Horror at the Australian Box Office in 2015 - 7th February 2017

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Guess we had our disappointing year in 2014, I was sort of okay with 2015, again a reduced release schedule but some very solidly performing movies. We got two blockbusters and toward the top of the 2015 Dark Genre chart some very solid performers, perhaps indicating it's not all doom and gloom at the dark edge of town. While pure horror might have been pretty light on the ground, we did see some excellent efforts and at least one Director making up ground with fair weather fans. I'm going to say right here right now 2015 was the year of the found footage movie as releases surged and results were solid cinematically wise.

On a bright note the local industry had two cinema charting flicks out in 2015 which helped keep the home fires burning. We still aren't totally supporting home grown releases, but they are starting to make a splash with more titles available on disc in 2015 than previously.

This year I've decided to turn both barrels on the RT Critics, who are so far up their own deluded arses that their reviews are becoming something of a joke, seriously guys not every dark genre flick is made with the Oscars in mind or to explore the human condition.

As usual I will provide in depth coverage of the top 10 grossing dark genre movies of the year, indicate which genres they fall into, and see if we can't pick any trends the year sent our way. All figures are in Australian dollars, and only include earnings made while movies sat in the top twenty charts during the year. In 2016 we hope to start bringing additional figures to the party as movies really do struggle in "the suck", below the top twenty.

Top spot for the year was taken by Jurassic World, the fourth movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, and a definitely attempt to reboot that franchise after movies 2 and 3 failed to claim major box office status or critical success. Distributor Universal opened the movie mid-year and went with a massive release schedule of 605 screens as anticipation threatened to blow the roof off cinemas. The movie responded with an opening weekend of $16 million as fans voted with their dollars to bring back the Dinos, the Studio I believe simply green lighted the next movie on the strength of world-wide results over the first weekend. A 3.28 multiplier saw the movie make a massive $53 million at the end of its run. Regardless of genre, and no this isn't core horror that is one hell of a result, Jurassic is back baby!

Yes we got caught up in the hype and the team hit the cinema opening weekend to get our first taste in a while of dinos going rampant. Everyone got about what they expected, this movie isn't going to teach you about the human condition or make a statement beyond what Michael Crichton did in the original novel, Jurassic Park (1990). That would be playing God is bad, nature will bring the chaos. Anyways a fun time was had by all and we gave passing marks to a movie that was big on special effects and the normal Spielbergian lightness on everything else. Good popcorn eating fun, a movie that knew its limitations but which played within those limitations. The RT meter on this big monster outing was 71% which seems about right.

There was a high degree of anticipation and worry when a new Mad Max movie was announced quite some time ago. First the Mad Mayor of Malibu wasn't reprising his most famous role, second locations had move to Africa due to the deserts in Oz blooming after heavy rains, could George Miller repeat the success of his second movie in the franchise? Well sort of, the movie came with more pre-release hype than a Pink tour and I must admit to getting Fury Road fatigue before it even opened. Roadshow dropped the movie mid-May on 542 screens noticing up a $6.2 million result over the first weekend. The movie then spent a lot of time eking out a 3.5 multiplier before hitting blockbuster status and a final $21.5 million result. Given the at times hysterical hype coming out of the U.S, that must have been a tad disappointing for Roadshow surprisingly, though I was breathing a sigh of release when the movie did cross the $20 million mark finally.

The movie derived some strange reactions during the opening week, we took a couple of weeks to catch it, from various sources. Reactions ranged from some real sad little men who were demanding a boycott due to the movie being more Mad Maxine than Max, to teen males carrying on like tween chicks at a One Direction concert! When we got to a screening, forget why it took so long, I must admit to a feeling of slight disappointment, due to the hype to be honest. I dubbed the movie "There and Back Again" and pretty much gave up on the plot doing anything remotely interesting, this one is all bubble and squeak with no lasting flavours. Rob was along for the ride, there was beer beforehand, and thought Fury Road far from being "the best action movie ever" was actually pretty disappointing. So we kind of had a mixed result from the experience, though it was about 100% better than Beyond Thunderdome. The RT on this one was 97%, anyone notice that bandwagon that hurtled through town? - a rating that brings into question the RT meter to be honest. Audience scores were a lot lower and Aussie Critics surprisingly didn't gush all over it.

