A repugnant horror that bombed hard despite not costing very much documents dire tales of demonic possession on streaming

There arguably isn’t a genre more safe from box office disaster than horror – barring a minute few notable exceptions, of course – with the genre’s low risk and high reward model turning it into a veritable bounty, with audiences always desperate to be scared out of their seats. However, despite not costing very much at all, The Vatican Tapes still managed to bomb spectacularly.

Released in the summer of 2015, Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-director Mark Neveldine few solo on a tedious tale of demonic possession, one that completely merited its abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score of just 20 percent. At a relatively thrifty $13 million to produce, the expectations were that it would turn a tidy profit. Except, it didn’t, possibly because it wasn’t very good.

Despite boasting the always-reliable Michael Peña and Djimon Honsou among its ensemble, The Vatican Tapes barely recouped its budget from theaters, but it has at least been exorcising those demons on streaming by winding up as one of the top-viewed titles on Max heading into the weekend, per FlixPatrol.

The story revolves around the haunting of Angela Holmes, who ends up having an adverse effect on those around her to put it lightly. Naturally, the Vatican comes calling to try and rid her of the demon within, only to discover that not even the messengers of the man upstairs are powerful enough to take it on single-handed. If you’ve seen one exorcism movie, then there’s not a single surprise contained within, which might explain the overriding sense of apathy.