Editorials
‘F’ This! – The Most Hated Films in Horror
Recently Darren Aronofsky’s mother! was slapped with an extremely rare “F” CinemaScore from audiences. Despite the film’s initial marketing, mother! is anything but a typical Satanic Panic/hysterical woman thriller. Granted, those familiar with Aronofsky’s work should have been fully aware of what they were getting themselves into as they entered the theater. Nonetheless, it appears “general audiences” were woefully unprepared and reacted as such when given the chance to grade the film. Paramount, the company standing firmly behind the film’s release, has leaned into the controversy, but it remains to be seen if mother! can manage to shirk off the stigma of the dreaded “F”.
To put things in perspective, there have only be 19 films released in the past 31 years to have garnered the bottom-barrel score. Unsurprisingly, a majority of these films fall within the horror genre. For some titles (much like mother!), the audience reaction could come down to “misleading advertising,” by creating a sense of more generic thrills than what the filmmaker truly had in mind. Take 2006’s William Friedkin directed Bug. This was a film whose trailer could leave you to easily believe it was about, ya know…killer bugs. I remember seeing the film on opening weekend to a packed house of people, many of whom got up and left halfway through. Many of those brave souls who stuck it out to the end, let out exhausted, audible groans once the credits began to roll. Personally, I love just how batshit Bug is. I mean, “I am the super mother bug!” is way up there on the list of greatest singular moments in horror history.
While some films with an “F” CinemaScore might just be misunderstood, some are arguably well deserving of their letter grade. Below are five horror films that left audiences understandably unimpressed.
The Devil Inside (2012)
The Devil Inside featured a now infamous ending where amidst the supposed intense climax, the screen cuts to black and refers the audience to a website to find out more. So, yeah, it simply DOES NOT have an ending. Thanks to a mega-successful marketing campaign, the film made it’s money back and then some on the opening weekend. Paramount only paid a million for the rights to release the film and in the first few days it grossed $35 million. That’s great, except it meant the irate film-goers who rushed to see the flick were many, and they were very vocal as well. The above isn’t actually a clip from the movie but, instead, live audience response to the cop-out ending.
I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
Writer/director Chris Siverston was hot off his adaptation of Jack Ketchum’s The Lost when he scored a big name star for his follow-up feature, I Know Who Killed Me. Lindsay Lohan was still considered a hot commodity but was quickly gaining a reputation as a wild child. Unfortunately, production began just as Lohan’s career began to crumble. Production was halted numerous times as Lohan was hospitalized for “dehydration”, an infection from surgery, and ultimately entered rehab. By the time the film was finished and released, there was hope this could be her “come back” flick. Starring as twins, one a stripper with one leg and the other a goody-goody, this was the dark turn Lohan needed to really flex her acting muscles. Apparently, though, they had atrophied.
Alone in the Dark (2005)
Uwe Boll directs a film “based on a video game” that takes very little from the source material, stars a slumming Christian Slater, and Tara Reid plays a scientist which is indicative by the fact that she wears glasses. ‘Nuff said.
The Wicker Man (2006)
Neil LaBute was an indie darling for quite some time. His first two films In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors were both bleakly comic looks at the lowest depths of the male psyche. From there he slowly built up a reputation as a director to watch. When he was announced as being attached to The Wicker Man remake, I knew that if anyone could do it, he could. Perhaps, the biggest error was in casting Nicholas Cage who reportedly took on a lot of control on set. This is one of the more, er…unhinged Cage performances. While his manic mannerisms can benefit certain roles – this was not one of them. Despite being one of the worst horror remakes ever, it will forever be remembered for “the bees!”
Fear Dot Com (2002)
William Malone is a director with a strikingly unique visual style. He conjures images that seem lifted directly from one’s’ nightmares. However, all of that style doesn’t always come together in the form of a cohesive narrative. After the success of his Dark Castle remake of The House on Haunted Hill, Malone brought us Feardotcom. The plot feels reminiscent of any number of J-Horror films (which the J-horror craze hadn’t yet caught on here in the states). If you view this crazy website, you die just a few days later. The word is that the studio stepped in and created a hack-job out of Malone’s film. We may never know if Feardotcom would have been a genre classic otherwise, but what we’re left with is one nonsensical hot mess.
Sure, the list of “F” grade CinemaScores is a short one, and while films like Wolf Creek or Darkness might not deserve the distinction, it’s hard to argue for the films on this list.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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