search instagram twitter facebook pinterest chevron-right chevron-left email menu cross caret
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to menu-404 navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Darcy Magazine

The lifestyle site you always wanted. Darcy is your source for lifestyle coverage, entertainment, relationships, fashion, beauty, jokes, puns, and everything trending on the Internet.

  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV + Movies
  • Beauty
    • Makeup
    • Nail Ideas
    • Skincare
  • Style
  • Funny
    • Jokes + Puns
    • Memes
  • Drinks
  • Lifestyle
    • The Internet
    • Astrology
    • Money + Career
    • Trivia
  • Weddings
  • Relationships
  • Shopping
  • News
  • Sign In
  • About Us
  • Newsletter
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
  • Terms
© 2025 Darcy Magazine
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV + Movies
  • Style
  • Beauty
    • Makeup
    • Nail Ideas
    • Skincare
  • Lifestyle
    • Astrology
    • Money + Career
    • The Internet
    • Trivia
    • Weddings
  • Relationships
  • Funny
    • Jokes + Puns
    • Memes
  • Shopping
Home » Entertainment » TV + Movies

The 10 Most Underrated and Overrated Halloween Movies

By Kayleigh Donaldson | September 28, 2021 | Updated on June 7, 2023 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links that we collect a share of sales from. Click here for more details.
43 shares
Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Paranormal Activity

The spooky season is upon us, which means it’s the perfect time to curl up on the couch with your favorite pumpkin spice beverage and watch a few scary movies.

There are so many to choose from too, from classic fright-fests and splatter gore to the kinds of traumatic nightmare fuel that leaves you unable to sleep for days. Hear that, insomnia? You have some competition!

So what should you watch this Halloween? Here are our picks for underrated Halloween movies as well as a few that we think could be put back into the coffin.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies

 

The Most Overrated and Underrated Halloween Movies to Watch This Year

1. UNDERRATED: ParaNorman

The stop-motion wizards at Laika Animation have been making gorgeous spooky movies like Coraline for years. ParaNorman is the story of an ostracized kid who can see ghosts and is great for horror fans of all ages. If you never grew out of your Tim Burton phase, you won’t want to miss this one.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - ParaNorman
Photo Credit: Laika Studios

 

2. OVERRATED: Saw

In 2004, James Wan became the horror director to watch with Saw, a tricksy splatter film that spawned a long-running franchise. The hook was simple: victims are forced to compete in violent “games” where they must deal with excruciatingly painful situations to survive.

Cue a barrage of skin slicing, bone breaking, limb removal, and twisting of the body in ways that nature never intended. What, no endless sets of burpees?

We get the appeal of classic gore, but Saw has long lost its punch and is mostly just tedious.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Saw
Photo Credit: Lionsgate

 

3. UNDERRATED: Ouija: Origin of Evil

The 2014 Ouija was a critical bomb that nobody seemed especially excited to see a prequel for. Yet director Mike Flanagan pulled out all the stops to create that rarity in horror: a follow-up that’s miles better than the original.

Set in the late ’60s, Origin of Evil follows a phony medium who incorporates a Ouija board into her readings, only to unwittingly contact a spirit who possesses her youngest daughter. We’re starting to think that our mom’s set-up tactics are pretty harmless.

Flanagan’s become a horror favorite in recent years thanks to Doctor Sleep and The Haunting of Hill House, so check out this early effort to see how scary he’s been since the beginning.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Ouija Origin of Evil
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures

 

4. OVERRATED: Hocus Pocus

Look, we know that Disney’s Hocus Pocus is a ‘90s favorite for so many people. Who doesn’t like campy witches and Bette Midler? You just can’t argue with nostalgia and its rose-tinted goggles. It’s ruthless in debate club.

But truthfully, Hocus Pocus isn’t very funny or scary, and it spends a lot of time focusing on the adolescent boy protagonist’s virginity. It’s not without its moments, but if you didn’t grow up with Hocus Pocus then you probably won’t get what all the fuss is about.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Hocus Pocus
Photo Credit: Disney

 

5. UNDERRATED: Jennifer’s Body

When Karyn Kusama’s teen horror movie starring Megan Fox first premiered, critics didn’t get it and audiences wrote it off as just horny bait for teen boys.

