After the remake craze of the 2000s and the streamlining of new technologies like high-definition and DVDs, horror was preparing itself for a whole new audience in the 2010s. Smart cellphones had arrived, Netflix was booming, and TV could suddenly be more important than movies.
The genre had to adapt, and with it came new filmmakers who rode the wave of auteur filmmaking in horror (yeah, yeah, the thing known as “elevated horror”), and others who simply had their chance to compete against the idea of streaming films at home.
The challenge was set, and the field was unprepared. Theaters didn’t exactly improve, and they still had to draw audiences inside with overpriced snacks and tickets and non-renovated venues that reeked of owners who didn’t care for audiences. Streaming platforms didn’t have these inconveniences, they just cost money. As high as the prices were, it was a matter of comfort. Needless to say, those in charge of the box office were now concerned.
However, some succeeded. The Conjuring franchise was a cash cow that always delivered, and A24 capitalized on their new niche with entries like The Witch and Hereditary.
Horror was more alive than ever; its dynamics had just shifted, and new studios and filmmakers had to rethink their business ventures. But in the case of the following horror flops, someone thought old-school theater attendance was enough. These are the horror films of the 2010s that failed at the box office for one reason or another. What’s important is that each of them deserves a rewatch, and quite ironically, you will probably do so on the streaming platform of your choice.
Note: As usual, I feel obligated to clarify that for films to break even and be successful, the box office return needs to be higher than the production budget. The budget reflected for each movie doesn’t include distribution and marketing costs.
10 Under the Skin (2013)
Budget: $13.3 Million – Box Office: $7.2 Million
Under the Skin
- Release Date
- March 14, 2014
- Director
- Jonathan Glazer
- Cast
- Jeremy McWilliams , Lynsey Taylor Mackay , Dougie McConnell , Kevin McAlinden , D. Meade , Andrew Gorman
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
In Under the Skin, an alien arrives on Earth in order to feast on human flesh. However, this isn’t an everyday “little green men” film. Instead, the extraterrestrial being takes on a beautiful female form who lures unaware men into her den of nothingness, where they are swallowed by a black void of eternal torture. This is one of the weirdest and bleakest experiences of horror sci-fi you’ll ever have. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Under the Skin is Jonathan Glazer’s unique alien invasion film. Shot with hidden cameras and featuring non-actors interacting with Scarlet Johansson’s character, it was filmed in Scotland in restrained environments where Glazer could make use of the special soundscape. Though the reception from critics was excellent, the film failed to make a dent at the box office, and it now remains a cult genre film that only a few people rewatch on an occasional basis.
9 A Cure for Wellness (2016)
Budget: $40 Million – Box Office: $26.6 Million
2016’s A Cure for Wellness takes us to the Swiss Alps, where a business executive is sent in order to grab the company’s CEO and get him back to America. The problem is that Lockhart doesn’t exactly find the crew of the wellness center willing to cooperate. Also, upon returning, he’s involved in a car accident, and his injuries are enough to restrain him. Where? Of course, in the wellness center led by the mysterious Dr. Heinreich Volmer.
Gore Verbinsky’s ambitious and expensive horror film was well received by critics, but audiences felt it was unnecessarily long (147 minutes). Ticket sales were poor, and in just a matter of days, this high-concept and very underrated horror movie was forgotten by everyone. It stars Dane DeHaan and Mia Goth in one of their best roles, and it visually pays tribute to German expressionism and the tone of the Universal Monsters era. It’s one of the most original films on the list.
8 Morgan (2016)
Budget: $8 Million – Box Office: $8.8 Million
Morgan
- Release Date
- September 1, 2016
- Director
- Luke Scott
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
Morgan is Luke Scott’s feature directorial debut. Scott, whose father you may know from films like Alien, Blade Runner, and others, took his father’s influence to make a sci-fi horror thriller about a risk specialist who’s assigned to a very dangerous project.
Lee travels to a rural area where a company has developed the latest in artificial intelligence technology: an android fusing nanotechnology and synthetic DNA. Upon understanding the nature of the experiment and the subject, Weathers makes her recommendations, but she may be too late: Morgan has turned sentient and “it’s” pissed off.
Morgan is the best killer robot movie you’ve never seen. But there’s a reason. A botched marketing campaign didn’t exactly help, and 20th Century Fox didn’t trust its project, which resembled heavily what A24 had done with Ex Machina a couple of years before.
The weekend it was released, it sold only 10% of the tickets the executives hoped for, and the film was quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, it has arguably the best cast on the list: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Boyd Holbrook, Brian Cox, Toby Jones, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leig, Rose Leslie, and Paul Giamatti. You can rent Morgan on iTunes.
7 Doctor Sleep (2019)
Budget: $55 Million – Box Office: $72.3 Million
Doctor Sleep, based on Stephen King’s follow-up to The Shining, is an adaptation by Mike Flanagan that brings back Danny Torrance’s character as a grown-up. Danny deals with his own demons and needs to change his life, or else alcoholism will be the end.
As he twists around his reality, Danny comes upon a band of vampires who have the ability to extract people’s souls. As Danny meets a girl who’s also able to shine, he will have to dig around in the past in order to defeat the leader of the True Knot.
Flanagan’s sequel is an outstanding connection between Stanley Kubrick’s classic film and the unexplored nature of King’s approach to the Torrances. The film was impressively effective and very well-made, with solid performances and noteworthy special effects. But its performance at the box-office wasn’t what Warner Bros. expected.
Regardless, it’s one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King book ever made. Recommendation: be sure to check out the Director’s Cut. It’s a far superior film.