Taking out third spot was the obligatory animated movie, this time a sequel in the form of Hotel Transylvania 2. Not sure what Sony was thinking with this one, it opened to a low screen count with a bow of $275,221 from 120 screens, clearly the Distributor not expecting much from this entry in the looney tunes style stable. The public replied with a resounding 42 multiplier to deliver a final result of $11.6 million, now that's respectable.

Okay sorry folks, no one went and saw this one, no idea, phone your local MP for a review. This one scored 54% on the RT, but I have to say some of the RT critics need to pull their heads out of their arses, this is a kids' movie not an intellectual discourse on the human condition. 64% percent audience score was for mine closer to the mark and more honest.

Roadshow dropped disaster flick San Andreas in late May with firm expectations that Dwayne Johnson and honking big effects would pack them in the aisles, well it works for Michael Bay on the effects front right? So the movie kicked off with $3.2 million, not a bad opening stanza, but faltered somewhat late in its run with a 2.8 multiplier delivering an on the wire result of $9 million. Now that's good for a dark genre flick, and acceptable for a disaster outing, but just another million would have made me a very happy camper. Can't call it a disappointment if I had to be honest, but was left with a slight feeling of being let down as the movie punched breakout hit pace early in its run to falter with the finish line in sight.

Guess disaster flicks aren't really the team's thing but picked up a copy in a three for two sale and settled in with Femm DF to check it out. We both had a hoot and a holler with it, DF is also a big disaster flick fan, and we were bouncy little bunnies as the over the top special effects went down and LA got hammered, again. Okay so the plot is pretty meh, about every disaster flick recently has rinsed and repeated it, but a major Earthquake bringing down CGI skyscrapers, I'm your man Charlie Brown. Mindless popcorn entertainment at its best folks, can't wait for the next disaster flick to be honest. The RT were particularly nasty with this one turning in a 48% rotten, with audience rating once again a tad better at 52%. Once again I have to say the RT meter is questionable, a lot of their Critics really do have a stick up their arses and expect every single flick they see to be Oscar worthy, talk about people with egos, and guys you aren't half as clever as you think you are. San Andreas is the perfect second flick in a marathon fuelled by sodas and sugar enhanced snacks kids.

The first of the core horror flicks took out fifth spot as the supposed final movie in the PA universe was delivered by Universal 22nd October. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension promised to answer all the questions raised by the previous five instalments, except it really didn't, with the ultimate Toby end game being pretty meh. So Universe took 330 screens for the movie, figuring no doubt since last movie it would get a boast, and would have been shocked with a mild $1.3 million result. Clearly either franchise fatigue had set in or the answers provided by the movie were for questions no one was exactly sweating on. A 2.6 multiplier did earn the found footage romp a pass mark with a final earn of $3.5 million. On the bright side Ghost Dimension did lead a stampede of found footage movies into the charts in 2015 as the subgenre found its feet and support base. As opposed to what some idiots are claiming, this approach to movie making was very alive in North America and the International markets, I look forward to seeing where some progressive film makers can take the concept.

For the final movie we were found wanting, yes folks none of the team fronted up to the cinema to catch this movie, why, because it dropped when people were getting final assignments in or working on projects. I did however buy the Blu-ray once it got released and immediately popped a brew and threw the disc on. My thoughts were, who exactly was filming some of the scenes, and couldn't they have been a little more creative with the plot conclusion after six movies! At the start of the year I stated that regardless of merit this movie would get panned by the usual assortment of bandwagon hoppers we see year in year out, check the RT meter of 13%! Yeap folks the same tired group of up their own collective arse "critics" were ready with mighty pen to write the same odious rubbish we read again and again. Was the movie worth a 13%, oh hell no, these cretins are praising flicks that are tiresome in their attempts to be meaningful, Ghost Dimension while not being the best movie in its own franchise was stull superior to a lot of higher rating releases. Somewhere out there is a Critic that is true to his/her self that wrote a scathing review of the movie, all power to that person, unfortunately they have unleashed a congo line of hacks, each striving for that extra clever statement, but essentially rolling out the party line in unadulterated drivel pretending to be a review. BTW catch the movie at your own peril, but make your own mind up about it, I enjoyed it for what it was.

