13 Horror Movies That Bombed at the Box Office but Became Classics After Home Video Release

The Monster Squad

Synopsis: One hundred years ago, Dracula and other monsters survive to the attack of Dr. Van Helsing and his men to his castle with a magical amulet. In the present days, Dracula travels to the United States and arrives in a small town. He summons the Werewolf, the Mummy, the Swamp Thing and Frankenstein’s creature to help him to retrieve the amulet. In the town, a man claims that he is the werewolf and goes to the police station to ask to be locked up in a cell. Meanwhile a mummy vanishes from the local museum and police detective Del is assigned to investigate the case. When his son Sean, who is a monster fan, learns the news, he joins his friends Patrick, Horace and Rudy in his monster club to read a Van Helsing’s journal that was given by his mother. However the book is written in German and they are not able to translate it. So they asks for help from their weird neighbor that they call Scary German Guy and they discover that they need to recover the amulet and a virgin to get rid off Dracula and the monsters. Meanwhile Sean’s little sister Phoebe, who is unsuccessfully trying to join the club, befriends Frankenstein’s creature. The unlike group brings Patrick’s sister, who claims that is virgin, to read the passage that sends the monsters to the limbo. Will they be successful in their intent?

Domestic Box Office: $3.7 million

Budget: $12 million

Opening weekend: #12

The Verdict: Nobody rushed to their local cinema to see The Monster Squad. Seriously, almost nobody went to see the movie. It’s one of the biggest box office flops the genre has seen… yet it’s an amazing movie. The quality of the flick wasn’t lost on fans, who graduated I tasted to the movie once it finally hit VHS. It sold damn well as a tape, and it’s continued to do so on disc. It’s 2016 and The Monster Squad is now recognized as one of the greatest pictures to see release in the ’80s.

The Thing

Synopsis: A US research station, Antarctica, early-winter 1982. The base is suddenly buzzed and attacked by a helicopter from the nearby Norwegian research station. They appeared to be trying to kill one of the dogs from the US base. Having dealt with the threat, the members of the US team fly to the Norwegian base, only to discover them all dead or missing. They do find the remains of a strange creature the Norwegians burned. The Americans take it to their base and deduce that it an alien life form. After a while it is apparent that the alien can take over and assimilate into other life forms, including humans, and can spread like a virus. This means that anyone at the base could be inhabited by The Thing, and tensions escalate.

Domestic Box Office: $19 million

Budget: $10 million

Opening weekend: #8

The Verdict: At this point, after numerous different releases, it’s damn near impossible to monitor unit sales, but in this case, that doesn’t matter much. John Carpenter’s The Thing is unanimously acknowledged as one of the greatest films in history, and it deserves such recognition. For more than three decades fans have swooned over the picture, and it has earned so many different releases it’s astonishing. If you’re looking for the very best version of the flick, look into Scream Factory’s new collector’s edition, it’s nothing short of breathtaking.

Visit the next page to continue reafing our list.