Cheap Thrills
This started out as a reply to the Gold Standard's post from earlier today, but it's turned into it's own entry. We skipped our Box Office Numbers of the Beast column yesterday, since it looked like the results were incomplete, but complete they were, Hostel 2 made just around $8.5 million on its opening weekend.
That seems pretty low, but...the budget was only $10 mil, so...it won't be a loss-leader. So, it cost a lot less than, oh, say, Grindhouse, and will end up doing pretty well.
We get most of our numbers from Box Office Mojo, by the way.
As has become common knowledge, releasing a movie in the theaters has become the equivalent of what taking a full page ad in the paper used to be. It's just a form of advertising for the sale of the DVD.
Of course the biggest success story ever is Blair Witch Project (which has been in the news lately, just scroll down), and they paid for that with couch change and gift certificates. I don't know why any studio or anyone would give a large budget to a horror movie when it seems like what people respond to is...cheap stuff. We like it cheap.
Take the leap for more thrifty thoughts on this.
Maybe part of what appeals to horror fans is the DIY feel of most of the classics. It's easy to get some good thrills with a pretty minimal setup. All you need is a cool idea, a dark room and some cute victims. Plus, most horror fans are a step away from being horror film-makers themselves.
It's like with comic books. The fans all want to be writing and drawing them.
Big budget horror movies with dodgy CGI effects just cry "sell-out!" to your basement blood mixer, and they don't appeal too much to living-room laura or her husband out in flyover country, so I don't know why they take the risk. Yes, horror sells, but only when it's cheap and close to something you feel like you can do yourself.
It's like with records. The "real fans" want to be the only ones who like a band. When the band "hits" they jump ship. It's elitist and unfair, but that's how they feel. It's that way with horror. The niche horror fan wants it to be his secret oppressed genre and not out in the open.
Dark things wither in the light.
That analogy really only works if you consider the light to be shining off of a pile of coins meant to represent a big-budget? I'll work on it.
You make some great points here, especially with the dodgy CGI/sellout one. Perhaps 2004's "Van Helsing" is a great example of this? I know I was extremely disappointed with the outcome. That film really had the potential to blow my socks off, but Stephen Sommers seemed to have confused "Van Helsing" with one of his "Mummy" flicks. Thanks, Stephen!
As far as Hostel Part II goes, sure, it will end up turning a decent profit, but $8.5M is way down from the original Hostel's opening of $19+ Million. Torture films have run their course and frankly, I can't wait to see them go. This includes the ridiculous "Saw" franchise as well. What's next for Jigsaw, a trip to outer-space for a date with Paris Hilton?
Thankfully this Halloween we'll have a few other films to pick from - Trick 'r Treat and Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night. Along with the 11th Anniversary of Monsterfest of course.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Van Helsing is the pitch-perfect movie for this discussion. That opening sequence is amazing, and then the whole thing is undone by that bargain basement CGI troll in the attic.
Woah, it's an awesome homage to Universal horror films! Wait! Why is he fighting Jar Jar Binks?
It was like a roller coaster that brings you up, up up, and then lets you off at the top instead of giving you the thrill-plummet. Super disappointing.
There are some great images and ideas in that movie, (those flying Vampire girl bat things rank with the top creature designs sort of ever) but it really looks focus-grouped to death. I can just hear Laura La-Z-Boy moaning in a post-screening survey that Frankenstein wasn't friendly enough.
And I reckon that's the Curse of the Big Budget. The risk is minimized and the film gets sanitized. That's why your cheapies are so good, they're all risk.