- 41 / 100Global Road Television Entertainment
#60. A Haunted House
Metascore: 20
Director: Michael Tiddes
Year: 2013
From some of the same people behind the “Scary Movie” franchise came “A Haunted House,” which pokes fun at various found footage horror films. Cowritten by and starring Marlon Wayans, the movie and its endless barrage of tasteless jokes earned a drubbing from the critics. Nevertheless, it made enough money to yield a similarly abysmal sequel.
- 42 / 100Cinemagic Pictures
#59. I Spit on Your Grave
Metascore: 19
Director: Meir Zarchi
Year: 1978
Despite a handful of negative reviews over on Metacritic, this 1978 slasher pic endures as something of a cult classic. After a female writer is brutally attacked and left for dead, she seeks gory revenge on the men who abused her. A pointless remake was released in 2010.
- 43 / 100Tartan Films
#58. The Hillside Strangler
Metascore: 19
Director: Chuck Parello
Year: 2004
The real-life killing sprees of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono (aka The Hillside Stranglers) inspired this critically reviled film from 2004. Less of a true story account than it is a gory exploitation pic, the movie was dubbed a “relentlessly sadistic exercise” by Ron Stringer of L.A. Weekly. C. Thomas Howell and Nicholas Turturro star.
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- 44 / 100MGM
#57. Species II
Metascore: 19
Director: Peter Medak
Year: 1998
The second time is not the charm for the “Species” franchise, about deadly aliens with a penchant for sex and death. Returning to the fold is actress Natasha Henstridge, who plays a cloned version of her previous character. Two more installments would eventually follow.
- 45 / 100Screen Gems
#56. The Covenant
Metascore: 19
Director: Renny Harlin
Year: 2006
After more or less ruining “The Exorcist” franchise, director Renny Harlin botched religious-themed horror once again in 2006. In “The Covenant,” four supernatural teenage boys do battle against an evil force while dealing with drama from within. Critic Elizabeth Weitzman called it a “profoundly mediocre supernatural thriller.”
- 46 / 100Dimension Films
#54. Halloween: Resurrection (tie)
Metascore: 19
Director: Rick Rosenthal
Year: 2002
Before the 2018 resurrection of the “Halloween” franchise, there was this previous installment from 2002. It similarly found scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode, who does battle against vicious serial killer Michael Myers. The outcome was so abominable that the franchise itself stayed buried for 16 years.
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- 47 / 100Universal Pictures
#54. Virus (tie)
Metascore: 19
Director: John Bruno
Year: 1999
“It's an unbelievably bad movie, just bad from the bottom,” said Jamie Lee Curtis of this 1999 bomb. The critics were apt to agree. In the film, Curtis and others (including Donald Sutherland) square off against an alien life form aboard an abandoned ship.
- 48 / 100Corn Cobb Productons
#53. Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice
Metascore: 18
Director: David Price
Year: 1992
If one can believe it, the consistently terrible “Children of the Corn” franchise has yielded eight movies to date. Originally based on a short story by Stephen King, the series centers on a cult of farm children who ritualistically murder their elders whenever given the chance. To the chagrin of critics, the second installment was far from the “The Final Sacrifice.”
- 49 / 100Summit Entertainment
#52. The Darkest Hour
Metascore: 18
Director: Chris Gorak
Year: 2011
Blob-like aliens are attacking Earth and it's up to five young men and women to stop them in this poor excuse for an invasion movie. Starring Emile Hirsch among others, the film takes place in Moscow. In his review for Entertainment Weekly, Keith Staskiewicz asserted that “you might as well be rooting for the blobs. Most likely, though, you'll just be rooting for the credits.”
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- 50 / 100Warner Bros.
#50. The Apparition (tie)
Metascore: 18
Director: Todd Lincoln
Year: 2012
Playing like a greatest hits compilation of the genre's most tired tropes, this 2012 horror flick finds a couple accidentally conjuring a deadly spirit during a university experiment. Soon enough, the supernatural entity begins haunting the couple in their very own home. Entertainment Weekly critic Keith Staskiewicz wrote in his review: “With more telegraphed scares than Samuel Morse on Halloween, it still might give you a restless night, but only because you fell asleep in the theater.”