I would have loved to have said that 2015 was a great year
for the horror genre, but sadly it was far from it. 2015 was a bad year for traditional horror
films unless you were producer Jason Blum and the production costs for your
films were so low that you couldn’t help but turn a profit. Last year was a great year for non-horror,
horror films which are all those films that have horror elements but would
rather be action-horror (Jurassic World),
animated-horror (Hotel Transylvania 2)
or YA-horror (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials)
or comedy-horror (Goosebumps). Remakes were shit and found footage films no
one cared for (unless, oddly enough, your name is Shyamalan) and no one wanted
to see sequels. Here’s a play-by-play of
how I saw 2015 in the world of horror.
Jurassic World was
the #1 grossing (action-)horror film with over $652.3 million
domestically! Some people loved the film
but I thought it was mostly a rehash of the first two films done worse by two
actors that had no on screen chemistry and the tired plot thread of putting
stupid kids in danger (the plot of all the previous films). Chris Pratt wasn’t given enough room to
breathe like he did in Guardians of the
Galaxy and the dinosaurs (which looked excellent in 3D) were the only
reason the film wasn’t complete shit.
They should have stopped as The
Lost World: Jurassic Park but now we are assured more braindead sequels to
come.
Next up is Hotel Transylvania
2 (with $167.8 million domestically), which unfortunately I’ve not had the
pleasure of seeing just yet. I loved the
first film and thought it was quite inventive but I didn’t hear much good about
this film so I just skipped it. That’s
all that managed to gross over $100 million at the Box Office in 2015 which is
a sad indicator of things yet to come over the course of the rest of the year.
Maze Runner: The
Scorch Trials (with $81.7 million) was one of the few stand-outs of the
year in my opinion as it took the adventure aspects of the original film and amped
up the horror elements with its zombie-like carnage of terror. I really enjoyed the first film and loved
what they did with the sequel and hope that subsequent films are just as
inventive with their horror elements. Goosebumps ($79.3 million) did decent
business but wasn’t a huge breakout film. I must be one of the few people who have never
read the books nor seen the original television series so I didn’t bother
watching this film that looked like Jumanji
with Jack Black.
We finally get down to our first real horror film which is The Visit ($65.2 million) which was M.
Night Shyamalan’s return to great form as he not only managed to craft a
suspenseful found footage film but also made audiences believe that he wasn’t
done yet as a capable film-maker. I for
one enjoy most all of his films but audiences have been left with a bad taste
after several of his prior films. Also,
because he produced the film himself with his own money with a budget of only
$5 million, this became one of the big success stories of the year. It also happened to be one hell pretty damn
good film as well.
Insidious: Chapter 3
($52.2 million) and the remake of Poltergeist
($47. 4 million) were big disappoints for different reasons. Insidious had a lot to live up to because
of the success of the previous two films but since most of the cast were not
returning and director James Wan jumped ship to go do the Furious 7 film, new director Leigh Whannell was going to have a lot
to do in order to make audiences come back; unfortunately, only the die-hard
fans showed up. The film was still
financially successful but a disappointment nevertheless. Like most horror film remakes, there was no
reason for Poltergeist other than it
was a beloved film that hadn’t been given the remake treatment yet. This film arrived D.O.A. despite the star
power of Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt.
I enjoyed Insidious but hated Poltergeist.
Next down on the list is the better than expected The Gift ($43.8 million) which is a
character based thriller that had many twists and turns throughout. With only a $5 million budget this did
excellent business and played well with audiences throughout its run. This is one of my favorites of the year. A different kind of gift was on display with
the holiday film Krampus ($42.5
million) which got mixed reviews from audiences expecting another Trick ‘R Treat from director Michael
Dougherty. This film didn’t make any
waves and was unfortunately quickly forgetten despite the fact that I enjoyed
it quite a bit.
The suspense thriller The
Boy Next Door ($35.4 million) did really good business for a film whose
production budget was a meager $4 million but so did producer Jason Blum’s
other film Unfriended ($32.5 million)
except the former is not as well remembered as the later. Unfriended
had a budget under $1 million and had one of the best profit gains of the
year of any film. I thought The Boy Next Door was effective yet highly
forgettable and enjoyed the hell out of Unfriended
when I saw it on the big screen in front of packed audience.
