Scott Adkins hasn't exactly received high praise for his horror films, but how do they stack up against one another in a ranking? Adkins' first horror movie was titled Stag Night and was released in 2008. His most recent was released in 2016 under the title Home Invasion. Adkins has released a total of five horror movies over the past 13 years, and while none of them are viewer favorites or cult classics, they have each developed their own audiences. Scott Adkins is primarily known for direct-to-video movies, and his horror films are no different. Scott Adkins’ action films will most likely always overshadow his horror movies, and he is known as one of the biggest modern action stars, but Adkins’ horror films are still worth a mention.
Adkins' horror movies aren't linked to one another, nor do they share similar plots. They are all unique. Home Invasion and Doctor Strange.
While he has a long list of movies under his belt, Adkins' horror films are largely forgettable. All of them have scored very low on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Although to be fair, none of them have a significant number of ratings either. However, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning made it into the top 10 in a previous ranking of every Scott Adkins movie, while none of Adkins’ other horror films made the list. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is widely considered to be an action film, not a horror movie. That said, Day of Reckoning is still included on this list due to its psychological chills and heavy experimentation with the world of body horror. Below is a complete ranking of every Scott Adkin's horror flick from worst to best.
5. Legendary (2013)
In Legendary (2013), Adkins stars as Travis Preston, the leader of a team sent to China in search of a cryptid. Preston himself is a cryptozoologist, and he and his team specialize in protecting rare species. The creature they are after in China is an animal that isn't supposed to exist. It is wreaking havoc on a small village, and Travis and his team are in a rush to collect the creature before a hunter intent on killing it beats him to the punch. For anyone familiar with the rest of Adkins' portfolio, it is probably not at all surprising that Legendary is at the very bottom of this list. While only one of Adkin's horror movies has an IMDB rating above 5.0, this one is sitting at a very low 3.7 out of 10. Even those who appreciate Adkins' films find this one to be one lackluster creature feature.
4. Stag Night (2008)
Stag Night (2008) is Adkins' very first horror film. Released in 2008, the story centers around a small group of men out for a stag party before one of them is set to get married. Outside of the plot, this is a difficult watch for many viewers because of the shakiness of the camera that is present during the entire film and distracts from what's happening in the story. The best man harasses several women while they are riding on the subway in New York. The men get off of the train early and end up in an abandoned train station, where they are then hunted by a group of cannibals. In the horror genre, cannibals are popular in TV, movies, and games, but this story is a fairly large stretch when it comes to believability. A group of people is living in the tunnels below the most highly populated city in the United States without anyone realizing it, and the men spend the night trying to survive. While it's not the worst entry on this list, it certainly doesn't make it into the top three.
3. Home Invasion (2016)
Home Invasion (2016) follows an employee at a high-tech security company. The story is a psychological thriller about a wealthy woman named Chloe (Natasha Henstridge) and her step-son, who live in a mansion on a remote island. Expert thieves break into their house and shoot Chloe's friend. Because of their remote location, the only person who can help Chloe is a security systems specialist, played by Adkins. While it's directed by David Tennant (not Doctor Who's David Tennant), who only has six directing credits to his name, Home Invasion still manages to be the one and only entry out of the five films on this list that has earned a score higher than 5.0 on IMDB. It barely ed the mark and currently holds a 5.1, but because the movie is also one of the least-watched of all of Adkins’ films, it is not higher on this list.
2. Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) is usually considered an action movie, not a horror, but it has enough psychological David Lynch-style scares to warrant its inclusion on this list. Day of Reckoning also takes a dive into the world of body horror. John (Adkins) wakes up from a coma to discover that both his wife and daughter were murdered during a home invasion by former UniSol Luc Devereaux, who is played by martial arts icon Jean-Claude Van Damme. On his mission to hunt down Devereaux, John is pursued by a UniSol played by Andrei Arlovski. John soon learns that he has super-human strength, and the film makes use of plenty of extremely visceral martial arts-based action sequences. While it doesn’t hold the highest spot on this list, Day of Reckoning is not only one of Adkins’ best action movies, it is also one of the best Universal Soldier movies.
1. Re-Kill (2015)
Reaching number one on this list is Re-Kill (2015). The 2015 flick takes place five years after a worldwide outbreak. The film centers around zombies and came near the end of the first undead craze, which is still going with a new Marvel show centered around zombies. The zombies in Re-Kill, called Re-Animates, have resulted in the deaths of 85% of the world's population, and a majority of major cities are still completely uninhabitable five years after the fact. The Re-Animates have been segregated into certain areas called zones which are run and kept in check by the R-Division, whose job is to hunt down the Re-Animates. During the course of their duties, the R-Division discovers signs of a second zombie outbreak. Released during the latter half of the zombie craze that caused a swarm of movies and TV shows based on the undead creatures, Re-Kill didn't exactly breathe new life into the subgenre, but it is a worthy outing as a fast-paced action/ horror film centered around a zombie apocalypse, which is why it is Scott Adkins' best horror film.
