When it comes to Ben Affleck, the only thing more consistent than his love for Dunkin’ is his Hollywood presence. Ever since he and Matt Damon had their breakthrough roles in Good Will Hunting, Affleck has proven that he’s a force of nature, from his portrayal of Nick Dunne in the electrifying Gone Girl to donning that infamous mask to become the Dark Knight of Gotham.
But while Ben Affleck has been in some of the best movies of all time, the Batman actor has also been in some pretty dreadful ones, too. And no — for once, we aren’t talking about Gigli (although that truly is one of the worst movies to haunt our screens). We’re talking about Phantoms.
If you’ve never heard of it, I don’t blame you. It’s hardly the best horror movie ever made. More specifically, Phantoms is a movie based on a book by Dean Kootz. The book is a richly layered story set in Snowfield, Colorado, as a sinister being threatens to wipe out all the residents as those left behind fight for survival. But many of the things that made the novel great, like its depth and literary references to authors like HP Lovecraft, were either intentionally removed or failed to come across on-screen.
The resulting film felt hollow and disjointed, with Affleck his co-stars, giving deeply unconvincing performances. So, it should be no surprise that the film got a measly 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and that it grossed just 5.6 million in total at the box office.
The 1998 film wasn’t Affleck’s first forday into the genre. He had a small role in the Buffy movie in 1992. But after Phantoms, he decided he was better off behind the camera as a co-producer of the 2005 monster movie Feast as part of the LivePlanet production company.
That movie didn’t do much better, garnering 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it did spawn multiple sequels and is, at least, a step up from Phantoms.