How long has it been since you went to the theater to watch a domestic horror movie? The domestic horror film "Yuanyanglou·Fright", which was released on Halloween, has currently achieved a box office of 26 million. According to Beacon AI box office prediction, the final box offi

2024-11-05 15:27:05 entertainment 2163℃

How long has it been since you went to the theater to watch a domestic horror movie?

The domestic horror film " Yuanyanglou Horror " released on Halloween has currently achieved a box office of 26 million. According to the box office prediction of Lighthouse AI, the final landing point is 41.26 million - this result can already be achieved in the professional version of domestic horror films in Lighthouse Ranked third on the all-time box office list.

"Although it is still a mystery, I want to encourage first-tier film and television companies for not investing in domestic horror films for a long time." A hot comment on Douban also expressed the thoughts of Poisonous Eyes to a certain extent. Although a certain number of domestic horror films have been released in recent years, the volume is too small and there are no mainstream film companies behind them. They can basically be ignored in the film market.

However, the past highlight moments of domestic horror films are still vivid in our minds. Whether it is " Beijing No. 81 ", which has a box office of 412 million, greatly raising the box office ceiling of this genre, or "The Evil", which is praised by movie fans and regarded as the hope for the rise of domestic horror films, they are all going in their own directions. The above cases have inspired practitioners.

From being a "star of tomorrow" to being "yesterday's flower" now, what has happened to domestic horror films? The years when

disappeared

From a product perspective, I have to admit that "Yuanyang House·Horror" is quite "trendy" in the domestic horror film sequence.

From the perspective of the packaging of horror concepts, "Yuanyang House·Horror" is full of various "Chinese horror" elements, such as ghost marriage and so on. Although this style has appeared in many previous domestic horror films, in the past two years, driven by high-quality works in the games, comics and other markets, "Chinese horror" has returned to the position of popular culture. Poisonous Eyes has specifically studied "Chinese horror" in its previous article (click here to read: "Still "Chinese Horror" is the Most Scary"). Excellent games such as "Paper Wedding Dress", " Fireworks " and "San Fu" are featured here played an important role in the wave boom. This allows movies that re-use this packaging at this time to be more in line with the aesthetic demands of current audiences.

In terms of story, it is a standard female revenge film with a certain degree of contemporaryness and topicality. Many viewers who have watched the movie dubbed the film a "horror version of "The Disappearance of ". The ending of "Girls Help Girls" is also a creation that closely follows market trends.

At the same time, the movie chose to be released on Halloween. This is one of the few festivals throughout the year that can be linked to horror elements. It may help future audiences establish the habit of watching ghost movies on ghost festivals. For the movie viewing ceremony, the film studio chose to open a limited number of 100 ceremony venues across the country on October 31. There will be dedicated people dressed as the "female ghosts" in the film to accompany the viewing ceremony to maximize the immersion of the movie. It must be said that these "little ideas" of

are of reference value to the industry. As a film that trumpets the "return" of domestic horror films, although the predicted box office of more than 40 million is nothing compared to other films in the film market, it is enough to leave a name in the horror film sequence and have the opportunity to attract some investment. People or creators are paying attention to this "long-lost" category again.

What does "disappear" mean? According to statistics from Sixiang Studio, the number of domestic horror films peaked in 2016, with 109 horror films released throughout the year. By 2020, this number has dropped sharply to 12. From 2021 to 2024, the number of films released will only hover between 7 and 14. Except for the currently released "Yuanyanglou·Shock", only one film has a box office of more than 10 million. With "Disappearance" ” is not an overstatement to describe this genre.

Part of the demand is taken up by suspense and crime films, which will add some thrilling elements to attract audiences. For example, when "The Lost Girl" hit theaters, hot search terms on multiple platforms mentioned the "human pig" scene in the film. Although it is only a small and short part of the entire movie, it still arouses the curiosity of many viewers. Including this summer's " Silent Kill ", there are also many jump scare parts in the film. The atmosphere created in the first half is almost the same as that of a horror movie.

