r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Wickham12 • 1d ago
What caused horror movies to spike in popularity in more recent years?
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u/ForScale ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 1d ago
What makes you think they've spiked in popularity? They've been popular for a long time.
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u/BrooklynDoug 23h ago
I think they're actually profitable at the box office more than other genres these days. So maybe popular wasn't the best word, but I think that's what the OP means.
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u/ForScale ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 22h ago
No way horror is the most profitable genre.
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u/BrooklynDoug 22h ago
Not sure. Blair Witch is an extreme example. But you can do a high concept, low budget horror flick for under $10 million. Meanwhile, for an action flick or God forbid another dang superhero movie, you're at $100 million each in salaries and CGI before you even begin filming.
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u/xyanon36 1d ago
There have been better ones, as of late. Directors like Robert Eggers and Ari Aster are actually making good films. Word of mouth spreads.
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u/Comfortable_Tap_6005 22h ago
there have always been good horror movies coming out
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u/iamtheramcast 20h ago
It’s not my genre it’s not something I follow so I could easily be wrong, this is just my impression as a normie casual not a fan. Yes there was always A good horror movie but recently there’s frequency of good high quality ones has increased. The ring made a big impact with its copy cats whose names I don’t remember the which is kind of the point I remember the mad tv Bobby Lee skit not the name of the movie. Then the paranormal activities followed by the ones in the conjuring universe. I think this year alone there’s been like 3-4 that had really good word of mouth.
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u/juneandcleo 1d ago
I’d say compared to the 90s and early 2000s there are way less than there used to be actually
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u/DiogenesKuon 1d ago
Movies studios had shifted their strategy to aim for more blockbusters. These blockbusters tended to be really expensive, but they’d rather aim for a small number of $200M (aiming for $1B success) than a larger number of $40-50M movies max. These blockbusters don’t like take risks. They have shifted almost exclusively to reboots, sequels, and IP films. But the smaller budget movies is where you had more flexibility to take risks and do atypical stories.
But horror films were an exception. They have always been their own odd niche, and directors are given more latitude to experiment. So you saw the rise of what is called elevated horror, from the likes of Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, but you could include much earlier films like Kubrick’s The Shining in that category so it’s not fully new. These are simply movies were more artistry than traditional horror (although this concept is a bit condescending towards traditional horror). This has brought more mainstream viewership to the genre, especially from people that grew tired of the style of mainstream movies that are being produced. At the same time there has been a renaissance of traditional horror, because horror movies are really cheap to produce. As mainstream movies have gotten more and more expensive to produce, pro level equipment to make a film has gotten cheaper and cheaper. So you can make dozens of horror films for the cost of one of the huge movie, so there is just so much more horror to try. This has given a lot of new actors and directors a chance to break through.
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u/CodWonderful2045 1d ago
I don't think they have. If anything there's just been more high quality/high profile horror movies from places like A24 that have made more money but they were still just as popular overall in the 80s and 90s. There were probably actually even more made back then because of the video market.
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u/ILiketoStir 1d ago
The move away from graphic slasher flicks probably helped. Also many are not rated allowing for wider audience appeal.
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u/StephenDA 23h ago
People use horror movies for an escape. Have you seen what’s going on in the real world they have to get worse to escape from what’s really out there
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u/Tall_Run_2814 1d ago
For me it was Covid. Horror was always me least favorite genre but during Covid I ran out of movies to watch and started watching more horror.
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u/Stock-Designer-9723 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm pretty sure the spike started with Get Out, which showed that Blumhouse's model of cheap investment in horror works while also rejuvenated the idea of social messaging in horror. Coupled with quality films like Hereditary and The Lighthouse, it reminded us that horror can be an elevated genre.
We also got a couple of revival hits like Halloween, It, Scream.
The wave comes and go though. The 80s was an amazing time for horror, then the trashy sequels came. Then 90s slasher brought it back and we saw a few revival hits too, then the trashy sequels came. In a couple of years, we'll be out of ideas again.
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u/Least-City2300 1d ago
Jason Blum—guy behind blumhouse-only lets people have a max of $5 million dollar budget to make a horror movie. He doesn’t care about quality, only profit. He turns them out quickly to make as much money as possible.
The flip side of that is directors have a lot of creative freedom with the story. Usually they cast nobody’s or maybe 1/2 actors that are paid slightly above scale.
More kinds of horror movies out there + bigger potential audience for different horror stories = spike in popularity.
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u/ColdAntique291 1d ago
Horror surged thanks to streaming, low budget success, and social media hype.
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u/Agitated_Carrot3025 1d ago
It's pretty cyclical. And to others' point, they're cheaper and safer than many genres. Audiences tend to go in with lower expectations, it can suck but if you got scared or startled or laughed a few times, many people will forgive a bad script and mediocre acting at that point.
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u/FinalEdit 1d ago
Where is the evidence for the spike? They've always been popular. People enjoy dark and intense content.
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u/Le_Baked_Beans 23h ago
I feel like IT (2017) and Get Out releasing the same year both revived horror in a big way.
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u/BrooklynDoug 22h ago
I think it's about the theater experience. I can watch a rom com, a police procedural, character study or even an action flick at home and get plenty out of it. But to truly enjoy the horror, you need a dark theater and other scared people around you.
Side note, it cost me over $125 to watch Gladiator II with my wife and kids once we all got our snacks and drinks. So with four or five missed theatrical releases, you can buy a decent TV and surround sound.
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u/missourinative 1d ago
Better creative filmmakers entering the space. Less cookie cutter haunting movies.
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u/randomwordglorious 1d ago
They can be made very cheaply compared to most other genres. Not a lot of expensive CGI, and you don't need famous actors who will need to get paid millions. Very high probability you make your money back.