The current domestic horror film is “too difficult”, it is difficult to scare people, it is difficult to make money, it is more difficult to continue.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Entertainment Hard Candy” ( ID: yuleyingtang), authorized to reprint.
Author | Xie Minghong
Edit | Li Chunhui
The slogan of “The Clown’s Return to the Soul 2” undoubtedly symbolizes the obstruction of the resurgence of the old-fashioned horror film. After seeing several small partners grow up, they are still fighting the fear with the method of “collecting Qilongzhu”. Hard candy is deeply aware of the time when it is the horror film.
Do adults still need horror movies? It is enough to start the WeChat work group to send “good”.
The failure of “Nun” last year also made the so-called “horror film universe” unsatisfactory. When Wen Ziren is not observing, all the terrorist characters he develops will suffer from a collective shackle: if you think that I am not scary enough, it is because my “dad” is not there.
But no matter what, overseas markets have some small explosions every year. “Time to Back” in the “Happiness of the Day” series, “Escape the Dead Town” and “We Replace” the body, “The Land of Silence” and “Make Your Eyes” the “Five senses” stem, The “social media” stalks such as “Remove Friends” and “Network Tracing”, “Greed Doom” and “Sin’s Slave”‘s “Cult Penetration” are all seeking new changes in the classic narrative.
However, since the “Chinese evil” was temporarily dismissed from the Ching Ming Festival last year, the domestic horror film seems to be collectively “medium evil.” In addition to Huang Wei’s “Disc” box office barely broke 50 million, the co-produced “Invisible Child” box office 16.6 million, the rest of the “Gujing evil spirits”, “Soul Contract”, “Midnight Ruins” and other big waves “we are familiar The domestic horror films are all struggling in the quagmire below 5.5 million.
In the past, domestic horror movies can also “make real money through fake ghosts.” Fujian Jingye Film Co., Ltd. produced and released “Beijing No. 81”, which took 411 million box office in 2014.In 2017, the “Demon Bell” produced by our Production Co., Ltd. is “Half-Happiness”, but there are 363 million box-offices; not to mention the 2011 “Amazing Cry” of Meiya Entertainment, which spurred 8900 at a cost of 5 million. Wan box office, let Yang Mi become the earliest representative of the flow movie.
But these “golden sages” have given up horror films in recent years. The collective retreat of the resources of the head and waist, so that the rest of the bottom of the chickens to smash each other, to make no production, to declare no hair, even the posters have formed a plagiarism.
The group went to the theater to watch the horror film. It used to be a pioneering social activity in the country. It was better than who called it louder and louder. Nowadays, in the face of the crude and indiscriminate pen, Xianxianxian, it seems that even the “big adventure” is a waste of money.
“Too difficult” tells the predicament of the current domestic horror film. It’s hard to be scary, it’s hard to make money, and it’s harder to continue. As a type film, it was forgotten by the film company. As a social film, it was abandoned by the audience. As a cultural and entertainment product, it is at the bottom of the scorn chain. Why did the horror film die and the country fears to be born again?
Escape capital
The market position of the type film depends on the star name of the starring.
In the golden age of Hong Kong movies, the horror films are first-line artists like Leslie Cheung, Louis Koo, and Wang Zuxian. Even Stephen Chow, who studied the comedy, couldn’t help but tempted. In 1995, he launched the experimental “Returning Soul Night”.
The Oriental Film Company is a lieutenant. In the 1990s, the “Night Half Songs”, “Yin and Yang Road” and “Ancient Mirrors” were produced. Not only has it achieved generous box office feedback, but it has also gained in art. Zhang Guorong, Wu Qianlian and Huang Lei starred in the “Song of the Night” and responded well, winning a number of nominations for the Golden Award and the Golden Horse Award.
The achievement of “Singing in the Night” is like “Arabian Nights” today. The audience is less than you, both of whom are ancestors, and what do you want to nominate? What is impressive is the amazing brain of “Ancient Mirror Talk”: Lin Xinru and Nicholas Tse’s mirror can be used to smash the murders that occurred decades ago. Are you a “holographic photo” black technology?
Entering 2000, Oriental FilmHe was keenly aware of the ebb tide of the horror film, not only the number of productions dropped sharply, but also began the “young exploration.”
In 2002, “Nine Women and One Ghost” seemed to have got the computer of Guan Xi teacher in advance, and the title was spoiled for six years later. After Qiu Litao’s “False and Lost God”, Xu Ke’s “Deep Sea Searching” was launched in 2008, and the latter is no longer a strict horror film.
This fading, the baton of the Hong Kong horror film was passed to the mainland filmmakers. After vying to borrow the “Mountains and Villages” series in the DVD era, the mainland audience finally had the opportunity to scare themselves on the big screen.
Hengye Films started in 2005 with the “Old House Ecstasy” and can be said to have grown up drinking horror movies. In 2010, the double-fire cannons of “Midnight Taxi” and “Different Apartment” were launched.
