When creating films, there is always pressure to find some way to break the mold. Most of the time, innovations in film relate to storytelling conventions or new filmmaking techniques, and can revolutionize how audiences and critics view film and the visual entertainment medium as a whole.
For every success story, however, there are some examples where film gimmicks backfire. There are some films that have gimmicks that just cannot hold up for the entire run time. Other films have gimmicks that were horrible ideas from the start. Others still can cause irreversible damage to the filmmakers and the film studio that greenlit the idea.
10 Hardcore Henry's First Person View Is Nauseating
When 2015's Hardcore Henry was revealed to be shot completely in first person, it was such an interesting idea that it was worth watching for the gimmick alone. The plot was nothing special, but it didn't really have to be. It provided consistent, action-packed moments from opening to end credits and the excitement didn't let up for a single second.
In that, however, is where the problem lies. The filmmakers went to great lengths to prevent the audience from getting motion sickness while watching, something to be commended. But with that problem taken care of, the film is nothing but action sequences, and many audiences felt that the pacing was nonexistent, making the movie exhausting to sit through.
9 The Prestige Is Hard To Follow
Christopher Nolan is highly regarded as an innovator in the art of nonlinear storytelling. From the excellent Memento, to Inception and Tenet, it's clear that nonlinear structure is a trademark of Nolan. Some critics have complained that Nolan relies on it too much, and it can be a turn-off. With 2006's The Prestige, it is hard to argue against this point.
The Prestige tells its story from an extreme number of differing perspectives, angles, and points in time that it can be truly overwhelming to watch. At its core, it is a very intelligent film, but it takes a fair amount of effort to put the pieces together, perhaps more than most audiences are willing to give.
8 Sucker Punch Confuses The Audience
2011's Sucker Punch was a film that partially took place within the film's reality and partially took place within the delusions of the main character, Babydoll. The idea was that the alternate world and fantastical action sequences within Babydoll's mind were allegorical of what she was doing in real life.
In reality, the film was a mess, bouncing in between delusion and reality without warning, and audiences were unable to be invested in what was happening on screen. There was potential for a Donnie Darko-esque story where the audience sees things through the eyes of its troubled protagonist, but many critics felt that the movie didn't pull it off well.
7 A Quiet Place 2 Can't Maintain The Horror Of The Original
2018's A Quiet Place was easily one of the scariest movies of that year, maintaining an ever-present dread throughout the runtime. 2021's A Quiet Place 2, starts with the main characters already knowing the monsters' weakness and how to defeat them. On top of that, the monsters were given a new weakness, making it even harder to perceive them as a threat. The monsters needed something new to make them scarier and raise the stakes, but they didn't get anything like that.
With no new reasons to fear the monsters, the film turned to a series of increasingly contrived scenarios to drive up tension, and the sequel is simply unable to match the highs of the original.
6 The Bye Bye Man Has A Laughable Premise
2017's The Bye Bye Man's premise of a horror movie villain whose name shouldn't be spoken or thought in order to keep him at bay sounds like an interesting psychological horror. Because of these strict parameters and also the very nature of human thought, it effectively means that The Bye Bye Man's curse will never be lifted.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to convey what a character is thinking without breaking the fourth wall, so the film consists of everyone constantly saying the name out loud despite how much the phrase "Don't say it" is hammered into the audience's heads. Many also found it hard to take "The Bye Bye Man" as an intimidating villain name.
5 Unfriended Is Hard To Take Seriously
2014's Unfriended is a film that tried to modernize the found footage formula of horror film by making a film that took place entirely over a video call. It was an interesting idea, and its attempt to bring classic horror tropes into the modern era was much more competent than other films that tried the same thing.
However, some were not taken in by the film's format. Critics found the static presentation of video call to be more boring than anything else and, by extension, found the scares to be ineffective or even laughable. For many, it was hard to take a horror movie about a haunted video call seriously.
4 Natural Born Killers Is Too Shallow
1994's ever-controversial Natural Born Killers was upfront about its focus on a trippy style and hyper-violence, as is expected with a story written by Quentin Tarantino. The film has earned a cult following, but its core gimmick got old to a lot of viewers.
Many criticized that the movie claimed to be a satire on America's relationship with violent media but was lacking in any real purpose itself, offering instead what was effectively a supercut of gratuitous violence. Many argued that a film being all violence and no context, just gets tedious after some time. The special effects were also grating for a lot of people.
3 Cell's Scares Are Unintentionally Funny
2016's Cell was a film adaption of the 2006 Stephen King novel of the same name and tried to add a new twist to the zombie genre. The premise of the movie is that a wireless signal is sent through all phones and causes people who use them to turn into simple-minded killers. The premise just wasn't interesting to a lot of people for a variety of reasons.
For starters, the inherent technophobic plotline just couldn't resonate with audiences in 2016, where the discussions about the dangers of cell phones have long passed. Beyond that, many considered the film to be devoid of any actual suspense, with its attempts to scare the audience being seen as unintentionally funny.
2 Countdown's Premise Is Easily Circumvented
2019's Countdown is a film about an app that tells the user how much time they had left to live. It was an interesting idea with the potential for a modern take on the Final Destination films, as whenever the user learns of their fate, they naturally try to prevent it from happening, prompting a message that they had "violated the user agreement" and ultimately causing their death in a different way.
But then the film jumps the shark and introduces demons into the mix. Critics argued that the change in focus to demons ruined the interesting concept for much more generic scares, and many felt that the film couldn't redeem itself from this point.
1 Million Dollar Mystery's Gimmick Backfires Horribly
Dino De Laurenitis came up with a unique marketing idea for 1987's Million Dollar Mystery. The film was about a chase to find $4 million dollars, however, in the film, only $3 million are found. As part of a sweepstakes and also a cross-promotion with Glad Bags, the audience was prompted to use clues found in Glad Bags to figure out where the last million is hidden and win that money in real life.
Many criticized that advertising the sweepstakes as opposed to the film itself meant that the movie was an afterthought. The mystery was easily cracked by many people, meaning that the winner had to be chosen randomly. The film itself bombed critically and commercially, ultimately making less than a million dollars for itself at the box office.
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