The most beautiful horror film of the year award goes to
Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak
($31.1 million) but it’s gothic romance over horror vibe turned away many
audiences. Because of the budget of the
film and the fact that this was built up to be one of the biggest horror films
of the year, instead it became one of its biggest disappointments. This is still one of my favorite films of the
year that I believe time will shed a new light on for audiences.
Blum returned again with sequel Sinister 2 ($27.7 million) but this was a huge disappointment
compared to the previous film and the hefty production budget of $10 million
(high for a Blumhouse Production) means that this franchise is probably
dead. Another disappointment was the
projected franchise starter The Last
Witch Hunter ($27.4 million) which was one of the biggest box office duds
of the year with a production budget of $90 million. This was supposed to be a franchise starter
and not a franchise killer. I missed
both of these last two films as I didn’t really care for the original Sinister film and Vin Diesel has starred
in more crap films than good ones (i.e. Babylon
A.D. and XXX) so I had no
interest in his latest debacle (and neither did anyone else).
Another unneeded sequel arrives with The Women in Black 2: Angel of Death ($26.5 million). Although an interesting concept the film
should have been a stand-alone film rather than be forced to work within the
confines of the original Woman in Black
film. Not a terrible film, but not a
very memorable one either. The same can
be said for The Lazarus Effect ($25.8
million) which had a great cast and interesting concept that is blundered by
being a CGI heavy slasher film in the third act. Not a film worth seeking out as it borrows so
much from the film Flatliners that it’s
just better to go back and watch that film instead.
I might be a little biased since I come from the theatre
world but I really enjoyed the low budget film The Gallows ($22.8 million) which was criticized not only for being
a found footage film but also being predictable and unoriginal. Unfortunately, it’s hard to be original with
a found footage film as the market has been flooded with them but setting the
film in the world of live theatre is why I liked it so much. On a budget of only $100,000 this film was
another huge financial success despite audience apathy. This film was also produced by Blum as was Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
($18.3 million) which is the lowest grossing film of the franchise. Advertised as the final film, it was
presented in 3D but was only given a moderate release because it was released
simultaneously on VOD which is still highly controversial to most theater
chains, so it didn’t get as wide a release as previous films in the franchise
and kind of died quickly. I loved seeing
the film in 3D but it lacked the punch of previous films in the franchise which
were suspenseful because of what audiences didn’t see rather than what they
did.
Another high profile (action-)horror film to arrive D.O.A.
was Seventh Son ($17.2 million) which
had a $95 million price tag and nothing to show for it. It wasn’t all that interesting of a film and
was quickly ignored and forgotten.
One of the most well received indie horror films It Follows ($14.7 million) almost didn’t
get a theatrical release but when it did it found its audience. The under $2 million production was a breath
of fresh air from all the Hollywood horror films that just weren’t cutting
it. Like The Babadook a year before it, It
Follows was the horror film that no horror fan should miss. I loved the originality of the film and even
though I didn’t think it was as good as The
Babadook it was definitely one of the highlights of 2015. The
Green Inferno ($7.2 million) sat on a shelf for several years before
finally finding release and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see it as
yet.
Victor Frankenstein
($5.8 million) was another high profile box office dud that found no love from
audiences. I rather liked the
adventure-horror film that was more The
Mummy (1999) and less Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein (1994). It was fun and
exciting and had a great cast that really got the film that they were trying to
make. Not for the traditionalist, this
version of the Frankenstein story owes more to Peter Cushing’s Victor
Frankenstein from the Hammer franchise than from the book.
There are tons more films that were released last year but
since I didn’t see any of them (yet) I can’t comment on them. Instead, I’ll just list some of them with
their domestic gross and keep in mind that many of these films received limited
theatrical release at the same time as a VOD release.
*Scouts Guide to the
Zombie Apocalypse ($3.7 million)
*What We Do in the
Shadows ($3.5 million)
*The Vatican Tapes
($1.8 million)
*Goodnight Mommy ($1.2
million)
*Dark Places
($208,588)
*Maggie ($187,112)
*Cop Car ($132,552)
*Turbo Kid ($67,132)
*Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s
World ($61, 044)
*Spring ($49,970)
*Knock, Knock
($36,336)
*The Nightmare
($28,281)
*Zombeavers ($14, 947)
*The Human Centipede 3
(Final Sequence) ($14, 562)
*The Hallow ($8,967)
*Hayride 2 ($2,571)
*L.A. Slasher ($2,421)
*REC 4: Apocalypse
($837)
