Every Halloween, it’s the same thing. The endless TV marathons with the same movies, shown year in and year out. There’s a wide variety of films out there (much better ones) and yet we’re subjected to the same “classic” holiday lineup every time the leaves turn.
If you’re tired of the same old, same old, check out our list of the most overrated Halloween movies we’d love to stop airing on TV.
“Scream” is just like any other slasher movie.
Perhaps “Scream” was terrifying when it first hit the scene, but by now we’ve seen Ghostface’s antics so many time we could recount them by memory. Sure, a killer in a mask is awfully terrifying and all, but it’s hardly awe-inducing these days when that’s just about every single slasher flick that’s ever been made.
Although “Scream” was met with praise, the sequels seem to get worse and worse with the third film scoring a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is getting stale.
Tim Burton's horrific holiday adventure can be classified as both a Christmas and Halloween movie, but it's not really great at being either one and constantly seeing it every single holiday season is getting stale at this point.
We've been there so many times and we're frankly tired of the movie not materializing into much.
As Owen Gleiberman wrote for Entertainment Weekly, "Is it any wonder this nightmare never coalesces? He couldn't make up his mind about whether to be naughty or nice."
"Hocus Pocus" isn't what it is hyped up to be.
Let's face it, the Sanderson Sisters' Halloween dalliances just aren't as entertaining as everyone pretends they are. Although the film's name is nearly synonymous with Halloween and its followers swoon over the three witches all year long, it just isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
At the time of its release, USA TODAY's Susan Wloszczyna wrote, "One should approach 'Hocus Pocus' as if it were one of those households that plunk toothbrushes instead of Snickers into your goody bag. Skip it."
"The Blair Witch Project's" footage is unimpressive.
We all remember seeing "The Blair Witch Project," likely when we were younger and it was taboo to go see such "scary" movies. But in all actuality, with each time it runs again on TV for Halloween, it's less and less impressive. Although there are some moments that still make us jump in our seats, it's due to the shock of something happening when we're least expecting it, not because of horrific content.
Mostly, it's just frustrating that, well, nothing really happens.
As Kevin Thomas wrote for the Los Angeles Times, "A clever, entertaining stunt, no more, no less."
For a movie to be a Halloween classic, it really should at least try to terrify viewers.
"Saw" has no substance and no surprises.
"Saw" may have been innovative when it kicked off the wave of torture films, but despite all the extremes it goes to, it's simply not worth watching time and time again. The surprise is all gone, the creativity is no longer a treat to watch, and Jigsaw has become a tired Halloween symbol - all bluster and no substance.
Dennis Harvey summed it up for Variety when he wrote the film was "a crude concoction sewn together from the severed parts of prior horror/serial killer pics."
"The Exorcist" isn't that good of a horror movie.
It may seem totally incomprehensible to any horror fan that the seminal classic "The Exorcist" isn't the masterpiece the entire world seems to think that it is, but it's simply undeserving of remaining in the typical Halloween film rotation every single year. There are far better films that deserve to be shown - one of its greatest sins is that, ironically enough, it's just not that scary anymore.
For Time magazine, Jay Cocks wrote, "The movie is vile and brutalizing. Indeed, in many ways it is worse than the book. If 'The Exorcist' had been invested with any real intelligence or passion, if it had wanted to do something other than promote a few shivers, the explicitness would never have mattered. As used here, the explicitness amounts to not much more than a shill, a come-on."
"Rosemary's Baby" isn't as exciting now as it was when it premiered.
While "Rosemary's Baby" was considered revolutionary when it debuted, it's lost most of its luster in the years since it first hit theaters. While its nefarious premise has promise, it's simple to figure out, and when the hammer drops and the reveal finally happens, you would have deciphered the movie long ahead of time.
Cracked arrived at the same conclusion, adding that the film simply doesn't get any better after that: "Once that happens, it's a long, slow procession of mundane events, sometimes scary, usually not, until exactly what you think is going to happen does, in fact, happen."
"Paranormal Activity" is lackluster.
Ever since the breakout hit "The Blair Witch Project" found footage films have been a dime a dozen. That doesn't mean they've been any good, though. That hasn't stopped "Paranormal Activity" from being shown over and over again around Halloween, though. People are hopelessly attracted to the flying objects and supposed demonic presence in the movie, though it's lackluster, to say the least.
Salon's assessment of the film seems to echo many of its detractors: "This bland mediocrity managed to pull in a decent box office performance by creating a campaign in which audiences had to "demand" that the film play in their theaters. Clever, yes, though no more so than 'The Blair Witch Project' pretending to be a documentary. And it's no better than that movie."
"The Grudge" is boring.
"The Grudge's" original Japanese inspiration was leagues better than this dark and dreary adaptation, and yet the Western version is the one we see played each Halloween. "Ju-on: The Grudge" did a much more admirable job of ramping up tension and ratcheting up the spook factor, while the American version manages to fumble in every conceivable way.
Roger Ebert gave the film one out of four stars stating, "The movie may have some subterranean level on which the story strands connect and make sense, but it eluded me. The fragmented time structure is a nuisance, not a style."
"Halloween" is more corny and comical than scary.
It may seem like actual blasphemy to denounce a film literally named "Halloween" when it comes to classics everyone should watch each year, but don't act like you're shocked. It's time to shelve this one once and for all - even though Jamie Lee Curtis successfully reprised her role in a brand new vision of the franchise.
But as a horror movie, it simply isn't the cream of the crop, and we'd very much like to see it stop paraded around as such, thank you very much - especially as it certainly isn't shocking or thrilling millennials, not according to Yahoo! Entertainment's experiment: "It was extremely corny," one test subject responded after viewing the film for the first time. "I found it immensely more comical than scary." That seems to be the case with most first-time viewers.
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