Horror flicks by definition are supposed to scare the daylights out of you. But for every horror movie that is as terrifying as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, there are scores of movies that just fail to deliver the goods, like Gus Van Sant's pointless remake of Psycho. With Halloween coming up, we've put together a batch of duds that are far, far less frightening than watching the news from Wall Street.

Photo by 20th Century FoxTHE HAPPENING

There's a fine line between being atmospheric and just being boring. This film -- about killer tree pollen -- is filled with long lingering pastoral shots of trees and tall grass punctuated by laughably spectacular mass suicides. In what is supposed to be a gripping suspense sequence, the heroes run away from the wind. Oooh, scary, scary wind. By the time the credits roll, you're more likely to be nodding off instead of contemplating the movie's "deep" ecological meaning.

Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures, Everett CollectionTHE WICKER MAN

The 1973 original, which was hailed as "the Citizen Kane of British horror," has an ending that still shocks. The only shock to be found in Neil LaBute's unbelievably bad remake is the realization that well-paid movie professionals actually thought that dressing up Nic Cage in a bear suit would elicit anything other than laughter.

Photo by Dimension Films, Everett CollectionPULSE

After watching the original Japanese version of the flick, a genuinely spooky flick about technology and loneliness, you'll never look at your computer in the same way again. This version, on the other hand, just felt stale. Moody lighting? Check. Freaky music video-like dream sequences? Check. Overbearing soundtrack? Check. Wildly over-produced special effects? Check. Vacant, gym-sculpted teens stumbling around in the dark? Check. The resulting movie, like most J-Horror remakes, was so dull that you could say it, um, lacked a pulse.

Photo by Artisan Entertainment, Everett CollectionHOUSE OF THE DEAD

A band of hapless, nubile teens who venture to a remote island for a rave soon find themselves zombie bait. The characters, however, prove to be so bland and annoying that by the end of the flick, you're rooting for the undead -- at least they have personalities. Directed by German hack extraordinaire Uwe Boll, this movie doesn't have a tenth of the scares as the videogame it was based on, even though footage of the game is spliced into the action for no good reason.

Photo by Dimension Films, Everett CollectionCURSED

Director Wes Craven has helmed horror masterpieces like Nightmare on Elm Street. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson wrote Scream. And star Christine Ricci is great at playing cute and creepy. So why is "Cursed" such a bore? It plays out like werewolves on the CW. The characters are all whiny, spoiled 20-somethings, and after the studio cut down the violence to get a PG-13 rating, there weren't any thrills left over. The only frightening thing about the flick is the bizarre Scott Baio cameo.

Photo by Paramount Pictures, Everett CollectionTHINNER

Stephen King has been responsible for some of the most terrifying books of all time. But, he's also be responsible for some of the dullest and silliest movies ever. When lists are compiled of people's biggest fears, "dropping a few extra pounds" isn't generally on there. But that's what happens to the overweight lawyer who gets a gypsy curse placed on him until he withers away to nothing. To break the spell, his mobster buddy strong-arms the shaman into transferring the curse to a pie. "The Shining" this ain't.

Photo by Universal Pictures/Kobal Collection, WireImageHALLOWEEN III: THE SEASON OF THE WITCH

The original "Halloween," about a masked killer lumbering after babysitters, is pretty much the godfather of slasher flicks. In this installment of the franchise, the filmmakers jettison its original, financially-lucrative formula in favor of face-eating Halloween masks, shamrocks, and one of the most annoying commercial jingles ever written. Not surprisingly, the knife-wielding maniac returned in Halloween 4.

Photo by Universal Pictures, Everett CollectionJAWS 4: THE REVENGE

You'd think that escaping from a shark with a Charles Bronson-esque taste for vengeance would be easy. Just avoid the ocean. But this didn't seem to occur to the Brody family. Instead, they stubbornly remained in the Bahamas where they were terrorized by the shark's biologically-impossible roars. This movie is so dull that even the actors look bored, particularly Michael Caine, who couldn't collect his Oscar because he was stuck filming this dud.

Photo by Transworld Entertainment, Everett CollectionTROLL 2

By pretty much any measure, this film has to be ranked as one of the worst films ever made. Describing the mind-bogglingly idiotic plot might very well induce a migraine, but it does include oozing chlorophyll, militantly vegetarian goblins, and some of the worst line readings in history. The main thing the movie lacks: a single troll. (This movie was so low budget that we can't find stills for it. So instead we threw in a pic from Troll, a movie that actually has Trolls.)

Photo by Criswell/Kobal Collection, WireImagePLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE

To criticize this movie's staggering incompetence is like criticizing a child's drawing for not understanding perspective. Sure, the film features gasoline soaked paper plates posing as UFOs, ghouls terrorizing housewives in cardboard cemeteries, and talk of a bomb that causes sunlight to explode, but director Ed Wood's vision is so laughably juvenile and pure that the "Plan 9" seems strangely wholesome. And it's no more frightening than your average episode of "Mister Roger's Neighborhood."

There are a lot of truly terrible, laughably unscary horror films out there. Runners up for this list included: feardotcom, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, My Bloody Valentine, The Fog, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Orca, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and Dark Water. What else should be on this list? You tell us.