Do you want to say that people are good? In addition to inviting the old generation of “Ghosts” Roland to star in “Midnight Taxi”, and in the 2014 “Jingcheng 81” stared at a new generation of “Ghosts” Lin Xinru. Ye Weimin, who filmed “The Talks Association” and “Embroidered Shoes”, said that “I don’t want to shoot horror movies again.” As a result, the olive branch handed down by Hengye is irresistible – “We are 3D big productions.”
It should be said that “Jingcheng 81” has something to lose. “得得” in its “big film” style, the observation of traditional culture and the thinking of women’s destiny; “missing” is difficult to get rid of the cliché, the horror atmosphere depends more on Lin Xinru’s scream, and “famous ghost house” The resulting movie is expected to form a contrast.
After “Jingcheng 81”, Hengye seems to have lost the favor of the market: in 2015, the “Three Garages” box office was less than 8 million, and the joint production of “Zhongxie” was also dismantled. “Beijing No. 81 2” It is also only half of the box office of the previous game. This year, Hengye jointly produced “Little Wishes”. Obviously, the horror film can no longer satisfy the wishes of the film.
Xinghui Tianji is also facing the problem of “tightening the money”. There are also good posters in “Embroidered Shoes”. In 2014, “Girls’ Dormitory” used only three “big brothers tied by loose ropes” to perfuse things. This year, people directly went to “Rescue Wang Xingren” and saved the horror film as a rescue dog.
Outgoing audience
In the modern context of pressure multiplication, there are not a few viewers who need horror films to release. The director of the “Pen Xian” trilogy, An Bingji, deeply felt: “The hotter the weather, the better the horror film sells. Because you watch the horror film and feel the back is cool, you can cool down.”
But does the domestic horror film have the effect of “cooling down”? I am afraid there is no such thing as it is true that people are watching “getting angry”.
Although the horror film is difficult to be elegant, as a type of film, it has a fixed and loyal audience. Take the “Zhang Zhen Storytelling” series as an example. The proportion of people under the age of 24 in user portraits is 46%. Domestic horror films are being released in the summer, I am afraid that it is not the cooling in the Answer, but the main audience of the film is a holiday.
This is why even though most viewers have lost confidence, the horror film has not disappeared. There are always adults who despise domestic horror movies, and there are always young people who need to be hunted. The newsstand at the entrance of the primary and secondary schools can explain the problem. It has been tied with the star gossip and the companion, and there is only the “Ghost Story”.
There was a Zhang Zhen in the radio era. In the era of the ages, there was a “cosmetic fluid”. In short, teenagers were not scared and would affect their height.
The real loss of domestic horror movies is an adult audience. “Single way” and “reverse psychology” have consumed their patience. We often see the following plots in domestic horror movies: a group of young and young people, trapped in desert roads or confined spaces, “refuse to call the police” in the case of successive deaths. The swaying lens only knows that it is aimed at the big wave of silicone. The endless chicken is completely insulting to “soft porn”.
Where the haunted, in the end, it must be a person. Wherever murder, the last criminal must be arrested. There is no suspense at all, and there is no logic at all. The legal channel’s “Pufa Columns” is more than you.
A more irritating kind of “bee juice confidence”, not movingOn the poster, I wrote “The most horrific movie in 201X” and “Adapted according to real events.” As a result, almost every audience saw laughter and laughter, and happy twists and tears.
Take the “Abandoned Village Apartment” as an example. The mysterious death of the character and the mystery of the ancient well came from the creation world of the female advocate Yu Yu, and her original intention was to commemorate the vegetative boyfriend. This irresponsible reversal often makes the audience feel like being deceived. Instead of this, it would be better to write “We are not scary at all, just to make you play” on the poster.
Speaking well to see the ghosts, but the sleeping pills are watered. Similar to the Lingxiao speeding car, the horror film is a kind of “psychological product”, and its consumption content is “buying and selling abuse”.
But the difference between China and foreign countries is that the sky-high speed can be connected with the international arena, even we play more high; the horror film is obviously not good, they can be ghosts, we must resist the superstition with a scientific attitude.
This creates an imbalance between the mind and body of the audience. On the one hand, the physiological demand for scare and stimuli is fully allowed, and on the other hand, the curiosity of the mind layer facing the unknown world is strictly limited.
Disappearing creation
When we scoff at the censorship system, it is easy to overlook the horror film opportunities of the 1980s. The 1983 “Precision”, the “Ghost” in 1985, the “Two Waters of the Water” and the “Fox” in 1986 all appeared ghosts and monsters, instead of compromising in a way that “not to be refined.”
The “Black House Lonely Soul”, which is known as the crown of the domestic horror film in the 1980s, is actually a castration of historical context. Until the end of the movie, the audience knew that there was a supernatural force called Xiaoju, and she echoed in the old-fashioned building with laughter. But at the end, the director designed the film to be a mental patient who is telling a story to a fellow patient.
This kind of treatment kills two things, not only avoids the big scissors of the official film censorship, but also makes the ending a certain irony. But we can also think that this is the result of being castrated. Looking at the creation of horror films in the Mainland today, in general:
Playing strange and fighting psychology is better than Japan and South Korea; telling stories and breaking superstitions can’t keep up