Hollywood has, for the last five years, used a simple formula to tempt audiences into theater seats: Epic tale plus archetype characters (plus or minus swords and magic) equals big box office payout. Such titles as “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Lord of the Rings” prove the formula true. Nevertheless, there is a formula that developed in the shadows of Hollywood.
Hidden under the Narnias and Kongs, like the sewers beneath Los Angeles, lurks the horror genre, and it has crawled to the surface to sink its claws into mainstream cinema this year. The formula is simple: Low budget plus blood and gore (plus or minus video game template) plus celluloid sirens, sweaty and bloody, with screams to die for equals bad reviews but good box office.
With Hollywood experiencing a slump because of such failures as “Alexander” and “Aeon Flux,” it’s trying to capitalize on the success of such movies as “Red Eye” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose.” With horror movies such as “Hostel” and “BloodRayne” currently in theaters, and many more in production, the film industry is betting its soul that the horrific and terrifying will scare audiences into theaters. “Hostel” killed the competition in its opening week, when it was No. 1 at the box office.
One reason Hollywood is pumping out horror movies is profit. Because the cost of making horror movies is low and the payoff tends to be high, horror movies are a reliable source of revenue, said Dan Meyer, president of Lion’s Gate International, which made the “Saw” movies, in the article “This Time It’s Personal” in The Guardian.
The article also says there is a direct relation to war and the popularity of horror movies. During World War II, such movies as “Bride of Frankenstein” and “Werewolf of London” were successes at the cinema. During the ’60s and ’70s, movies such as “Carrie” and “Halloween” swept the competition away at the box office.
In an article titled “Gory Gory Hallelujah,” The New York Times takes a cynical view on why horror movies have become popular – “(Hollywood) is simply satiating the blood lust of non-combatant Americans.”
In addition to an increase in horror movie production, the film industry has been increasing the amount of blood letting. Audiences now can witness such things as eyeballs ripped from their sockets, the simultaneous severing of 60 or more bodies and unabashed oral sex with a decapitated head.
“They’re getting increasingly more gruesome; they’ve just been getting completely foul,” said Bryan Remley, a senior at the University. “They’re showing us all this stuff that you wouldn’t normally see.”
An article titled “Violence Exposure in Real-life, Video Games, Television, Movies, and the Internet: Is There Desensitization?” by Jeanne Funk from the University of Toledo says a possible reason for the increase in gore and violence is that the American populace suffers from hypoesthesia. Because of a growing level of desensitization, the envelope needs to be pushed and a higher level of stimulation must be sustained or exceeded. This theory is used to explain why people are seeing an increasing amount of sex and violence in the media.
“I think we are people and a generation and a country of extremism,” says Brendan Nieubuurt, an English graduate. “We want to be shocked and to keep pushing the limits.”
Horror movies, whether a pathogen or a panacea, are dominating mainstream American film. With movies such as “The Omen 666,” “The Grudge 2,” “Silent Hill,” “Ultraviolet” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon” hitting theaters this year, audiences will have plenty to choose from in the search for something horrific.