Reanimated horror genre a slash cow

 By Eric J. Lyman

22nd, May 2006

CANNES -- Like a B-movie monster that just won't die, the horror genre is more visible than ever at the Festival de Cannes and its parallel market, where insiders say there are more scare pictures being shopped than there have been for years.

Two films that loosely fit into the horror genre are screening in various selections: "Re-Cycle," from Oxide and Danny Pang in Un Certain Regard, and Bong Joon-Ho's "The Host" in Directors' Fortnight. Word is that Cannes selectors were keen to also include Alexandre Aja's remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" but shied away because the film already had been released in too many territories. A walk about the market reveals dozens of horror-themed films being sold or looking for investors. Some of the names sound like a punch line from a sick joke, but such films as "Living Hell," "The Quick and the Undead," "The Demon Child" and even "The Night of the Living Dorks" and "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead" are part of the fast-growing and often highly profitable sector.

"We're like the part of the festival nobody knows about," said Matthew McCombs, president of Spotlight Pictures, which makes as many as 20 films a year, about half of them in the horror genre. "We're down here in the bowels behind the Palais. People have got to come down here looking for us."

An increasing number of people are doing just that. Although organizers don't keep any hard numbers on how many films from what genres are shopped at the market each year, most insiders agree that the number of horror films in evidence has been rising the past few years.

But there is no consensus as to why that is taking place. Some point to a natural ebb and flow in the sector, some point to the success of low-budget horror films that started seven years ago with "The Blair Witch Project" and has continued through the successful "Saw" franchise, and some say part of the reason may be social conditions.

William Friedkin, one of the fathers of the genre thanks to his 1973 film "The Exorcist," said a main reason for the increased number of films these days is technology.

"They're easier to make now," he said. "When we made 'The Exorcist,' we had to do everything mechanically, but now it would be easy to achieve the same effects using a computer. That makes it easier for more people to makes these films; it removes a barrier."

Lionsgate is one of the genre's old hands, producing a steady stream of up to a dozen horror films a year, including for the third year in a row an installment of the "Saw" franchise, which has grossed an estimated $250 million after the first two films cost less then $10 million combined to make. Lionsgate International president Nicolas Meyer said the numbers are rising because of new and smaller companies getting involved in the mix.

"There aren't a lot of genres where there is a potential for such a wide profit margin," he said. "It's natural that a lot of new companies try to rush into the market. But there are also a lot of production companies doing the same old film that's been done dozens of times, and without something unique, it won't work. Eventually, supply will outstrip demand, and there will be a pull-back. But for now, it does seem to be going strong."

David Cronenberg, director of such horror films as "The Brood," "The Dead Zone" and "The Fly," agreed, saying the genre has a cyclical nature.

"After (1978's) 'Halloween,' there were a whole series of slasher movies that were very successful, and then, more recently, there were the sort of flip, ironic version like 'Scream,' and now suddenly it is going back to the sort of torture murder movies." Cronenberg said. "Obviously, when people sense there is a market for that, they go for it, saturate the market, then there is no market for it anymore, then you have to go for something else."

But in addition to the rise in overall numbers, there is a new worldwide spread of the horror genre, which has an increasingly strong foothold in Asia and in Europe, where the biggest market for horror films is Germany. The aforementioned "Living Dorks" is a German production, but other European producers are on the rise, including Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France and Russia, which is about to produce the highest-budget horror film present in Cannes: a $24 million remake of the 1967 Soviet film "Viy," based on a story from 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol. Shooting will begin in July, and producers ROSPOFilm Group expect to release the film late next year or in early 2008.

"It's not a traditional genre in Russia, but the Russian people like to scream and shout and be scared just as much as anyone," ROSPOFilm Group vp Maximovitch Maxim said.

According to Sherri Strain, a partner with the Asylum Films ? her business card gives her the title "Movie Goddess" ? most of the world probably likes to be scared, though probably in a different way.

"I think that today there's a certain kind of horror in real life, what with the state of things around the world, personal tragedies, gas at $3.50 a gallon, whatever," Strain said. "I think there's a bit of comfort in a kind of story that scares you but that you know isn't real. Nobody's really going to be attacked by a zombie or a vampire, and the living dead isn't buried in anyone's backyard. It's a fun kind of frightening."

Spotlight's McCombs agrees.

"These don't have to be great films," he said. "I've brought a set of films to a distributors and had them pick the one I thought was the weakest. Sometimes it's enough to appeal to a certain kind of taste. Sometimes people are looking for a certain kind of effect rather than for a great story."

Friedkin said that from his point of view, that's a shame.

"These days people don't tell stories, they just use images," he said. "Maybe I'm old-school, but the greatest horror films I've seen are the ones that show less, that leave the horror to the imagination."

Cronenberg said modern films in the genre often lack the imagination of older horror flicks.

"The attraction for me (with horror films) wasn't because it was horror," he said. "It was because it is a genre within which you can do some very interesting things that would be very difficult to do outside the genre. Take 'The Fly,' for example. It is a very depressing story, when you think of it. An attractive eccentric charming couple meet, they fall in love. He gets a hideous disease and dies slowly, and she helps him die. End of story. Now that's a hard sell ? except when it is a sci-fi horror film, it is not such a hard sell and could be very successful."

Scott Roxbororough contributed to this report.

The Hollywood Reporter