When Will the Horror Train End?

Answer: Never

You’ve heard from the news, from your friends, your reps—heck, you’ve probably heard it here already: horror is a moneymaker.

Do we mean anything in the horror genre is bound to be a bestseller? Absolutely not.

One still must adhere to the basics, like great storytelling, to ensure a horror classic is born. But with box office breakouts like Obsession and Backrooms, as well as recent hits like Talk to Me, Smile, and The Substance, it’s worth it to ask the question: is horror just a fad?

Short answer: no. 

Longer answer: no, not at all, good citizens, for it is a genre with a rich history and indelible spirit that will last for many years to come!

Even longer answer: no, horror is a tried-and-true genre, and you should consider making your next project a horror film—or at least something adjacent to horror.

Here’s why:

Fear is forever! Whoa, that’s scary. No, but for real, fear is one of our most primal emotions. What we fear continues to change and evolve based on the times we’re living in. The fear of wildlife destroying your cabin was replaced by the fear of losing your pension, which has been replaced by the fear of artificial intelligence running society. 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was an indictment of the Vietnam War, while Invasion of the Body Snatchers wanted to talk about the McCarthy hearings and the “red scare” of the 1950s. Both of these films are in the horror genre, and both are WILDLY different.

Does this mean your film needs to be political or speak to the times? No, but maybe what we’re collectively scared of right now could be mined. Conversely, what you are personally afraid of is probably something a lot of other people are afraid of, too. 

The financial risk is way, way lower. Think about your favorite horror films. How many of them involved a high-speed car chase, a ton of VFX, or a $10 million actor in the lead? Chances are, none. That’s not to say you can’t add a car chase scene into a horror film, but the point is that it’s not usually necessary. Maybe a scene where a car is stuck in the mud, which is exponentially cheaper to film. 

If you’re a producer, the beauty of investing in a horror film is that the overhead is low. You’re often looking at a project that takes place in only a few locations, or even just one (hi, haunted house subgenre!), along with fewer cast and crew, more emotional story beats, and innovative cinematography that doesn’t break the bank.

Look at the budgets on this year’s horror films: Backrooms cost $10 million; Lee Cronin’s The Mummy cost $22 million; Obsession cost $750,000; Werwulf is considered mid-budget estimated right now to cost up to $50 million, which is ostensibly expensive for horror. But compare those budgets to the whopping $250 million estimated cost for The Odyssey, or even the roughly $70 million for Marty Supreme.

Horror turns out HUGE profits because they cost so little to make, even if the box office is modest. There’s just not as much economic pressure put on production companies to make them. And the franchise potential? Hello, money!

The genre itself continues to push its own boundaries. Unlike some genres, where you may be watching it for its formulaic pattern (e.g. a Hallmark-style rom-com), horror keeps going right up to the edge, only to reinvent itself. From zombies to slashers to meta commentary to more recent “the monster is trauma” films, it’s a genre that keeps changing it up. And that makes audiences want to keep coming back to theaters. Listen, from time to time, I love to put on a movie where I know exactly what’s going to happen. That said, why pay $20 for that when I can pay to see something new? 

Even if you were in the middle of writing an “elevated” horror film right now, you could still have fun with making the metaphorical “monster” something audiences haven’t seen yet.

What if you talked about that traumatic thing from your childhood in a campy way? Perhaps you’d rather write something serious—why not bend the genre so it’s a horror film, but also a drama, a la Sinners? 

It’s a communal event. A generic rom-com, comedy, action, thriller, western, or sci-fi flick may be fun and all, but watching a horror film in a dark room on a big screen with a bunch of strangers is a uniquely captivating experience.

It’s a shared moment in time in which everyone is discovering, gasping, and internally panicking over the same thing. As a result, horror tends to be one of the only genres of films that packs folks into a theater with regularity. On top of that, horror has a massive fanbase, with horror fans almost a genre themselves. 

So, no, the horror genre is not going away. 

Now, is there a chance the genre will ebb? Of course. Audience tastes are fickle, and you can’t always count on what was a sure bet. Just ask anyone who wanted to make a western after its heyday.

That said, it’s not as if the western disappeared—it just evolved. What is Star Wars if not a western set in space?

How do you bring your horror movie to life? Well, that’s up to you. Unless you’re too scared …

*Feature image by fran_kie (Adobe)