Horror is Dead

Wait – I mean, romcom is dead. No, no, the historical epic is dead. Every so often, prophets stand by the wayside shouting messages of doom for this or that genre. In reality though, what the public wants as reflected in box office trends is extremely difficult to predict. Impossible, really.

Is the horror genre literally dead? Horror is one of the most interesting genres to watch, as it cycles from supernatural to serial killer to tongue-in-cheek slasher to foreign film remakes and right back to supernatural. Add a few more subcategories, leave in a dark, warm place and…so on.

Eli Roth, writer of Hostel I and II just posted a lengthy letter on his MySpace blaming piracy for the fact that Hostel II tanked and is being summarily yanked from theaters in the next couple of weeks. Others posit that Roth is whining and that in reality, the short ride he enjoyed on the gore-nography train is over. The public has had enough. Is that true? It might be true of this particular type of horror - for now. But as a genre, horror will never, ever die. You can't kill it with a wooden stake. In a world numbed by internet pedophile raids, campus shootings and the ongoing carnage in Iraq, horror movies of late have taken the blood-letting to a whole new level. Horror is a barometer of our collective social anxiety. It can’t be dead. It will never die. We need horror; it defines our fears.

What is a new writer to make of predictions and proclamations about budgets and trends?

Trends:

If one takes the bird’s eye view, indeed trends can definitely be spotted at the box office. The popularity of the Japanese horror film remake had a short-lived but healthy run. Remember the profitable teen-angst run John Hughs had, starting with THE BREAKFAST CLUB? And certainly, gore-nography has had a run, with titles like SAW, SAW II, HOSTEL, HOSTEL II and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. Zombies are back, they say, and we should be seeing a number of zombie movies in the next year or two. KNOCKED UP and THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN are tapping into a boomer, reality-based comedic vein that is obviously mopping up at the box office. So should you toss your totally ridiculous, slapstick about Poseidon? Not just yet.

Where do these trends come from? Does the public get what they want or do they get what they think they want because we write it? WGA writers who are actually in the thick of it, pitching, selling and seeing their work produced are naturally very tied to trends. But newer writers hoping to break in are ill-advised to write trend-driven material. Why? Because by the time you get rep, much less try to actually shop a spec, the trend is long over. Your script might make a great sample but why settle for a great sample when you can have a good original piece of material that is saleable because it isn’t tied to the flavor of the month?

Another thing new writers really do need to pay attention to:

Budget:

As online and New Media entertainment starts to take off, less viewers are heading to the box office. This makes risk averse studios even more nervous. We know that at least two major motion pictures were scuttled last year when the studio refused to pay the star the usual multi-million dollar paycheck – it jacked the whole budget up to an unacceptably risky level.

I would not counsel a new writer trying to find a toehold to write a high budget science-fiction, fantasy or historical epic script as their entrée. Those types of movies are indeed going to be fewer and farther between in the medium-term future. Not non-existent, just not a profusion of them. Those are crowd-pleasing movies, which can mean big box office, but they are also prohibitively expensive to make, which can mean financial ruin. A spec in the low-to-midrange budget is the smart thing to write. Aim right for the middle.

A writer trying to break in needs to have as much stacked in his or her favor as possible. You want a spec that can be made without breaking the bank. You want a spec that is universally resonant and executed flawlessly.

Because here’s the not-so-secret secret: Regardless of genre, a unique, compelling story with universally resonant themes is what Hollywood is looking for. Sounds simple enough, right? Until you get about ten different opinions as to what that means. The truth is that as a writer, all you can do is continue to hone your craft; write relentlessly, promote yourself constantly and get Zen with the fact that Hollywood isn’t fair and it doesn’t make sense.

It is the Wave-inatrixe's opinion that writers are visionaries. We are the zeitgeist. Because we live it. We reflect and refract the collective attitudes, hopes and fears about love, fear, politics, aging, culture and so much more. So stay informed about the industry that you hope will feed and clothe you but write from your heart, Wavers.

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