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- One Missed Call
- Warner Bros. Pictures
When you go on Rotten Tomatoes and look up horror films with the worst score… it's not pretty. Some of the scary movies on Rotten Tomatoes are apparently so terrible, they have a 0% critic rating. And although audience ratings are a little more forgiving, even those can go well below 20%. Despite these poor Rotten Tomatoes scores, some people genuinely like horror movies such as Jaws: The Revenge, Homecoming, and the 2016 remake of Cabin Fever, all of which have been panned by critics.
This list highlights the lowest-ranked horror movies on Rotten Tomatoes, but you have a chance to vote up the films critics just don't appreciate enough.
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Release Date: 2002
Critic Score: 3%
Audience Score: 18%
What It's About: Only in the early '00s could you get away with naming a film Feardotcom and not have it sound like a total joke. In the movie, detective Mike Reilly investigates a series of strange deaths that are all traced back to a website creatively titled feardotcom, which depicts extreme acts of torture and violence. It's then up to Reilly and his team to find the owner of the website before anyone else dies. Surprisingly (or maybe not), the owner is a ghost. You can't say the plot isn't original.
Why Fans Defend It: Fans applaud the film for being one of the first to venture into the world of internet horror. They also like the vengeful ghost trope, reminiscent of Japanese films of the time, and consider the movie to be satisfyingly scary, albeit a little confusing.
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Release Date: 2000
Critic Score: 4%
Audience Score: 43%
What It's About: A young girl, Cody, begins showing telekinetic powers and is subsequently pursued by a satanic cult that believes she will become a saint. Meanwhile, Cody's aunt/adopted mother, Maggie, tries to keep her safe with the help of living people and angels. In the end, the movie is your standard story of good triumphing over evil, although a bunch of kids die in the meantime.
Why Fans Defend It: Fans of the film compare it to other horror movies with religious themes like The Exorcist and The Omen, and consider Bless the Child to be an above-average film with solid acting and beautiful cinematography. Some wonder if the religious overtone turns off viewers.
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Release Date: 2008
Critic Score: 2%
Audience Score: 18%
What It's About: Molly Hartley is nearly killed by her mother shortly before her 18th birthday. Haunted by her mother's actions, Molly learns that her mom's motive was to break a pact with the devil that would bind Molly to him once she turns 18. It's a decent premise for a horror movie, but the PG-13 rating and predictable plot water down what could have been a terrifying film.
Why Fans Defend It: Although The Haunting of Molly Hartley doesn't have a huge fan base, some viewers enjoy Haley Bennett's performance as well as the film's nods to '90s movies like The Craft and Cruel Intentions. The general consensus: it's good enough.
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Release Date: 2008
Critic Score: 0%
Audience Score: 29%
What It's About: In a somewhat alternate take on The Ring, characters in One Missed Call begin receiving voicemails from the future letting them know the exact date and time they're going to die. For some reason, the characters keep following through on their plans, even when they're at the location they were warned they would die. However, instead of Samara crawling out of a TV, the voicemail victims vomit red candy. Yes, it's confusing.
Why Fans Defend It: While it may not have the strongest plot, fans applaud the eeriness of the film along with its special effects and acting. Fans also argue that anyone would be terrified if the events of the film happened to them, which is what you would hope for in a horror flick. It also has an offbeat but original ending.
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Release Date: 2016
Critic Score: 3%
Audience Score: 19%
What It's About: The Taylor family's trip to the Grand Canyon is all fun and games until son Mikey takes some cursed rocks home with him. After that, demons appearing as crows and snakes are found in around the house, and an evil force known as “The Darkness” creates a portal in Mikey's room. The Taylor family learns they must put aside their fears to truly be free of The Darkness. Or something like that.
Why Fans Defend It: Fans describe The Darkness as a “perfectly good” demon movie with a solid performance from Kevin Bacon, who plays the Taylor family patriarch. Reviewers also appreciate that the film doesn't rely heavily on CGI and is scary in a psychological sense.
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Release Date: 2011
Critic Score: 0%
Audience Score: 15%
What It's About: Dennis Quaid plays a murderous mortician, Vaughn Ely, who uses his standing in the community to casually kill people who do him wrong. He gets away with it until a group of scrappy teens band together to take down Vaughn, who has a penchant for burying people both dead and alive.
Why Fans Defend It: Fans enjoyed seeing Quaid play an over-the-top villain after a series of more serious roles. Although some say Beneath the Darknes tries to be a Hitchcock film but fails, others find it “darkly amusing” even if it's not the best horror movie ever made.
Better than its scores?
