Who’s Watching Horror Films These Days?
Yahoo recently wrote an article on the “Top Five Highest-Grossing Horror Franchises” of all time. Here are the winners in order:
1. FRIDAY THE 13TH
Total Gross: $380,637,525
Number of Films: 12
Average Gross: $31,719,794
2. SAW
Total Gross: $342,510,598
Number of Films: 5
Average Gross: $68,502,120
3. HALLOWEEN
Total Gross: $307,729,650
Number of Films: 10
Average Gross: $30,772,965
4. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Total Gross: $307,420,075
Number of Films: 8
Average Gross: $38,427,509
5. SCREAM
Total Gross: $293,553,139
Number of Films: 3
Average Gross: $97,851,046
This is all really making me wonder: Who are the people that continue to buy tickets to these awful movies? Most of them are in turbo-remake mode, and receive poor ratings to boot. Unless we vote differently with our wallets, the Hollywood machine will not stop churning out these incredibly bad movies that have only a passing resemblance to the originals.
The Original Horror Films
We all remember why we loved horror films as kids. The special effects blew us away, we were scared and excited at the same time, and there was always a coed willing to take off her sweater despite the fog, strange noises and being in a poorly lit room. Ah the good old days. Today’s films, movies like Final Destination, continue to do well despite poor reviews. Now I’m no Roger Ebert, but this trend is starting to get disturbing. Consider when Michael Bay’s Transformers II opened in theaters this past summer. We were all excited, and admonished critics with our wallet power. But we were wrong. The movie was horrible and deserved every bit of the criticism it received. Outside of the horror genre, movies like Meet the Spartans and others of that ilk continue to be box office draws. God save us.
There’s still hope for me that better horror films would be made. My top 5 horror film list is undecided at this point, but it would most definitely lean more towards movies like The Descent, The Hills Have Eyes, Paranormal Activity and Drag Me to Hell.
Are you one of the people watching today’s scary movies? If so, why?
not me. LOL