6 The Wolfman (2010)
Budget: $150 Million – Box Office: $142.6 Million
In Joe Johnston’s 2010 version of The Wolfman, Lawrence Talbot goes back to England after his brother gets horribly murdered. As he investigates the murder, Talbot gets bit by a humanoid wolf and soon after begins showing signs of becoming a werewolf. The film is a remake of the 1941 film The Wolf Man, and it was written by Andrew Kevin Walker in an attempt to bring the Universal Monster to modern cinema.
The film was famously plagued by production issues, with Johnston getting the job a few days before production started. Danny Elfman, the score composer, was removed and then brought back. The release was pushed back constantly because it just wasn’t ready. As much as Universal tried to market it, the film bombed at the box office.
Regardless of how you felt about it back then, it’s far from the mediocre film critics and audiences painted it out to be. Performances are good, and the make-up effects are impressive and reason enough to revisit this 2010 underdog.
5 mother! (2017)
Budget: $30 Million – Box Office: $44.5 Million
Mother! (2017)
- Release Date
- September 13, 2017
- Director
- Darren Aronofsky
mother!, the epic psychological horror film by Darren Aronofsky, is hard to explain. The film follows some biblical rules to begin with, but the story is completely original. It tells the story of a woman living with her husband, an author suffering from writer’s block. She just wants to become a mother. When people start arriving at their home for no apparent reason, the true nature of Aronofsky’s surrealist nightmare becomes visible.
The film wasn’t very successful at the box office after its opening weekend, but it was mostly because of the CinemaScore rating that confirmed it wasn’t a traditional film. However, critics seemed to love it enough for mother! to get its cult status very quickly.
Regardless of where you stand on the genre, there’s nothing quite like this film. The violence is extreme, and it contains a shot involving a baby that will be the first and last time you see something like it on the big screen. mother!didn’t deserve the hate it got.
4 Overlord (2018)
Budget: $38 Million – Box Office: $41.7 Million
In the 2018 war movie-turned-horror film Overlord, Edward Boyce is a soldier who lands in Europe on the eve of D-Day in a thrilling and spectacularly shot introduction sequence. Boyce is forced to seek refuge in a compound located in the middle of a village. As he joins other survivors, they realize that they are in the middle of a place where the Nazis are practicing experiments that result in otherworldly creatures that may be more terrifying than war itself.
Even though J.J. Abrams was featured in the poster as a producer, the film failed to capture audiences upon release. Some critics didn’t help, as they were confused by the film’s cartoonish tone in some sequences. However, its blend of war and horror is as outlandish as the idea of Nazi experiments being real.
The action sequences are very well shot, and the special effects are some of the best in modern horror. The score by Jed Kurzel is one of the best he’s ever done. You can rent Overlord on iTunes.
3 The Thing (2011)
Budget: $38 Million – Box Office: $31.5 Million
In the 2011 prequel to John Carpenter’s classic, The Thing, a group of scientists inside a Norwegian research station face the impossible. They have found a spaceship and aliens buried deep in the ice, and they have no better idea than to mess with the remains.
Of course, people start to get infected by the otherworldly entity in this modern reimagining of the body horror science fiction classic that went heavy on the practical effects, and it’s mostly famous because of that. Anyone would have thought this follow-up was going to follow those steps, right?
The production was a famous mess that Universal demanded reshoots for, and CGI effects were put where they shouldn’t have been. The box office response was lukewarm, but in reality, it’s a solid sci-fi horror film with performances that are better than you remember. The tension is palpable, and the set pieces are very well-designed, and those are the only things you need to have a good time with a film that deserves better. You can rent The Thing (2011) on Prime Video.
2 Annihilation (2018)
Budget: $55 Million – Box Office: $43.1 Million
Annihilation
- Release Date
- February 22, 2018
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
Alex Garland’s sci-fi horror epic, Annihilation, follows a group of scientists who dare enter an area that should have remained untouched. Nevertheless, human curiosity drives everybody to go inside the Shimmer, a zone where alien intelligence has settled, and things don’t exactly… work the same. Told from the perspective of courageous female scientists, the film is a great depiction of our fragility in the face of the unknown. It is also one of the scariest alien invasion films ever made.
The film is one of the first in recent years to go through a horrible schedule, with Netflix releasing the film less than one month after it was released in theaters. Of course, people stayed home, and the film gained its cult status and whatever it could recover box office-wise.
It was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike as a very interesting sci-fi approach by one of today’s exciting filmmakers, but even then, Garland had the potential to be divisive, and this affected the final result. He was also very vocal in saying how the film should have remained in theaters as he made Annihilation for the big screen.
1 Green Room (2016)
Budget: $5 Million – Box Office: $3.8 Million
Green Room
- Release Date
- April 15, 2016
- Director
- Jeremy Saulnier
Jeremy Saulnier’s horror thriller Green Room takes audiences deep in the woods, where a punk band known as the Ain’t Rights has accepted to play in an obscure club as they tour the Pacific Northwest.
Very quickly, they realize they’re in a den of neo-nazis, but this doesn’t stop them from rocking out. The problem is that, in the green room, they find a body that has been butchered by the other band that played the very same day, and the owners of the club decide there shouldn’t be any witnesses to the crime.
A gritty film that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat, Green Room is a fascinating display of Saulnier’s ability to make different films. Nevertheless, distributors couldn’t exactly agree on a wide release, and it became an example of a film that not many people could see in theaters because they just didn’t know it would play.
Green Room was also featured in many critics’ lists of the best movies of 2016, with many praising Saulnier’s talent for using genre elements and weaponizing in a very tense and claustrophobic film with monsters who just happened to indulge in hate crimes.
