Last Updated on July 21, 2021

FIVE MOST DISAPPOINTING GENRE FLICKS OF 2018

With 2019 only days away, and a whole new crop of scares getting us hyped for a new year, it is the perfect time to look back on what horror had to offer. Frankly, genre has upped its game over the past few years and the past twelve months are certainly no exception. As a slasher fan, the quality of crazed masked psycho frights was better than usual. HALLOWEEN, THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT and even HELL FEST brought back that adoration for this viewer. And when it comes to the strange and the supernatural, A QUIET PLACE, HEREDITARY and SUSPIRIA all gave me the perfect amount of chills and thrills. This is not to say that everything was hunky dory. For every awesome scare, you had a dreadful flick like SLENDER MAN or the inescapably goofy TRUTH OR DARE. But what about everything that came in between? What about the movies that had great potential, yet suffered from a lousy script to by simply not fulfilling the fun quota. Here are the five most disappointing genre flicks from 2018.

5. WINCHESTER (Buy HERE)

There is not a damn reason why this ghostly tale couldn’t work. You have The Spierig Brothers directing who have been involved in a few exciting and inventive features. The cast includes some serious talent like Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook and the legendary Dame Helen Mirren. On top of that you have one of the creepiest settings you could imagine. Unfortunately, a bit like the house itself, the movie goes nowhere and it does so at an all too leisurely pace. The jump scares are predicable and the story drags and drags until its intensely unsatisfying end. There is a great story to tell regarding this fascinating bit of history, but frankly, this film wasn’t the one to share it. I’m still baffled as to just how damn dull this film is, built on such a promising structure.

4. THE MEG (Buy HERE)

Truth be told I actually did enjoy THE MEG on a number of levels. Jason Statham is always enjoyable to watch, and it was pretty damn satisfying watching him face off against a massive shark. Unfortunately, the film just doesn’t quite match the over-the-top promise that the advertising campaign seemed to say it would. Sure it’s often enjoyable, but the shark attacks aren’t nearly as intense as they could have been, and most of the side characters are just bland. Since this made such a huge splash at the box office – worldwide it made over 530 million – hopefully they’ll take time to make a worthwhile sequel that surpasses this, at times, generic action horror flick.

3. UNSANE (Buy HERE)

The promise of an experimental thriller shot on an iPhone by filmmaker extraordinaire Steven Soderbergh appeared to have all the elements of something truly disturbing. It helps that you have an actress as talented as Claire Foy, and you hire Joshua Leonard who has done quite nicely for himself since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. With all that, you have a perfect recipe for a stellar flick. Unfortunately, this story about a young woman involuntarily locked up in a mental institution only offers shades of a decent Hitchcockian thriller. Ultimately it is a bit of a hollow and overly predictable thriller that can’t quite live up to its own fascinating possibilities. The best thing about it may be the insight we get on how messed up mental health care appears to be.

2. THE NUN (Buy HERE)

I really wanted to love this one. As a fan of all things in THE CONJURING universe, the idea of the demon Valak creating more havoc was beyond simply being enticing. That damn nun creeped me out when I caught THE CONJURING 2 so of course it would be scary in its own element right? Well, not exactly. Instead of following the more traditional format of the movies that came before (THE CONJURING, THE CONJURING 2, ANNABELLE: CREATION) this felt more like a cheap carnival fun house. The scares were all a bit bonkers and Jonas Bloquet had me laughing a lot. However, it just wasn’t scary. Aside from a couple of creepy ideas and images, the film earned far too many laughs to be taken very seriously. This was a massive shame because with this title character and a good cast that includes Taissa Farmiga and Demián Bichir, it should have been a whole lot better.

1. THE PREDATOR (Buy HERE)

Shane Black doing a Predator film? I was sold with just the promise of what that could offer. And frankly, there is a lot to like in this continuation of the franchise. You have a decent cast to play off of these violent alien beasties including Body Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn and Thomas Jane. And you have Shane Black bringing the series back to a hard R-rating with a ton of violence and language. Plus, there was a lot of humor spread throughout. Yet that was perhaps part of the issue. The humor was more consistent than any sort of suspense, and the final act is a bit too convenient with characters disappearing when they are of no use. Or even worse, they show up to a place that there is no way in hell that they could have gotten to so quickly. Much like THE MEG, there are a few cool thoughts and ideas here that may certainly lead to make a damn good sequel. But in the end, aside from a few good ideas, THE PREDATOR failed to really deliver what could have been a glorious return.