How 2022 became a huge year for horror movies
NO DEBUT feature better reflects the trending tastes of many audiences right now than a small film not even intended for theatrical release.
The dark thriller Smile was set to head straight to streaming. That is, until the reported $17 million (about R310m) movie from writer-director Parker Finn scored “crazy well” with test audiences, Paramount Pictures chief Brian Robbins said last month, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Redirected to theatres and boosted by savvy marketing campaigns, Smile – about a therapist’s seemingly supernatural experiences – recently won three-consecutive weekends across North America and has grossed more than $165m worldwide.
In the ramp-up to Halloween, horror films have won five weekends since September began, holding their own while squeezed between the blockbuster contrails of Top Gun: Maverick and next month’s massive release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
What in the name of bloody good fun is going on?
To be sure, the studio behemoths reign. The top of the Hollywood box office this year is packed with action and adventure franchises, as well as capes and cartoons. Peek beneath the floorboards though, and a different picture emerges: for original films, the
most commercially reliable and pandemic-resilient genre in the American market is the horror movie.
Factor in all horror titles, including beloved franchises and a feature adapted from a short film, and the genre has slashed its way to winning nine domestic weekends this year.
And the promising The Menu (starring Anya Taylor-joy and Ralph Fiennes) and Bones and All (Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet) are to come next month.
Horror has always been a Hollywood staple and, every so often, the genre has a break-out year, like in 2017, with It, Get Out, Split, Annabelle: Creation and Alien: Covenant each grossing more than $250m worldwide.
Yet there is a confluence of factors surrounding the run of horror hits this year. In two cases, the nostalgic comfort of familiar slasher franchises helped draw filmgoers.
One of the early weekend winners was Scream (which earned $140m worldwide), featuring the return of Courteney Cox, and one of the most recent box-office champs was Halloween Ends ($84m and counting), highlighting the return of Jamie Lee Curtis.
Yet much of the wave of popularity has been powered by original stories like Jordan Peele’s Nope ($170m-plus globally) and Zach Cregger's Barbarian ($42.3m) – weekend winners both.
Writer-director Ti West has scored twice recently with the strong word-ofmouth hits Pearl and X, both of which star Mia Goth. Genre fans have also especially embraced The Black Phone, The Invitation, X and Bodies Bodies Bodies and the recent release Terrifier 2 is gaining ground.
Horror has been “the perfect genre” for filmgoers who are returning after missing the communal experience earlier in the pandemic, says Meg Hafdahl, the podcaster/screenwriter whose horror novels include Her Dark Inheritance and who has co-written the Science of book series.
There is the “palpable tension in the theatre”, as well as the shared “tension and sadness”, she says. “This is why I love horror: It’s such a roller-coaster of emotion to share.”
Rob Salkowitz, the author of Comic-con and the Business of Pop Culture, says that the early stages of the pandemic itself felt like a fright film or a ’70s’ apocalyptic thriller like The Andromeda Strain or The Omega Man.
Part of the appeal of horror on film, he says, is that in the face of the story’s deadly threats, there is familiarity to the formula. Whether it’s Jason or
Cthulhu, the killer in horror follows the rules of the genre, Salkowitz says.
Industry observers also note that the metrics for success are often different with the cinema of jump-scares and psychological terror.
Bloated-budget tentpole movies and many star-studded dramas are expected to have huge opening weekends, while a smaller horror film is allowed more time to find its box-office success, says William Earl, the editor of Variety.com who specialises in horror coverage.
A superhero movie that doesn’t “open in nine digits can be a misfire”, he says, while a film like Terrifier 2 flies lower but steady.
Horror experts underscore that studios are more willing to take chances on less-proven film-makers and lesserknown actors, fostering a diversity of rising voices. “People are making horror movies who weren’t necessarily allowed to make horror movies before,” Hafdahl says.
She says Hollywood is appreciating the breadth and malleability of the form: “Studios are not underestimating the horror viewer – we appreciate good, well-drawn characters.”
And the genre is winning over fresh converts. “It’s such a huge and diverse genre that there’s something for everyone,” Hafdahl says, whether it’s a psychological thriller or hard-core gore.