Collins’ Crypt: Drawn & Quartered: Supernatural

Is supernatural horror making a comeback? While 2015 hasn't offered us a ton of genre fare, all of the ones that have been released performed slightly (or much, in one case) better than I would have predicted, suggesting that the audience is either hungry for anything, or at least willing to give things a chance if there's a decent hook to draw them in. Not one wide release horror film has flopped outright, so we're already doing better than 2014 in that regard - hopefully this slightly upward trend will continue.

From the dawn of time, a horror film has been one of, if not THE first one to be released in a calendar year, and the tradition continues with The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, an overdue followup to the 2012 hit. As the first one has been the revived Hammer Films' only real success so far, it's not a surprise that they'd produce a sequel, though considering its standalone nature (and obvious loss of star Daniel Radcliffe, likely a main draw for the first's success) they probably shouldn't have waited three years to unleash it. It's not exactly an "in name only" sequel, since the titular character (and primary location) returns, but as it's set decades later and has an entirely new cast, it feels like an anthology installment more than a true sequel. That's the sort of thing they should be releasing every year, MAYBE two, to get the idea across that as a series, "The Woman in Black" is the only connection, with the freedom to replace the entire cast and even the decade it takes place. It's a decent, if unmemorable little thriller, which again would have benefited from a shorter "wait" (was anyone actually waiting for this movie?) as you'd expect a three-year gap would produce something a little more inventive. Still, it grossed a respectable $26 million, more than double what Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (another overdue sequel missing its original star) would earn a few weeks later, and as of this writing it remains the year's top grossing horror film.

That is, unless you count The Boy Next Door, which you shouldn't since it's a thriller. But given its Blumhouse roots I'm sure it counts as horror for someone, and thus it's worth noting that it earned $35 million against a $4 million budget. That may be below average for a Jennifer Lopez vehicle, but it's also an independent production (released by Universal) instead of her usual studio vanity projects (and it's rated R), making it much more profitable than Monster-In-Law or whatever. I said all I need to say about this terminally dull thriller in my Blu-ray review, so let's move on - I'm only including it so no commenter can call me out for "skipping" it. Shit's not horror.

Blumhouse returned a few weeks later with The Lazarus Effect, probably the closest thing to "star-studded" horror that I've seen in a while, with Olivia Wilde, Evan Peters, Donald Glover and Mark Duplass heading up the cast (plus Ray Wise, though he unfortunately only appeared in a single scene). The film's trailer was perhaps a bit TOO honest, hiding nothing from the film's Frankenstein-y plot - I kept assuming they were going to spring a big twist in the third act on us, but then the credits rolled, only a few minutes after the parts of the trailer that inspired the ticket sales. At $25m it came within spitting distance of topping Woman In Black 2 to take the year's #1 slot, not bad for a $3.3m production that opened in fifth place (against a new Will Smith movie to boot). Horror films tend to drop off sharply after their first weekend (in some cases, their first day) but this held on better than most, remaining in the top 20 for five weeks (to compare, Woman in Black 2 was in 35th place on its fifth weekend, and that had less competition).

But the real success story was It Follows, which was released on a mere four screens in the middle of March, two weeks before its planned VOD debut. But something very rare happened - people showed up! It broke minor records for screen averages, forcing Radius-TWC to cancel the VOD release (it's still not available on your computer!) and expand the release. It eventually played on 1,655 screens, a whopping number for this star-free, micro-budgeted festival hit. As of this writing it has earned $13.6 million, which may not look like a lot but when you consider that it was in a position where $136k might have been all it could possibly take, it's nothing short of phenomenal (it's also tripled the take of Radius' previous top earner, the star-powered Snowpiercer). And personally I was ecstatic; I loathe the VOD preference that indie horror gets these days, as I think 99% of horror films are more effective when seen with a big crowd, and thus it made me tremendously happy to see the theatrical experience take precedent over its lesser, "easier" counterpart. I didn't even love the movie all that much (it's good, at times great, but it gave away all the info it had way too early, making the back half fairly repetitive), but it didn't matter - this is exactly the outcome I've been wanting to see for the past few years.

The only other wide release was yet another Blumhouse movie, Unfriended. Again, its $25m (and counting; it'll take the number #1 slot from Woman in Black sometime this week) gross doesn't look like a lot, but with the budget south of a million and an original planned release for MTV, it's another win for the theatrical experience, with word of mouth and a killer hook getting butts in seats even if it wasn't particularly great (or scary - rarely have I seen an audience for a horror film sit so silently, as it lacked even any real good fake scares). And it's another win for Blumhouse, whose model of producing cheap terror fare with easy to market narratives has proven to be a fairly successful one; outside of their weirdo "Tilt" releases they've all made everyone a lot of money, and they show no signs of stopping - my screening had no less than FOUR trailers for upcoming Blumhouse terror fare. I'm sure the bubble will burst eventually (those four trailers didn't even include their Insidious 3, and they have another Paranormal Activity on the way, someday), but as long as they keep those budgets low I'm sure they'll continue to be profitable.

There wasn't much action on the limited release front; as I mentioned in the last two D&Qs my new role as a dad has prevented me from scouring the listings of our local indie theaters as much as I used to, but per Boxofficemojo there were only three other releases. One was Digging up the Marrow, an unusual blend of documentary and monster movie from Adam Green, which scored $10k on a single screen - not too shabby. Then there's Zombeavers, a film that I thought would be nearly unwatchable but ended up having a good time with it (I can watch a whole movie about the two truckers that inadvertently set the plot in motion, and it's great to see Rex Linn show off his comedic side), which earned a fairly low $14k in 11 theaters. Finally/sadly, the lousy Rec 4, which had zero of the personality of its three predecessors, became the latest Magnet release to come in near the bottom of the year's grosses, taking in a grand total of 837 dollars on 5 screens. Based on the current average cost of a movie ticket ($8.17), that's barely over 100 people in the country who bought a ticket for the latest sequel to one of the most respected horror movies of the past decade - time we put this series to bed, I think.

There was also a movie called Nightlight that played in a few AMC theaters. It was a "found flashlight" movie, in that it looked/played out like every other generic found footage movie you've suffered through in the past five years, but it was all from the point of view of a haunted flashlight instead of a camera. I wish I was joking. I wish even harder that it was fun enough to go along with its idiotic (and poorly explained) premise. I'm sure there are several of these kind of movies that play on a few screens and don't get their box office reported, but again, I'm out of the loop! If you bought a ticket for some random horror movie in the past four months (non-revival, non-festival), let me know! I'm always charmed by these out of nowhere, "why did they bother?" type releases, even if more often than not the movies are just as bad, or worse, as Nightlight.

The summer is starting, which usually means a dry period for fright fare, but there's actually quite a few coming our way. The Poltergeist remake, The Vatican Tapes, Maggie, Insidious 3 and, of course, all those aforementioned Blumhouse movies (The Gallows, The Gift, Sinister 2 and The Visit) will be keeping me returning to the multiplexes in between the typical summer blockbusters, and hopefully there will be a few indie films flying in under the radar as well. Can one of them break out like It Follows, or will that remain a fluke? And will any of them be from the POV from a haunted flashlight?