Since theaters reopened after being shut down for most of 2020, the box office landscape has been chaotic. There are still major action and superhero blockbusters that makes hundreds of millions of dollars, but there are a number of tentpole releases that have underwhelmed, and comedies and dramas are a roll of the dice for studios. One of the few genres that have showcased some consistency, however, is horror – and to address the reasons why, I recently asked directors Scott Derrickson and David Bruckner about the trend.
Both filmmakers are behind segments of the recently released horror anthology feature V/H/S/85 – which is no available to Shudder subscribers – and when I spoke with them during separate interviews earlier this month, I asked them for their thoughts on the genre’s recent success. In Derrickson’s opinion, the answer at the heart of everything is quality. Audiences go into these movies hoping for frights and compelling characters, and they’ve been walking away happy a lot as of late. I pointed at The Black Phone being among wins like Jordan Peele’s Nope, Parker Finn’s Smile and Gerard Johnstone's M3GAN (not to mention Kevin Greutert’s critically acclaimed Saw X), and Derrickson said,
The main thing is that there was a nice run of truly original films that connected with audiences because of how scary they were, because of how emotional they were. I think the Black Phone really connected because of a combination of scariness and emotional payoff. There's a lot of feeling in that movie. But then you got Nope and Smile and these other movies that came out – M3GAN, which came out shortly after – and I think the audience was into horror because of films like The Black Phone, but each time they saw these movies, they were delivering. And each time that happened, you're building a new young audience.
The Black Phone was a big hit in the summer of 2022, and according to Scott Derrickson, that was primarily driven by young audiences. The film may sport an R-rating, but apparently it was people under 18 that made the Joe Hill adaptation as popular as it is. The director continued:
The main audience for Black Phone was kids the age of the characters: young teenagers to mid-age teenagers, some older teenagers, but they made that movie theirs. All those kids from the movie are like rock stars on Instagram. They all have over a million followers, you know? And I think that the delivery of good original horror, having a good run of that, just builds a wave. And that is what we're seeing now.
David Bruckner has also been a success story in the wave that Scott Derrickson identifies, as he directed the excellent Hellraiser sequel that arrived on streaming right on time for Halloween last year (it’s available to watch with Hulu subscription). As far as the audience’s appetite for horror is concerned, Brucker credits the ability of scary movies to provide an outlet for people’s anxieties – and we are presently living in very anxious times. Said the filmmaker,
The obvious thing we go to: the world is scary, you know? We're processing all this post-pandemic/there's war in Europe kind of trauma, but maybe there is something bigger going on in the fact that people are anxious… The tradition of a scary story to confront fear around a campfire is alive and well in the form of feature films, and whether that be Shudder or the movie theater. So I don't know what's going on, but I'm gonna stick with it as long as [laugh] this is working.
Regardless of the reasons, Bruckner is thankful for the moment. From anthology movies like V/H/S and Southbound to features like The Signal, The Ritual and the aforementioned Hellraiser, he has made a home in horror cinema over the last decade, and given how hard it is in the industry to make original films, he is impressed by the genre’s fortitude:
I'd say I'm in awe of how much it has persisted and endured. I think challenges in the industry have made it so that it's harder and harder to make films, and especially original films. But for some reason, horror is still a reason to go to the movies.
The terrific work by both David Brucker and Scott Derrickson for V/H/S/85 help make the film the best installment yet of the long-running found footage franchise, and horror fans have a whole lot to look forward to in the future. Derrickson was at this year’s Fantastic Fest for the premiere of the new anthology movie, and he was particularly blown away be one title he screened:
I just got back from Fantastic Fest, and there's some great stuff that's being done. When Evil Lurks was one of the best horror films I've ever seen. It's very, very scary, very violent, brutal... But one of the most original and effective horror films. It's a very good time for the genre.
V/H/S/85 is streaming on Shudder now and while director Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks is presently in limited release, it will be available on the horror-centric subscription service starting next Friday, October 27. Needless to say, spooky season is a great time to sign up for an account.
