REVIEW BY RICHIE DIETRICH

As we approach the season of spooks and scares, theaters start to release the latest horror/ thriller films. However, this month’s releases were not as great as viewers had anticipated. The Predator and The Nun were among the movie selections in which critics were let down the most.

Predator (2018):

Something that movie-goers have had high hopes for since it was announced was a reimagining of the Predator series.The last movie in the series, Predators, was released in 2010, and left a bad taste in the mouth of viewers. This left fans hoping that the reboot would deliver something better.  However, this was not the case.

Marketed as a science fiction/thriller film, Predator made promises to fans that were far from fulfilled. From the gory-action scenes to the recapturing of the charm of the Predator that has not been fulfilled since the original, fans were hopeful that eight-year downtime would achieve such goals–but they did not. In fact, Predator received worse reviews than any other film in the series, and even managed to lie about the film through its marketing. After making the movie seem like a thriller,  the final product amounted to nothing more than a glorified comedy.

With critic reviews ranging from Rotten Tomatoes’ rotten rating of 34% to IMDb’s measly 6/10, it is evident that the finished product fell flat on its face. With misleading advertising, high expectations from long-time fans and an eight-year buffer between films, Predator took everything that was going for it and washed it away.

The Nun (2018):

The fifth movie in The Conjuring series, The Nun, found a way to use false advertising and cheap scares to build excitement for itself that never should have existed.

Chronologically taking place before all the other events in The Conjuring universe, The Nun set itself up for failure by giving audiences the impression that it would answer many of the open-ended and even unanswered questions that the other movies in the series failed to answer.

Advertising the film with a major lie that the reveal trailer was “too scary” for audiences was only the first mistake that producers made. In fact, the reason that the reveal trailer for the film was removed from YouTube was due to the fact that it broke YouTube’s Community Guidelines for shocking content. The reveal trailer even prompted viewers to turn up the volume on their devices only to be hit with an unnecessary jump scare.

The Nun also failed due to its rushed production. With the past three films in The Conjuring series being released one year apart from one another, they also suffered the same fate of rushed production that The Nun also did; however, The Nun took the heaviest hit of all.

With The Conjuring series pushing out movies on a yearly basis for the past three years, alongside false advertising of The Nun having a reveal trailer “too scary” for audiences and the over-reliance the film has on cheap, unthoughtful jump scares, The Nun already failed before it even begun.

Despite the previous films being unsuccessful in their popularity, it is hoped that better movies will be produced soon.