(Photo by Paramount Insurge/courtesy Everett Collection)
The Worst Horror Movies of All Time
We’re scraping the bottom of the cauldron for this one, freaky folks. Here lies a group of wretched movies with the lowest Tomatometers of all time – with a minimum of 20 reviews – now rising and shambling into our guide to the worst horror movies ever made.
No movie listed here achieved higher than 9% on the Tomatometer. As you might expect, the list features an inordinate number are remakes, the biggest offenders including The Fog, Jacob’s Ladder, Flatliners, and Martyrs. Same goes for sequels, as Jason, Jaws, the living dead, and an American werewolf make their appearances. And then there’s movies that will never even get a sniff of a chance for a sequel, like Sandra Bullock’s Premonition, the Daniel Craig clunker Dream House, or the eerily and aptly-titled The Disappointments Room. Recently, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey suitably defiled the public domain.
Nothing but trouble coming up on in the worst, lowest-rated horror movies of all time! —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 2551%
Critics Consensus: One of the weakest entries in the J-horror remake sweepstakes, One Missed Call is undone by bland performances and shopworn shocks.
Synopsis: When Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) witnesses the deaths of two friends, she knows there is more at work than just...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 5298%
Critics Consensus: Illogical, tension-free, and filled with cut-rate special effects, Jaws: The Revenge is a sorry chapter in a once-proud franchise.
Synopsis: The family of widow Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) has long been plagued by shark attacks, and this unfortunate association continues...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 540%
Critics Consensus: No need for a quarantine -- enthusiasm for this inert remake is not contagious.
Synopsis: Fresh out of college, five friends (Nadine Crocker, Matthew Daddario, Samuel Davis) face the horrors of a flesh-eating virus while...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 387%
Critics Consensus: The Disappointments Room lives down to its title with a thrill-free thriller that presumably left its stars filled with regret - and threatens to do the same for audiences.
Synopsis: Dana (Kate Beckinsale), her husband David and their 5-year-old son Lucas start a new life after moving from the hustle...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 34%
Critics Consensus: A lazy collection of obsession thriller clichés, Homecoming will leave viewers wishing they'd opted for a lopsided football game and some awkward dancing instead.
Synopsis: A jealous woman (Mischa Barton) plots revenge after her former beau (Matt Long) returns to their hometown with a pretty...
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#6
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Teenagers discover a terrible secret when they break into the home of a mortician (Dennis Quaid) whose wife died two...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 5049%
Critics Consensus: Inept on almost every level, Alone in the Dark may not work as a thriller, but it's good for some head-slapping, incredulous laughter.
Synopsis: When the investigations of supernatural detective Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) lead him to uncover a long-lost tribe called the Abskani,...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 3798%
Critics Consensus: The Haunting of Molly Hartley is a rather lifeless horror endeavor, with a pedestrian plot and few scares.
Synopsis: After surviving a brutal attack by her insane mother, teenage Molly (Haley Bennett) is eager to get a fresh start...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 8200%
Critics Consensus: Bless the Child squanders its talented cast on a plot that's more likely to inspire unintentional laughs than shivers.
Synopsis: When Maggie's sister Jenna saddles her with an autistic newborn named Cody she touches Maggie's heart and becomes the daughter...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 5915%
Critics Consensus: As frustrating as a 404 error, Fear Dot Com is a stylish, incoherent, and often nasty mess with few scares.
Synopsis: When four bodies are discovered among the industrial decay and urban grime of New York City, brash young detective Mike...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 5179%
Critics Consensus: The Apparition fails to offer anything original, isn't particularly scary, and offers so little in the way of dramatic momentum that it's more likely to put you to sleep than thrill you.
Synopsis: Plagued by frightening occurrences in their home, Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) learn that a university's parapsychology experiment...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 4362%
Critics Consensus: A grungy, disjointed, mostly brainless mess of a film, House of the Dead is nonetheless loaded with unintentional laughs.
Synopsis: Simon (Tyron Leitso) and Greg (Will Sanderson) meet a group of friends and set out to attend a rave on...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 5848%
Critics Consensus: Oh, bother.
Synopsis: The days of adventures and merriment have come to an end, as Christopher Robin, now a young man, has left...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 3746%
Critics Consensus: The Darkness clumsily relies on an assortment of genre tropes, leaving only the decidedly non-frightening ghost of superior horror films in its wake.
Synopsis: Peter Taylor (Kevin Bacon), his wife Bronny and their two children return to Los Angeles after a fun-filled vacation to...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 7223%
Critics Consensus: A murky thriller with few chills, Godsend features ludicrous dialogue, by-the-numbers plotting, and an excess of cheap shocks.
