Horror Genre Refuses to Die for Moviegoers

Hollywood is taking a beating for marketing violent movies to the nation’s youth. And yet this weekend, the two top-grossing films were the teen horror sequel “Urban Legends: Final Cut” and the re-release of the baby-boom generation’s gross-out horror classic, “The Exorcist.”

No matter what happens on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when studio executives respond to the Federal Trade Commission’s scathing report on peddling violence to teens, the slasher/horror genre will remain a staple of the movie business. Teen horror is where Hollywood makes its easy money.

The movies are cheap to produce and, when they work, they create huge profits. A teen-horror franchise provides one of the only reliable profit streams in an otherwise wildly unpredictable business. Every studio in Hollywood is forever on the prowl for the next one.

In an era when Hollywood studios routinely spend $100 million and more to produce what they hope will be a global blockbuster, this low-cost, formulaic fare that doesn’t require high-salaried stars has never been more valuable.

The horror genre is not specifically condemned in the FTC report. Yet it serves as a clear example of graphic violence marketed primarily to young teens.

Within the realm of R-rated movies, horror films more than any other genre are dependent on the young teen audience. Blood drenched or not, the idea is a violent jolt to the nervous system.

“Horror is a tried-and-true genre--a perennial,” says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks industry box office results.

“Despite all this chest-pounding about marketing these movies, there’s a definite audience demand. Horror is the ultimate escape, and gore is fun.”

The box-office revenues make it clear.

The “Scream” series has generated nearly $300 million in the United States alone for Walt Disney Co.-owned Miramax/Dimension Films. The New York-based company, which originally made its name on such highbrow art-house movies as “My Left Foot” and “The Crying Game,” is now dependent on profits from the teen-horror genre.

The 1996 release of the first “Scream,” which cost $15 million and grossed more than $175 million worldwide, set off the recent horror craze among teens. The knife-wielding serial killer who occasionally disembowels his pretty victims was a sensation in high schools across the country.

“Scream” writer Kevin Williamson also wrote the popular 1997 teen thriller “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which with its 1998 sequel grossed more than $100 million in the U.S.

Last summer’s teen phenomenon, “The Blair Witch Project”, became a huge hit largely off being marketed to youths over the Internet. It earned its “R” rating with bad language, limiting the gore to a fuzzy shot of a handful of minor body parts. The “thrills” came from a sense that everyone in the movie would soon be dead. Marketed and released by Artisan Entertainment, the film grossed $140.5 million domestically. Its sequel is due out next month.

“I think horror and sci-fi entertainment of any kind will always appeal to a younger teenage audience because of its edginess,” said John Hegeman, the former Artisan executive responsible for selling “Blair Witch.” Hegeman, who recently launched a Web site aimed at young cult and fantasy fans, https://www.distantcorners.com, observed, “There’s always a certain level of relevance or social commentary in a good horror movie. That, coupled with sheer exploitiveness, is the perfect fit for a younger audience.”

This summer’s smash hit “Scary Movie,” produced by Miramax’s Dimension movie label, shocked the movie industry with an eye-popping $42.3-million opening weekend. The film went on to gross more than $150 million.

But the current horror rage is nothing new.

“It’s a time-honored genre going back to Hitchcock,” says Warner Bros. President Alan Horn, “proving people enjoy being frightened and going on a vicarious thrill ride in the safety of a theater.”

And as Horn is quick to point out, Warner’s successful re-release this past weekend of director William Friedkin’s 27-year-old classic “The Exorcist” is a testament to the ongoing popularity of gross-out horror flicks. Two generations lined up to see this movie last weekend.

As campy as it seems today, when it was released there were political fireworks when the Roman Catholic Church denounced the film for its depiction of satanic possession.

Horn has been outspoken in his opposition to gratuitously violent movies and will be one of the studio executives testifying in Washington this week. He argues that the gross and scary aspects of “Exorcist”--lest we forget that the film’s main character’s head rotates 360 degrees and she throws up green vomit--were not gratuitous but vital to the story line of a girl taken over by the devil.

Still, Horn said he would never take his 11- or 12-year-old daughters to see the movie.

Warner is sure to make a handsome profit on its re-release, spending about $10 million in marketing and $1 million for enhancements.

On just 664 screens, the film grossed $8.5 million for an average of more than $12,000 per showing over the weekend.

Former studio head Mike Medavoy, whose Phoenix Pictures backed the weekend’s top moneymaker, “Urban Legends: Final Cut” and its 1998 predecessor, “Urban Legends,” said horror-genre movies are “part of the folklore of movie-making and have been since the beginning of movies, going back to the Silent Era.”

The first bona-fide slasher hit was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 screen adaptation of Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho.” The film cost $800,000 and earned $40 million.

Horror series such as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” were all the rave in the late 1970s and ‘80s, which also saw a slew of low-budget clones featuring coeds in jeopardy being hunted down by serial killers.

The lucrative “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise put Bob Shaye’s independent movie company New Line Cinema, now owned by Time Warner Inc., on the map in the 1980s.

No matter what happens this week in Washington, Medavoy and others say, they do not expect Hollywood to stop producing teen horror movies.

“I think the issue in Washington is not censorship but who are we marketing these movies to,” Medavoy said. “The industry will certainly not shy away from this genre.”

Producer Debra Hill, who produced the first three “Halloween” movies and co-wrote the first two with director John Carpenter, says that while horror franchises such as “Halloween” and “Scream” are “commercial and fun,” under no circumstances should they be marketed to teens without the appropriate rating.”

She hopes the industry will be more vigilant about educating parents as to what the ratings really mean. “That’s what I hope comes out of this week’s hearings in Washington. This is not about what kind of movies we make.”

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Times staff writer Amy Wallace contributed to this report. Exhibitor Relations Co. provided box-office figures.

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Hollywood’s Horror Game

Every major Hollywood studio covets teen horrorfranchises because they make money. A look at recentgrosses:

Biggest Grossing Horror Film Series

Scream: 3 films; 1996-2000: $293.5

Nightmare on Elm Street: 7 films; 1984-94: 224.8

Friday the 13th: 9 films; 1980-93: 199.7

Halloween: 7 films; 1978-98: 187.4

I Know What You Did Last Summer: 2 films; 1997-98: 112.6

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Biggest-Grossing Horror Films This Year

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Domestic gross Date Title Studio (millions) opened Scary Movie Miramax/Dimension $153.7 7/7 What Lies Beneath DreamWorks SKG 148.4 7/21 Scream 3 Miramax 89.1 2/4 Hollow Man Sony 72.5 8/4 The Cell New Line 57.4 8/18 Final Destination New Line 53.3 3/17

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Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.