A larger part of the demand is taken by the online movie market. According to Beacon Professional Edition, there has not yet been a horror online movie with a box office of over 10 million in 2019 and 2020. From 2021 to 2023, this number will be 2, 3, and 4 movies, and it is expected to increase year by year. Among them, " Yin Yang Town Ghost Story " ranked first in the box office list of all online movies in the past three years with a box office of 39.448 million.

has low cost, large scale, narrow audience, and poor quality. Whichever label is attached makes this genre seem more suitable for the online movie market, but does the theater market really not need domestic horror films?

Business is not profitable enough, and art cannot explore

From the past glory, we may be able to find future opportunities.

Since the market-oriented reform of the domestic film industry, when it comes to domestic horror films, there are two peaks that cannot be avoided, "Beijing 81" and "The Evil Within" - the former is a commercial peak, and the latter is an artistic peak. Extending from these two cases, it is not difficult to understand why domestic horror films have been unable to break through from both a commercial and artistic perspective.

The success of "Beijing No. 81" is the superposition of too many accidental factors, just like "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World" is to the animated film, more like an orphan. There are naturally many merits in the planning of the

project. "Chaonei No. 81" has been a long-standing folk legend. It is known as the first of the "Four Haunted Houses" and its folk influence is worthy of the name "IP". . In addition, horror films before this were often produced at a very low cost and did not introduce a series of well-known actors. However, "Capital 81" cast Wu Zhenyu, Ruby Lin, Yang Youning and others as starring roles, which increased the salary. Make water level. At that time, Wu Zhenyu had just appeared in " Where Are We Going, Dad? ", and the variety show was very popular. Ruby Lin had previously participated in " Embroidered Shoes " directed by Ye Weimin, and was known as the "Ghost Queen" among the people, which further improved the cast's reputation. attraction. At the same time, it also claimed to be the first 3D horror blockbuster in China. At that time, 3D had not yet become the beginning of the market. Horror films were a genre that placed great emphasis on immersion. The gimmicks of 3D horror films were not lacking. Coupled with the weakness of competitors in the same period at that time, it jointly contributed to the miracle of box office of 412 million.

Chen Hui, founder of Hengye Films, the producer, also mentioned the serendipity of "Beijing No. 81" in an interview later, and said that the real ceiling for horror films should be around 200 million yuan.

If the ceiling of a genre is only 200 million, then no matter how high the ROI is, it will be difficult to get the attention of mainstream film companies. After all, the combined profits of making 10 horror films may not be as high as the profits of betting on a blockbuster. As a result, horror movies can only be exclusive to unknown small companies, and most of them are "one-day trip" movies.

In addition, the audience is no longer paying as much as they did at the beginning, and the myth of "guaranteed profit without loss" is no longer tenable. The core reason is naturally that the overall film quality is too poor, which makes the public's impression that the two labels "domestic horror film" and "bad film" are tightly bound together, just like the youth film that was once a hit. In this situation, the market appeal will inevitably decline rapidly.

How bad is the quality of domestic horror movies? When I opened Douban, there were only 9 movies with a score of 7 or above. Except for one "Soul Ferry" (not released in theaters), all the others were movies before the 1990s. In other words, after so many years of development of domestic commercial horror films, there has never been a single answer sheet with a score of 7 or above.

Counting down from 7 points, we came to "The Evil" with a score of 6.8 - already the top of the reputation of domestic horror films. Director Ma Kai used the form of a pseudo-documentary and spent only 70,000 yuan to produce a work that will dazzle movie fans. Behind it, it represents another aspect of domestic horror films: artistic pursuit.

In theory, small and medium-cost genres are often the most suitable for young directors to practice and make some attempts at literary or artistic films. However, domestic young creators are actually very lacking in enthusiasm for creating horror films. Poisonous Eyes has visited various venture capital events across the country, and horror film projects have always been rare.The incubation rate of venture capital activities is also low, so it is even more difficult for young directors who want to make horror films to get their turn. Occasionally, I encounter young directors who are interested in thriller elements, and they will find ways to incorporate these elements into suspense and crime genres.