Keeping up the modern action figure end of the table The Last Witch Hunter saw Vin Diesel on a weird project of his own. Entertainment One, following Roadshow's lead, decided to flex their muscle with this supernatural action romp opening the movie on 182 screens for a bow of $1.1 million. That wasn't bad to be honest considering most of us had written this movie off as a car wreck waiting to happen. An acceptable 3.1 multiplier gave Witch Hunter a dark genre pass mark of $3.4 million, and also ensures Entertainment One will not be adverse to catching the genre freight train in the future.

I finally caught up with the movie after some trial and tribulations, and have to say I was pretty meh with it. Standard popcorn stuff with not a lot to recommend was my take on Vin Diesel's vanity project, should have picked another script big fella. The RT critics naturally gave the movie a resounding 16% as they rushed to see who could dream up the most awesome thing to say about it, my personal favourite was Francesca Rudkin, who while scribbling chalk marks for the NZ Herald, declared breathlessly "(t)he often incoherent and repetitive plot". Sorry if you find this movie incoherent then you really should stick to reviewing Disney Princess movies, the idea of Witch Hunter being confusing took hold amongst RT Critics who were so busy aping each other's reviews that they kind of displayed the sort of low intelligence we have come to expect from a lot of self-opinionated bores on the net. End of day go grab a rental, the movie is turn off your brain fodder, but as opposed to what Critics think it is entirely easy to follow and maintains its own logic in a sort of non-threatening fashion.

M. Night Shyamalan once again kicked sand in the haters faces with a return to rollicking good form with The Visit, our number seven movie of the year. Universal dropped the movie on us 24th September and backed it with a solid enough 180 screens. The opening weekend bow of $1.2 million however didn't eventuate in an excellent total gross with the 2.6 multiplier restricting things to $3 million. Now that is a pass mark in the horror genre book, so two thumbs up to everyone involved, nice to see M. Night kicking butt and taking names again. Reports have disc sales going through the roof; Universal backed a winner with this title.

Another of those movies I didn't catch at the cinema, work commitments people, but did immediately gobble up when it hit disc. I'm a huge fan of M. Night's work, well except that Last Airbender abomination, so am probably slightly biased. I loved the fairy tale feel to things, and yes thought the found footage approach worked for the movie, one of the characters is making a documentary hence why everything is on film. So hey two found footage movies in the top ten, and people are saying this style of film making is dying, perhaps if they did a modicum of research before opening their cake holes they might just be worth listening to. A couple of the team also got this on disc, we were doing mail outs with the title, and the general consensus is that the guys can't wait till M. Night's next movie, we're first in line opening night. Over on the RT meter the movie achieved a decent enough 64%, which I'm happy with, clearly some of the Critics there hadn't received the memo that the band wagon has left town, it is no longer cool to attack M. Night cause all the cool cats are doing it. Thankfully some balance has broken out, for mine M. Night is this generation's Hitchcock, he dares to make different movies, some work, some don't, but for sure we are getting better cinema that the production belt cookie cutters Boredwood pumps out for the Quote whores to wet themselves over.