Synopsis: After Paul Duncan (Greg Kinnear) and his wife, Jessie (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), lose their young son, Adam (Cameron Bright), in an...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 7539%
Critics Consensus: Flatliners falls flat as a horror movie and fails to improve upon its source material, rendering this reboot dead on arrival.
Synopsis: Five medical students embark on a daring and dangerous experiment to gain insight into the mystery of what lies beyond...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 5886%
Critics Consensus: The Fog is a so-so remake of a so-so movie, lacking scares, suspense or originality.
Synopsis: The prosperous town of Antonio Bay, Ore., is born in blood, as the town's founders get their money by murdering...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 4960%
Critics Consensus: Soul Survivors' stock characters and utter lack of suspense gives viewers little reason to attempt deciphering the confusing plot.
Synopsis: Sometimes living or dying comes down to a matter of choice. It took Annabel (Eliza Dushku) and Matt (Wes Bentley)...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 4221%
Critics Consensus: The most mind-bending aspect of 6 Souls is Julianne Moore's participation, the overqualified star wasted on a goofy horror premise that generates more guffaws than scares.
Synopsis: Dr. Cara Harding (Julianne Moore) is a dedicated psychiatrist skeptical about the nature of certain afflictions, especially Multiple Personality Disorder....
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#20
Adjusted Score: 4456%
Critics Consensus: Misguided from stem to stern, Mary wastes the talents of an outstanding cast -- and makes a soggy mess of its supernatural horror story.
Synopsis: A family sailing in isolated waters discovers the ship they bought holds terrifying secrets....
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#21
Adjusted Score: 4288%
Critics Consensus: A needless remake that quickly loses sight of the themes that elevated the original, this is a Jacob's Ladder that leads straight to nowhere.
Synopsis: After losing his brother in combat, Jacob Singer returns home from Afghanistan -- only to be pulled into a mind-twisting...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 9610%
Critics Consensus: Slowly, steadily, although no one seems to be moving it in that direction, the Ouija planchette points to NO.
Synopsis: Following the sudden death of her best friend, Debbie, Laine finds an antique Ouija board in Debbie's room and tries...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 6192%
Critics Consensus: Yet another predictable variation on the hoary old haunted-house movie, Darkness is an illogical, portentous mess.
Synopsis: Paul (Stephan Enquist) and his older sister, Regina (Anna Paquin), unpack and settle into their new country home with their...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 5979%
Critics Consensus: Oh my god.
Synopsis: When young Joshua (Michael Stephenson) learns that he will be going on vacation with his family to a small town...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 6112%
Critics Consensus: Zero brains.
Synopsis: A boy (Michael Kenworthy) and his friends free something evil from a canister fallen off an Army truck....
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#26
Adjusted Score: 9586%
Critics Consensus: The Devil Inside is a cheap, choppy unscary mess, featuring one of the worst endings in recent memory.
Synopsis: Twenty years after Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) murdered three people, her daughter, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade), seeks the truth about that...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 12280%
Critics Consensus: While there are some built-in scares, the movie is muddled and unsatisfying.
Synopsis: Architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) is happily married to author Anna (Chandra West), but tragedy strikes when she is killed...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 9932%
Critics Consensus: Dream House is punishingly slow, stuffy, and way too obvious to be scary.
Synopsis: Publisher Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) quits a lucrative job in New York to relocate his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz), and...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 10061%
Critics Consensus: Boring, predictable, and bereft of thrills or chills, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is exactly the kind of rehash that gives horror sequels a bad name.
Synopsis: A year after killing vengeful hit-and-run victim Ben Wills (Muse Watson), who gutted her friends with an iron hook, college...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 8294%
Critics Consensus: It's all been done before, and done better.
Synopsis: Driving cross-country to deliver a vintage Mercedes, Sean (Kerr Smith) does the one thing he wasn't suppose to do --...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 8312%
Critics Consensus: Markedly inferior to its cult classic predecessor in every way, An American Werewolf in Paris is felled by the silver bullets of clumsy storytelling and chintzy special effects.
Synopsis: A group of carousing American tourists is taking in the cultural landmarks of Paris when a chance encounter results in...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 14199%
Critics Consensus: Overdosing on flashbacks, and more portentous than profound, the overly obtuse Premonition weakly echoes such twisty classics as Memento, The Sixth Sense, and Groundhog Day.
Synopsis: Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) has an idyllic life, until one day she receives word that her husband (Julian McMahon) has...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 11849%
Critics Consensus: It may feature such accomplished actors as Hilary Swank and Stephen Rea, but The Reaping also boasts the apropos tagline "What hath God wrought?" It's schlocky, spiritually shallow, and scare-free.
