Editorials
Horror Films Were Fireworks at the Box Office This Summer!
Every. Single. Year. I see journalists slamming the genre and/or declaring horror “dead” by the end of summer. It’s become an annual event where these websites puff out their chests and throw the hammer down on our beloved genre. I have no idea why everyone is so desperate to see the death of horror, but the truth of the matter is that it’s not only more popular than ever, but it’s also one of the most profitable of studio films. Shit, proof is in the popularity of Halloween, which has become booming business for retailers.
But we’re here to briefly talk about the box office, and how horror films have dominated since the beginning of summer. Having to compete with big studio blockbusters, it’s rare to see so much genre fare put into competition, but James Wan’s The Conjuring changed the studio’s perception back in 2013. Since then, we’ve seen more and more horror taking a dip in the pool. 2016 was out of control.
With Blair Witch (read our review) only two weeks out, summer closed out with Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe (read our review), which just took the top spot in the box office for the second week in a row. That’s unprecedented for the genre. From Ghost House and Sony Pictures, Don’t Breathe has a reported budget of only $10 million, which means marketing was around $10-15 million, for a total cost of $25 million. As of this writing, it’s at $60 million worldwide, which means its net take is approximately $30 million, putting it well into the profit zone. It’s a booming success that still has weeks left in theaters, international releases locked, and a massive home video release looming this holiday season.
But this is just one example from a summer blistering with hits, which included two genre films from James Wan. David F. Sandberg’s Lights Out (read our review), produced by Wan and released by New Line Cinema, hit a whopping $135 million on a reported budget of, get this, $5 million. With a $5-10 million marketing spend, and adjusting for net profits, Lights Out looks to have made an estimated $55 million for the studio, which also has its home video release to look forward to. The Conjuring 2 (read our review), which Wan directed, cost more to make ($40 million), has banked $320 million worldwide, which nets the studio $160 million. After the $80 million cost, that’s a disgusting $80 million profit. Shit, is it me or did James Wan’s films literally save Warner Bros.’ ass from their massive DC mistakes (Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad)?
Back in June, Sony released the Blake Lively shark thriller The Shallows (read our review) wide and found early genre success with a $100 million worldwide take ($50 million net) on a cost of $17 million (plus $15-20 million marketing). Universal Pictures’ July 1 release of The Purge: Election Year (read our review) has also taken in a bit over $100 million on a cost of only $10 million, which broken down looks like a $30 million surplus for the studio.
If you exclude Ghostbusters from the list (Sony was adamant this was a “comedy”), all of the major genre releases by studios were fireworks. All of the aforementioned films were hugely successful, and so profitable that all I can do is picture the filmmakers swimming in hundred dollar bills like Scrooge McDuck.
There’s obviously other factors at play (such as the quality of each film), so it’s hard to know the exact science here, but there’s one major lesson to be learned: not all moviegoers want to see tentpole films. There’s a market that goes beyond parents and children filling theaters to watch Captain American team up with Spider-Man. Studios need to acknowledge this and take advantage of the holes in the release schedule. Obviously, they appear to be taking note as we’re now finding horror infiltrating every season. So, every time you read an article by a “journalist” calling for the death of horror, remember, our genre is slowly infecting the box office year round. The biggest reason? Fans of superhero films aren’t superheroes. Fans of horror are horror. The end.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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