Despite the title of this list suggesting otherwise, the horror genre has had one hell of a 2024 so far.
Projects like Alien: Romulus, Longlegs, Terrifier 3, A Quiet Place: Day One, and more have brought in some serious money at the box office, proving that fright fans are still willing to get their asses off the sofa if a film looks spooky or petrifying enough.
That being said, not every 2024 horror picture has done enough to convince people they’re worth spending some money on at their local cinema.
Despite being connected to one of the most recognisable scary movies of all time, starring A-list acting talent, or seeming like the sort of buzzy project that would earn a nice profit, each of the following 8 movies all ultimately flopped at the box office this year.
That’s not to say that they’re all terrible films – many were actually well reviewed and up there as some of the strongest entries of 2024. But regardless of whether they were brilliantly horrifying or just a bit of a mess, each of these movies share one thing in common: no one really wanted to watch them on the big screen.
Following in the footsteps of her famous father, Ishana Night Shyamalan hopped into the director’s chair for the first time for this year’s supernatural horror The Watchers.
Telling the tale of an artist called Mina (Dakota Fanning) who ends up trapped in a forest that contains some mysterious creatures – based on A. M. Shine’s 2021 novel – the premise definitely felt creepy enough to bring in a few of its own watchers this summer.
But despite going out of their way to promote the fact that M. Night Shyamalan was very much attached to the project as producer and this was a film from the mind of his own offspring, folks were scared off from seeing it.
This was possibly down to its poor critical reception, with the movie’s script being criticised and Ishana’s work being labelled (via The Observer) as “a pale imitation of her father’s patented style.” Yikes.
The movie did fare a little better on Max at least, even becoming the most popular movie on the streaming service at one point (via Huffington Post). But that still doesn’t change the fact it only made a little over its $30 million budget by the end of its disappointing theatrical run.