Wouldn't you know it, slot eight taken out by yet another found footage effort in the form of Universal's Unfriended. Clearly the reality of found footage is far removed from what the haters are claiming on various sites, they are making solid coin and are going to be with us for quite some time yet. Anyways the Distributor released the movie late April on a surprisingly strong 185 screen count, the opening weekend bow of $1.6 million showed a lot of support for the feature amongst teens, which is pretty much the target audience for the flick. A weak 1.8 multiplier however stopped Unfriended dead in its tracks with a final tally of $2.9 million. Okay that's a pass mark for the dark genre, and for sure I'm not complaining about the result, but I have a feeling Universal might be somewhat disappointed with the final total. That opening weekend should have yielded a minimum $3.5 million, support was strong amongst genre Reviewers, and the kids were bouncy with the whole deal, so what happened? In a word, torrents, teenagers seem to have a natural adversity to paying for their viewing material; hence a lot of support for movies and television is via illegal downloads etc. I don't have any proof of this, but for sure Game of Thrones indicates traditional delivery mechanisms are no longer working for Aussie consumers, time to change the game plan in my opinion. Anyways dudes get your dates to some good old fashion horror, they are for sure going to appreciate some close contact, just saying.

Okay don't hate me folks but haven't actually seen this movie as of writing. I have it on disc, a three for one sale at Sanity, but haven't had the time to dial in yet. The whole notion of telling a horror yarn via social media is certainly intriguing enough and I promise to prioritise viewing just as soon as my discs come out of storage, currently moving houses, so review in due course. None of the team have seen the movie either as they are fairly slack at the best of times, we are a bad horror site, I know it, we apologise. Moving along the RT meter for this one was surprisingly 62%, my favourite comment has to be Jake Wilson writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, "Unfriended is genuinely innovative and experimental", good call Bro! As usual the carrot up the date Critics weren't impressed, possibly because they are technically inept and out of touch with the modern web communications revolution, or it could be because they are so far up their own bums they can't see the cinematic daisies from there. Does that even make sense?

A classic horror fable in the form of Crimson Peak was unleashed in mid-October by Universal, who clearly had great expectations for the movie given the wide 199 screen opening weekend release. Unfortunately horror fans have seen this movie and it's like about 1,001 times before and had better things to do with the bow of $839k not auguring well for the movie making a return on the Distributor's coin. A 2.4 multiplier did pony up a final total slightly north of $2 million, but that ain't a pass mark in the horror genre folks, that's in disappointment territory. Surprisingly this year it's not till the ninth ranked movie that we see trouble in dark town, so pretty good year for the genre on that alone.

Once again caught this one on disc, and that would be a hire, as I pretty much knew what the movie was going to throw at me. Meh, no surprises, belaboured plotline, wasn't on the groove train with this movie. Think Dan sat through a cinema session, and wasn't inclined to do a review as it would have been negative. The RT meter was naturally at 71%, because it's a Guillermo del Toro movie and hence those monkeys have to say nice things about it, but horror Reviewers were a lot more on the ball and saw through the shroud to a pretty plodding plot that has been around since horror first cut the umbilical cord with Sci-Fi. Punters voted with their dollars, and the movie ended up pretty limp really.

And our final entry at number ten, the first remake in the list, now that's not bad given Boredwood's propensity to recycle good movies with half arsed remakes, is Poltergeist. Fox had high hopes for this one opening it 21st May on 296 screens, unfortunately for the Studio fans weren't buying into yet another remake with the movie failing at $755k. A low 2.1 multiplier delivered a kick in the bum to Fox with the movie stalling out at $1.6 million. The original movie garnered a lot of praise over the years, not so sure the remake is going to have anything like the same impact.

I caught this one opening week, nothing else on kids, and was meh once again with a horror flick. They didn't get much right with the new additions to the haunted house built over an Indian burial ground, and the use of previous scenes cropped from the original movie showed the Director really didn't get what made that movie work. Seriously dude, you think anyone is going to buy that clown doll for their kids, get real and think outside LALA land. The RT meter on this one was about right at 32% which seems reasonable enough though a tad light for mine.

