Passengers & 9 Other Film Flops That Would Have Made Better Horror Movies – Screen Rant

For every great movie that comes out of Hollywood, there's 10 or more that end up being meh, bad, or downright terrible. No one sets out to make a bad movie (or so we've been told), but a lot of variables might result in a bad product anyway, such as bad writing, directing, and editing. Yet no one talks about another issue that could sink a film; the choice of what genre it's in.

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It sounds strange saying that, but when you watch certain bad movies, you can't help but feel that they could work, just not in the genre they were made for. 2016'sPassengersis a great example of this: it was promoted as a sci-fi romance, but ended up being something more...horrific. But that's not the only instance of this issue, as we'll be looking at some other films that could have made better horror entries as well.

This film hasn't held up well in most regards--and we're not just talking about having Bill Cosby in the lead role. The story of three kids and the ghost of their dad could have made for an inventive supernatural horror film. What if the father was abusive, forcing his kids to stand up for themselves early on? His surprise death would relieve them, but his spirit would continue haunting them soon after. Just imagine the sadistic horror that could come from that premise: you could even keep the scene where Cosby chokes someone through a phone, for instance.

Sandra Bullock won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for this film, where she plays a crossword puzzle writer who relentlessly stalks a handsome cameraman (Bradley Cooper) after a blind date. Not to step on any toes if Bullock's character had a pre-existing diagnosis, but the film tries to make her actions endearing, but only end up making her creepier and borderline psychotic with every passing scene. Instead of a feel-good comedy, this should have been a full-on horror-comedythat embraced its deranged main character and went all out in her obsession with Steve, along the lines of Jim Carrey's character inThe Cable Guy.

Jexi'spremise: a guy who's dependent on his smartphone for his daily routine and companionship gets a new phone with a tough virtual assistant that first improves then starts ruining his life. It sounds great for asci-fi horror comedy that satirizes modern society's reliance on their phones and the need to be more connected with the physical world.

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Yes, shows likeBlack Mirrorhave done this already, butJexicould have been unique, where it starts as a funny and harmless comedy before becoming more psychologically terrifying as Jexi continues controlling DeVine's life. But alas, we didn't get any of that. What we got instead was a mostly laugh-free comedy with a predictable happy ending.

This Netflix rom-com is mediocre on its own, but it makes this list because the main character Sierra is a terrible human being--and yet the film still wants us to like her! When her school nemesis Veronica gives Sierra's number to jock Jamey as a joke and he contacts her, Sierra never says he's got the wrong number. Not only does she catfish him, but she kisses him without his consent and pretends to be deaf in front of him with Veronica (knowing full well that Jamey's brother is deaf!!). Instead of ripping off cliches fromMean Girls, this movieshould have been closer in tone to 2005'sPretty Persuasion, in which Sierra manipulates those around her to get what she wants, people's lives be damned.

2008'sHancockwas an odd beast when it came out, and itstillstands out, though not in the best way. This makes us think back to an earlier version of the scriptcalledTonight, He Comes(script available here), where Hancock was more of a broken, brutal anti-hero whose dark obsession with (and rejection from) Charlize Theron's character results in him lashing out destructively.

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The early script isn't that great, but that outline had potential:Hancockcould have given us a horrific deconstruction of the baggage that comes with being a superhero, and what makes a normal man different from a superman. Seeing Will Smith in this role could have shocked us and opened new doors for him as an actor.

Please hear us out on this one: what if the premise wasn't super-smart babies being studied by scientists, but beingcreatedby them instead? And what if those babies got loose, adopted by unsuspecting parents? Imagine the dark shenanigans these tykes could get into with the right resources at their disposal--world domination, perhaps? The possibilities for this one were endless, and what could have been a disturbing horror-comedy became a family comedy instead.

How could this one notbe a horror film? A creepy Ben Affleck pays James Gandolfiniwho forceshis family (based off a script he wrote for how everything would go) to sing carols, bake cookies, and have snowball fights. Does that sound like a heartwarming holiday comedy to you guys? No wonder this failed as a comedy; it was meant to function as a tale of survival during a time of joy instead! What a missed opportunity for all involved.

From director William H. Macy,The Layoveris probably the most heinous comedy to ever be filmed, and we say that with absolute certainty. Its plot follows two best friends--played by the more deserving Alexandra Daddario and Kate Upton -fighting for the affections of a handsome guy while staying at a hotel. This movie has a lot of things - blatant, almost oblivious misogyny, its two leads objectified to a level even Michael Bay wouldn't stoop to, and characters so unlikeable and unrealistic you'd wish the hurricane that strands everyone at the hotel would go and finish them off - but nothing resembling a funny joke. And in a better movie, maybe that's where the horror element would come in.

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Imagine a nightmarish version of 2019'sIsn't it Romantic where Daddario's character finds herself trapped in a demeaning, sexist rom-com that's designed to only appeal to men. She'd have to avoid or rise above every cliche that presents itself, eventually finding a way to reshape the world to be more respectful to women overall, doubling as a commentary on some of the roles actresses get relegated to in rom-coms and other films alike.

Did we sayThe Layoverwas the worst comedy ever filmed? Judging from its 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, everyone probably thought this was a horror film anyway. But let's kick it up a notch: Jack's wife and kids could be led to believe that Jill was Jack's sister that they'd never met. Jack's wife asks her husband to meet her and Jack reluctantly agrees, though little do they know that JackisJill; he's been hiding his dissociative identity disorder from them for years, and when his medication to suppress Jill fails to come in on time, his insane "sister" resurfaces. This could have been a combination ofMe, Myself, & IreneandSplit, where Jack alternates between himself and Jill but tries to control himself, rather than risk hurting his family.

The Passengerstrailers showed an intriguing sci-fi romance, where Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence wake up from hibernation pods aboard a spaceship to a new planet, falling in love while stopping the ship from malfunctioning. But that's not what we got. Instead, Pratt gets woken up by accident, spending a year alone before opening Lawrence's pod because he watched some videos of her and thought they were soulmates, basically dooming them both before they even reach the new planet. In a more appropriate horror film, this could have been a sharp metaphor for sexual assault, and (similar to Nerdwriter1's suggestion) had Lawrence kill Pratt instead of forgiving him, after which she gets lonely and contemplates opening someone else's pod by the end.

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Passengers & 9 Other Film Flops That Would Have Made Better Horror Movies - Screen Rant