Synopsis: Katherine Morrissey (Hilary Swank), a former Christian missionary, lost her faith after the tragic deaths of her family. Now she...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 13779%
Critics Consensus: Rings may offer ardent fans of the franchise a few threadbare thrills, but for everyone else, it may feel like an endless loop of muddled mythology and rehashed plot points.
Synopsis: A young woman (Matilda Lutz) becomes worried about her boyfriend (Alex Roe) when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a...
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#35
Adjusted Score: 13928%
Critics Consensus: Fantasy Island tries to show audiences the dark side of wish fulfillment, but mainly serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of exhuming long-dead franchises.
Synopsis: The enigmatic Mr. Roarke makes the secret dreams of his guests come true at a luxurious tropical resort. But when...
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#36
Adjusted Score: 11280%
Critics Consensus: Though Kaminski's film is visually stylish, Lost Souls is just another derivative entry in the Apocalypse genre, with lackluster direction, unengaging characters, and no scares.
Synopsis: A modern thriller in which faith battles reason, Ryder plays a young woman who becomes aware of a conspiracy to...
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#37
Adjusted Score: 11589%
Critics Consensus: Slender Man might be thin, but he's positively robust compared to the flimsy assortment of scares generated by the would-be chiller that bears his name.
Synopsis: Small-town best friends Hallie, Chloe, Wren and Katie go online to try and conjure up the Slender Man -- a...
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#38
Adjusted Score: 14245%
Critics Consensus: A derivative movie where the scares are few and things don't make much sense.
Synopsis: In Maine, the residents of Darkness Falls are all aware of the legend of Matilda Dixon, an old woman who...
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#39
Adjusted Score: 11159%
Critics Consensus: When a Stranger Calls ranks among the more misguided remakes in horror history, offering little more than a rote, largely fright-free update to the original.
Synopsis: Far away from the site of a gruesome murder, a teenager named Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) arrives at a luxurious...
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#40
Adjusted Score: 13912%
Critics Consensus: This teen horror movie brings nothing new to an already exhausted genre. And it's bad. Really bad.
Synopsis: At Alpine University, one senior student will be awarded the prestigious Hitchcock Award for best thesis film, virtually guaranteeing the...
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#41
Adjusted Score: 11419%
Critics Consensus: Lacking scares or psychological insight, Captivity is a distasteful entry in the 'torture porn' subgenre.
Synopsis: Jennifer, a model, is on top of the world. Her highly sought-after image adorns magazine covers and billboards. When she...
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#42
Adjusted Score: 11056%
Critics Consensus: A dim and predictable remake of an already dull slasher film, this Prom Night fails to be memorable.
Synopsis: When a deranged high-school teacher kills the family of the girl, Donna, that he loves, in a disturbed attempt to...
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#43
Adjusted Score: 10588%
Critics Consensus: See No Evil is packed with cliches from countless other teen slasher films, making for a predictable, scare-free waste of time.
Synopsis: A reclusive maniac (Kane) terrorizes a group of young petty criminals who have arrived to clean up a rotting hotel...
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#44
Adjusted Score: 10381%
Critics Consensus: Clumsily exploitative and sloppily assembled, Species II fails to clear the rather low bar set by its less-than-stellar predecessor.
Synopsis: Having just returned from a mission to Mars, Commander Ross (Justin Lazard) isn't exactly himself. He's slowly becoming a terrifying...
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#45
Adjusted Score: 9736%
Critics Consensus: Martyrs flays off everything that gave the original its icy horrific beauty, leaving us an empty, pointless remake.
Synopsis: With help from a friend (Bailey Noble), a tormented woman (Troian Bellisario) tracks down the family that imprisoned and tortured...
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#46
Adjusted Score: 12922%
Critics Consensus: Being a remake of a Thai horror film instead of Japanese doesn't prevent Shutter from being another lame Asian horror remake.
Synopsis: Photographer Ben (Joshua Jackson) and his new bride, Jane (Rachael Taylor), turn their honeymoon into a working vacation when he...
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#47
Adjusted Score: 11442%
Critics Consensus: A religious thriller that's more lethargic and silly than thrilling.
Synopsis: For centuries, a secret Order has existed within the Church. Following a series of unexplained murders, a renegade priest (Heath...
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#48
Adjusted Score: 12760%
Critics Consensus: Jason terrorizes a ship and nearly sinks the franchise in a clunky sequel that feels like self-parody without the charm.
Synopsis: Mass murderer Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) is resurrected from the bottom of Crystal Lake. After he kills a passing boat's...
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#49
Adjusted Score: 13402%
Critics Consensus: More likely to induce boredom than quicken the pulse, Brahms: The Boy II is chiefly scary for the way it undermines the effectiveness of its above-average predecessor.
Synopsis: Terror strikes when a boy discovers a doll that appears to be eerily human....
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