While the local Industry didn't exactly shake things up in 2015 there were still two movies that got cinema release, the fore mentioned Fury Road and the zombie road trip Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead. While Miller shot in Africa with primarily a non-Aussie cast it still counts as local, though we might be stretched the friendship there a tad. On the other side of the great divide Road of the Dead was pure Ocker mayhem from first frame to last. A lot of people immediately started comparing the movie to a cross between Romero and Mad Max, those people should shut the frack up and try not to hit the DVD cover line, the idea got traction with every second bit Reviewer trotting it out. Get real, and think up your own copy. Interestingly Road of the Dead has proven to be somewhat influential, with even Z Nation copying a central idea. Personally I had a hoot with the home grown zombie outing; best local subgenre effort since Undead would be my call.

So to the disappointments in 2015, and there were a couple folks, tough love time, even the dark genre drops the ball occasionally. First and foremost was Insidious Chapter 3, the Leigh Whannell directed ghost flick, that operated as a prequel to the events in the preceding two movies in the franchise; fourth movie coming folks. The movie could only muster $500k at the box office, indicating that franchise fatigue is already going down. Would have expected more with a strong Aussie presence in the flick, but once again locals only like brain dead Aussie fare or Boredwood cookie cutters. Also on my list of disappointments was local zombie flick Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead which splattered to a $150k result. Now okay the movie was direct to DVD fodder to be honest, but surely locals should have given it some loving. Which is pretty indicative of a trend we have noted over the last ten or so years, Aussies won't get off their arses to see local horror flicks but will clamber over their families' dead bodies to see whatever conveyor belt nonsense Boredwood pumps out.

So it was a slow year for the dark genre, however results were overall buoyant which ague well for the future of the genre. There were no real stand out horror flicks during the year, though I certainly had a lot of time for The Visit. On the bright side remakes and sequels weren't weighing things down and a couple of the Distributors were going full steam ahead with some solid release schedules. Given the Distributors seem to have given away January as a release frame, which has proven in the past to be a happy hunting ground for the genre, I really didn't note any release strategies coming through. Seems the Distributors simply released them as they came up, with the only deviation being some movies being dropped from cinema release if they underperformed in North America. Yes we are still getting most horror flicks well after release up north as apparent the local Distributors still can't spell "torrents".

Noticeable trends during 2015, besides Politicians lying, but hey that's a trend year in year out and we still vote them in. Gorenography once again wasn't on the agenda, the gorehounds might claim all sorts of shite about this blighted end of town but the harsh truth is it's a ghetto subgenre that no one really cares about besides some sad individuals bemoaning the censor laws, hey hasn't stopped Monster from cutting scenes and still releasing, who's the morons here. Asian horror cinema came into play in the form of the brace of Attack On Titan live action adaptations of the anime series. While the movies weren't exactly knocking Reviewers on their bums it still indicates support for some product out of the East, fingers crossed this continues. And I guess just to hammer the point home to those claiming "found footage" is dead after every movie release, turn the record over for fracks sake, the subgenre was alive and kicking goals in 2015 with numerous releases scoring good box office results and very solid disc sales.

Looking ahead to 2016 and our horror dance card isn't exactly bursting at the seams, the slow release schedule is glued on it would appear. The Revenant is looking good, who doesn't like a good revenge story, this time set in the wild wild west, uhmm no not Rooty Hill. I'm also going to spend some quality time with The Conjuring 2, though no doubt I'll be bitching about it like a mad bastard. The Shallows looks good, haven't seen a killer shark movie in ages so am buckling in for that fun ride. There's already some good buzz going down on The Witch, which is apparently 2016's must see horror flick, and finally I sort of want to see what sort of a mess they can make of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. So I've already got some cinema shenanigans to keep me entertained through next year with no doubt the odd sleeper creeping in as well.

That's my rap on 2015 folks, good year overall, and a lot to look forward to in 2016. As usual a lot of rubbish being spawned on the net about the death of the dark genre, the idiots making these statements really should do some research before opening their cakeholes, we are in a good place kids. Now if only I could make some sort of a dent, any dent, in the review pile I would be a very happy horror movie fan.