Later, Ma Kai embarked on the narrower path of "horror comedy". The film "Amazing Night", with the support of many stars, only received 46.897 million box office, and the Douban score was only 5.5, which was a disappointment to movie fans. Beyond words.

Poisonous Eyes once investigated the survival status of domestic horror films in 2021 (click here to read: "The Disappearing Domestic Horror Films"). Some practitioners said, "The country really studies and loves horror films, and can carefully study them." Not many film studios are interested in it, and more people think it is a low-cost and easy-to-make money genre." At the same time, there is also a chain of contempt among actors for horror films, and they will not act if they can.

This is completely different from the situation overseas. There is a mature industrial system for B-level movies overseas. Many creators and technical workers are determined to do this and are not ashamed to make horror movies.

cannot excite the creators, nor can it make the audience feel new. To a large extent, it will be attributed to the limitations of creation-"horror movies cannot really have ghosts." The experience of

horror movies is similar to suspense to a certain extent. The creators need to solve the mystery for the audience step by step as to what caused the various strange events at the beginning. But if the final explanation is far-fetched, or the degree of homogeneity is too high, it will inevitably fatigue the audience and discourage the creators.

But, is there really no solution? The high-quality game works "Paper Wedding Dress", "Fireworks" and "Three Volts" mentioned above also did not have "real ghosts" endings, but they still won the love and high reputation of players through high-quality plots and production. Content creation always has the right angle to bloom in the cracks. The question is whether you have the determination to keep watering. Is new hope coming for

?

Even if you don't watch "Yuanyanglou·Horror", horror movie lovers should be excited.

's " Alien: Death Ship " released in the summer season broke the domestic horror film box office record in one fell swoop, reaching a level of 786 million. Although this success is accompanied by many accidental factors, it at least proves that the domestic audience base of horror films still exists, and that it has the potential to become a pop culture symbol again.

"Pop culture symbols" are a very important factor in driving audiences to go to the theater to watch horror movies. The specific scenario may be that friends and neighbors compete with each other on "whether they are brave enough to go to the theater and challenge it." Only when a film itself has become a symbol can it have the meaning of being challenged. Of course, "Alien" itself is a big IP, and it has developed nearly 10 film works since 1979, which makes it easier to become a symbol.

Domestic horror films were not without IPs in the past. In addition to haunted houses like "Beijing No. 81", there were also "divination IPs" such as Pen Fairy, Dish Fairy, and Chopstick Fairy. However, because the quality of past films was so poor, the reputation of IP has been completely overdrawn, making it difficult to gain momentum again.

In this case, video game linkage may be a solution worth considering. For example, the "Paper Wedding Dress" series has currently released 6 movies, which has formed considerable IP influence in the game market. Horror games themselves also place more emphasis on text and narrative, and are closer to film and television adaptations. Unlike general game IPs such as moba and fps, which lack the basis for adaptation.

The issue of censorship standards that everyone is worried about is actually not that pessimistic based on the recent situation. "Alien" was released in domestic theaters without any cuts. The "Western horror" contained far more bloody and violent scenes than the "Chinese horror" that focused on atmosphere, but it was still allowed. Although the film rating system is still far away, most similar films have already taken the initiative to remind minors to watch with caution on their posters. Even though there was news this year that "parents reported that movie theaters scared their children," the movie was not released in the end. Horror film creators may be able to breathe a sigh of relief more than before.

In addition, a very critical point is that the audience for horror films is extremely young, both at home and abroad, so it is one of the important levers for theaters to attract young people to watch movies. According to Beacon's "2024 Summer Movie Market Insight Report", among the ticket purchasing images of "crime-suspense-thriller-horror" movies in the past year, the image range of the two domestic horror films showed a very significant youth trend.