The way a movie genre evolves and adapts with the audience is nearly as unpredictable as nature itself, coming in waves as moviegoers interest in specific film categories are here one minute and gone the next. One film genre that has always seemed to withstand that is horror, a universal language that all people speak.
There are many reasons why horror films will seemingly always stick around as long as there’s a director behind a camera, but unfortunately, some horror movies don’t age as well as others, no longer instilling fear in their audience and causing them to role their eyes where they used to scream in terror. Here are 10 horror movies that don’t scare as much as they did the first time.
The Ring (2002)
There are two main reasons why The Ring simply doesn’t scare the way it did back during its release in 2002. Number one reason - VHS tapes. With a killer video-tape inspiring a nearby phone to ring and announce to the watcher of said tape that they’re going to die in a week, you’d have to find somebody who still owns a VHS player. Good luck with that. Maybe the girl from the well could figure out how to live-stream on Facebook or cut a deal with Netflix.
The number two reason is the whole “phone-call-telling-you-you’re-gonna-die” bit. Nowadays, if people get a call from someone they don’t know, they don’t answer. And if that person keeps calling, they get blocked. Sorry, Samara, you’re not crawling out of anybody’s television anytime soon.
Carrie (1976)
Stephen King has had numerous movies made from his horror stories throughout the years, and all of them began with the release of his first book Carrie in 1974, which followed quickly with a movie only two years later. While it may have sparked a cinematic fire that’s still going to this day, the sad truth is that Carrie isn’t all that scary anymore; it’s honestly just sad.
Carrie is a film that highlights how terrible children can be to other children that they consider to be different or their subordinates. Plus, they never really explain where her powers come from in the film. Most moviegoers would walk away confused more than scared of this horror film nowadays.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Any movie that relies on a big reveal at the end, the shock-and-awe factor, is undoubtedly going to lose a little bit of its edge after the first time you watch it, and 1999’s The Sixth Sense is no exception. It may not technically be classified as a horror film, leaning more toward the dramatic/mystery side, but it involves dead people and ghosts so we think it counts.
Widely regarded as having one of the greatest shocks in cinema history, watching The Sixth Sense nowadays inspires a feeling of next-to-nothing since there’s no more shock, and therefore no more awe. Spoiler alert if you’ve somehow avoided this movie after twenty years: Haley Joel Osment sees dead people; Bruce Willis is a dead person. Not so scary, it actually makes a lot of sense.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Paranormal Activity may be one of the most financially successful films (and franchises) ever, but that doesn’t change the fact that this horror movie simply doesn’t scare the way it did before “shaky-cam” became overdone. One of the many culprits as to why horror movies will always be around, shaky-cam is a cheap way to make a quality film that doesn’t require a lot of special or visual effects.
Unfortunately, that takes away the audience’s supposed belief that the footage could be real. Once we learned that there were no actual ghosts in this movie, it lost its paranormal factor and simply became an activity.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Unfortunately, another horror movie on this list that is guilty of using shaky-cam, The Blair Witch Project is actually the movie that started the whole “homemade footage” horror premise in the first place. The result? A horror movie that’s bitterly hard to watch nowadays as it resembles more of a documentary about a group of friends getting lost in the woods (because that’s essentially what it is).
Honestly, when was the last time you watched a horror movie that never showed the antagonist? While it may have been scary two decades ago, the shaky-cam pioneer just doesn’t frighten how it used too.
A Quiet Place (2018)
Who would’ve thought that Jim from The Office could make a horror movie that could take the world by storm? Regardless of how well A Quiet Place may have done among critics and at the box office, it doesn’t change that this unique film is simply only scary the first time you watch it. Period. After that, it becomes more of a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic story about a family trying to escape alien monsters.
The use of sign language and virtually no speaking was a fresh change of pace, but with this being another film relying heavily on measured surprise, it lost all terror once the cover was blown. Also, the monsters could be killed with a shotgun and yet all of humanity lost? Doubtful.
Cujo (1983)
A rabid dog - that’s it. 1983 was a different time and people were scared by different things, but for some reason this movie about a blood-thirsty St. Bernard that traps a family in a car under the desert-heat gained a serious cult following over the years and instilled fear in its audience, despite a premise simply revolving around a dog with rabies.
Lest we remember, though, this is a film about a dispirited wife and mother whose whole world — namely her asthmatic son who’s on the cusp of death — is turned upside down in an instant. That plain fact resonates with parents, and that situation is alone scary. Cujo himself just happens to be the overwhelming element that is making the mother’s world crumble.
Now, if none of that makes you shake, then the rabid dog probably won’t get you on further viewings either.
Saw (2004)
To be fair, there aren’t many people who weren’t terrified of the serial killer Jigsaw during his first go-around on the big screen. Saw had every audience member toeing the morality line for weeks afterward in the fear that a serial killer would abduct and test them on their sins.
However, much like the Paranormal Activity series in that its deadly trap was success, the Saw franchise spun out of control with sequels which took away from the fright factor of the original. Once the movies became about which game could kill in the most gruesomely creative way, the horror instilled in the first film quickly washed down the drain. Game over.
The Exorcist (1973)
Religion can often play an important part in the plot of a horror film, and nowhere is that more prominent than in 1973’s The Exorcist, the story of a little girl who is possessed by the devil. But one of the main factors that made this film such a classic, and what people tend to fear most about certain horror movies, is that it was loosely based on a true story.
While The Exorcist might not have been washed down with a dozen sequels, the adoption of making horror movies based on real-life horror stories quickly led this classic to being sentenced to horror-film purgatory. Not to mention it was 1973, so the scary effects don’t quite hold up either. Certainly a classic, but scary no longer.
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Hannibal Lecter, one of the most iconic horror movie characters in all of cinematic history… all because of some fava beans, a nice Chianti, and a creepy sound he made with his teeth. In 1991, Silence of the Lambs stunned the world by introducing Anthony Hopkins as an Academy Award-winning cannibalistic serial killer. The only problem? It’s not 1991 anymore, and people have access to the Internet where they can see things infinitely more frightening.
Chances are that if you haven’t seen this movie, somebody will rave at you to watch it because of Hopkin’s unforgettable performance, and while it’s certainly unforgettable and a master-class in acting, it’s unfortunately no longer scary.