Written by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body is a witty and ridiculously appealing take on the nightmare that is female adolescence. Combine the scathing wit of Heathers with the body count of Friday the 13th, plus a sly feminist commentary on the way that women’s bodies are exploited and disposed by awful men and you have this film.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Jennifer's Body
Photo Credit: Fox Atomic

 

6. OVERRATED: Hostel

If you watched the Saw movies and thought they just weren’t perversely torturous enough, then chances are your name is Eli Roth.

Hostel follows three American students who end up stuck in a Slovakian hostel and find themselves the prey for a group of businessmen looking to mutilate human victims with no consequences. So weird the Tripadvisor review never mentioned that.

There are interesting ideas at play in this torture porn film, but Roth mostly seems interested in violence for violence’s sake. And, like the ceaseless assembly line of Saw movies, it just descends into boredom and stomach churning after a while. If we wanted that, we would just dive into the leftovers from the back corner of our fridge.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Hostel
Photo Credit: Lionsgate

 

7. UNDERRATED: The Invitation

The Invitation (also by Karyn Kusama) starts out pretty normal: A group of friends attend a dinner party full of awkward chatter and strains of past trauma. It’s all standard stuff until the hosts start to rhapsodize about a cult-like group they’ve joined called The Invitation, and they want their friends to join them on their journey. Have we see this plot in our DMs before?

This is a slow burn horror without any supernatural shocks or ultra-violent moments, but it’s no less terrifying.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - The Invitation
Photo Credit: Gamechanger Films

 

8. OVERRATED: Paranormal Activity

It’s hard to overstate just how big a deal Paranormal Activity was when it premiered in 2007. That simple concept – a young couple films their bedroom while they sleep after they suspect that they’re being haunted – was instantly appealing to the masses.

For seasoned horror lovers, however, Paranormal Activity is derivative. Jump scares work now and then, but the movie is nothing but them. You know exactly where this film is going at every turn. And then there were neverending sequels. If you forgot about those, we apologize for the reminder.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Paranormal Activity
Photo Credit: Blumhouse Productions

 

9. UNDERRATED: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

We all know Halloween for its masked killer Michael Myers, but the third film in the series doesn’t feature him at all. Initially, the plan was to turn the series into an anthology with non-connected spooky stories. Even though audiences rejected that concept and demanded more Myers, that shouldn’t discourage you from watching this genuinely fascinating title.

The concept is thus: A sinister company prepares to sell Halloween masks to eager kids, but there’s a dangerous and witchy conspiracy afoot. It’s a dark, witty, satirical nod at America’s consumer culture.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - Halloween III Season of the Witch
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures

 

10. OVERRATED: The Ring

The Ring is a pale imitation of the 1998 Japanese horror movie it’s based on. And, once you’ve seen Ringu, you can’t help but notice all of the ways that the American movie either directly rips off its source material or does its best scenes less well. It’s the classic, “copy my homework but make it different.” Different, in this case, being worse.

Underrated Overrated Halloween Movies - The Ring
Photo Credit: DreamWorks Pictures
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Kayleigh Donaldson
Kayleigh Donaldson
Kayleigh Donaldson is a pop culture writer whose work can be found on Pajiba, WhatToWatch, and Screen Rant. She is also the co-host of the podcast The Hollywood Read. She can usually be found on Twitter talking about actors named Chris.
Kayleigh Donaldson
Latest posts by Kayleigh Donaldson (see all)
  • Meet The Women Behind Some of Science Fiction’s Greatest Hits - December 9, 2021
  • All The Batman Movie Villains Ranked From Best to Worst - November 19, 2021
  • The 10 Most Underrated and Overrated Halloween Movies - September 28, 2021
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links from Amazon and other sites that we collect a share of sales from.
43 shares

Read This Next

21 Hocus Pocus Memes That’ll Make You Cackle Like Winifred

21 Hocus Pocus Memes That’ll Make You Cackle Like Winifred

11 Fun Facts You’ll Want to Know Before Watching Marvel’s WandaVision

11 Fun Facts You’ll Want to Know Before Watching Marvel’s WandaVision

12 Badass Female Superheroes To Dress Up As This Halloween

12 Badass Female Superheroes To Dress Up As This Halloween

21 Beetlejuice Halloween Decorations That’ll Make Your Millennium

21 Beetlejuice Halloween Decorations That’ll Make Your Millennium

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Primary Sidebar

Trending Now

Footer

  • Newsletter
  • Advertise
  • Press Room
  • Web Stories
  • Editorial Policies
  • About Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • News
© 2016–2025 Darcy Magazine
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
43 shares
43 shares