knight are superhero movies.” But again, I wouldn’t call it a zombie flick. I know what you’re getting at with that statement, but why shouldn’t we hold up genre flicks to a high standard? Why shouldn’t we expect Batman Returns and The Dark Knight to be the standard kind of comic book/superhero movie? We deserve well-written, well-developed characters!! Nolan’s flicks really raised the bar.
Yes! I was – and remain – astounded that 28 Days Later was lavished with so much praise. Maybe it was the bandwagon effect – like Blair Witch, which unfortunately sucked me in with their marketing campaign. Like you, I actually enjoyed the movie but there was so much wrong with it. From the cop-out, feel-good ending (alternative one where he dies in the hospital is much better) to the varied plot holes, ridiculous decision-making and implausible parts. Irritating.
And that’s the main problem … the “lame” parts were fucking unbearable!! And the alt ending was waaaay better!!
I think 28 Days Later was so hyped because up to then there was very little out there from the genre that was good. People overreacted to it. I really didn’t like it at all!!
I don’t know if you’ve touched on this movie in the past but a p.a. movie that flew under the radar and was sorely underrated and underwatched is CARRIERS. Loved it!! Which is funny because there’s a lot less gore and I believe it’s only rated pg-13. Sure, I could nitpick a few nagging issues but I can’t recommend this one enough. Real fun ride!
I semi-agree with ya on Carriers. Definitely better than most Hollywood genre flicks that are released!!! It had good acting & a pretty decent story. My complaint was that when it was all said and done it felt like a TV movie and didn’t really have any scares. But I definitely recommend it. Nice call.
Hey all AnythingHorror fans …. you need to check out a new “friend of the blog”, Zombie Command. He has an awesome zombie-centric blog full of zombie reviews, zombie news, and zombie trailers!!! Check it out. Click on the link on the right side of the blog under “Friends of AnythingHorror.”
Enjoy … I do!!
This is a really hard topic for me to comment on. I feel like a lot of movies fit into this discussion. Most of my friends are so ready to jump on the hype wagon and I’m constantly having to defend good horror. Like when The Friday the 13th remake came out. The number of drunken arguments I had… And Saw?! Really? I cant even fathom why so many people are into that massive pile of shit franchise. I’ve way too many drinks to type any more. But this topic really gets me steamed. I hate how shitty movies get all the recognition and the good ones never get noticed.
Drunk or not Scumchrist I completely agree that the entire Saw franchise is very overrated!! I admit that I did enjoy the first Saw movie; and why not? At the time it was a rather original (if not predictable) idea that was pretty well executed. But every Saw movie after the 1st one felt like the same thing over and over again. I haven’t seen the last 2 Saw flicks (what are they up too, Saw 34??) but I guarantee I could recite the entire plot from opening to closing credits. That’s a worn out franchise!!
And don’t get me started on the Friday the 13th remake. The Day of the Dead is still the worst remake in my mind, but the Friday the 13th remake and what they did to the character of Jason is fucking despicable!! And yes, they are indeed making a new Friday the 13th, Pt.2. BLECH!!!
Its not so much that these remakes all suck balls, but like you said Scumchrist; they take attention away from the really quality horror movies that are being made and released. Nice observation!!
Wow, this is a hard one for me. There’s so many that are ridiculously overhyped here lately. I guess the main one for me would have to be (I’m prepared for the shit storm) Halloween. I feel Rob Zombie totally raped the characters of Michael Meyers, Laurie Strode and even Dr. Loomis.
I get it that it’s a remake but I expect even a remake to somewhat resemble the film it’s remaking. If not, then it should just be deemed an entirely new movie.
I do agree with the new Friday the 13th fim but I didn’t dislike it as much as Halloween.
I dunno, Hollywood is depressing me lately. LOL.
There’s definitely not a whole lot of good projects coming out of Hollywood later; that for sure!!
I liked the 1st Halloween remake even though I thought the scenes in the institution took away from the film. I knew what Zombie was trying to do; it just kinda misfired. But I really enjoyed Zombie’s Halloween 2. You should check out my review; love to hear what you think of it!!
I agree–it was NOT a zombie flick. I’ve never thought to classify it as one. It felt as if they didn’t know where the movie was going as they were making it. They just kind of said, “let’s put them in this reinforced fort near the end and change the whole theme of the movie and go off on a tangent…” I didn’t want “Drag me to Hell” because I thought the effects lookd ridiculous, even if it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. I would add “Paranormal Activity” which was the most miserable thing EVER!
Paranormal Activity…. DEFINITELY. I’m still trying to figure out why that movie got such hype!! Big blah!!!