The film industry is always looking for its new great vein and it seems that, when a formula begins to show signs of exhaustion, a genre appears ready to pick up the baton: the terror. Superheroes are already a model that seems more than worn out and, of course, they are no longer that infallible answer that dominated the box office for a decade (tell that to James Gunn and his ‘Supergirl‘). So the mission is now to find that next great franchise capable of drawing audiences to theaters.
In fact, it is not the first time that Hollywood finds some oxygen in horror, since when it needs to reinvent itself it turns to it as a true laboratory of ideas. It happened with him found footagewith the auteur horror that enlightened an entire production company like Blumhouse and, now, it seems that the next revolution comes thanks to a generation of creators who learned to tell stories on YouTube before in a film school.
It is true that with the last three leading films (‘Iron Lung’,’Obsession‘ and ‘Backrooms‘), and with the numbers in handit’s easy to draw that conclusion. But what is perhaps worth pointing out is that this is not a phenomenon of this last year nor is it a mere fad. Horror has been a testing ground for the industry for years; experimenting with new technologies, riskier production models and innovative narratives.
The difference is that now the gateway is not a festival like ‘Sundance’, a prestigious school or a certain surname. This new generation has learned to edit, create, edit and script from their bedroom.
The proper names
Curry Baker already pointed out ways with his footage ‘Milk&Serial’a found footage filmed for just $800 and published for free on YouTube, which has more than two million views. But there was nothing to suggest that his next project, ‘Obsession’, would end up becoming one of the phenomena of the year.
Its twisted and innovative version of the classic “be careful what you wish for” has not only skyrocketed the popularity of its protagonist, Inde Navarrette (he is already chaining new projects and even stars in the new Sombr video clip along with one of the stars of ‘Off Campus‘), but it has also turned the box office upside down. With 371.2 million dollars raised around the world has already surpassed ‘Sinners‘ becoming the highest-grossing English-language original live-action production of the decade.
And, if that were not enough, it has achieved something that has not happened since 1982: increasing its collection during each of its first three weekends.
Not far behind ‘Backrooms’ Kane Parsons. The Californian opened his YouTube channel when he was barely ten years old, but it was in 2022, when he was only 16, when he caught the attention of the internet with his short film ‘The Backrooms (Found Footage)‘. Inspired by the popular creepypasta about an infinite labyrinth of offices and alternative dimensions that began to gain traction in a forum like 4Chanended up redefining the analog horror and accumulating tens of millions of views.
Four years later, Parsons not only dared to direct ‘Backrooms’, he also signed the script with Roberto Patino and participated in the soundtrack. The result, another resounding success, with 330 million dollars raised, becoming the film highest grossing of A24 with its first version.
The third name of this batch is Mark Fischbach“Markiplier”. In this case, his fame does not come from a viral short film, but from one of the largest communities on YouTube, where he has accumulated close to 40 million subscribers. Accustomed to writing, editing and even financing his own projects, he decided to make the leap to feature film with ‘Iron Lung’adaptation of the indie horror video game by David Szymanski published in 2022.
And so it was formed another success for this generation of filmmakers that emerged from the Internet, sneaking into second place at the US box office in its first weekend in theaters.
Hollywood adapts communities
When Hollywood wants to experiment, it does so with terror; but now the studios have an advantage. Betting on Barker, Parsons or Markiplier is not jumping into the void, they all come with a community behind them that has already validated their work. They have learned with Adobe Premiere, and not by taking their first steps in large productions, but they have also perfected a language that connects naturally with a generation that has grown up with the Internet.
There, those rhythms inherited from YouTubea found footage taken further, liminal spaces and a more fragmented narrative that young audiences instantly recognize. In the end, you are buying into a different way of telling stories.
Fischbach writes, directs, edits, produces, finances and stars in much of his own work. He released ‘Iron Lung’ through his own production and distribution company, Markiplier Studios. It turned its audience into the driving force of distribution, as its 39 million subscriber base undoubtedly had something to do with its $50 million box office success.
Parsons, with his 1.7 million subscribers, creates a phenomenon from scratch with a very well-built audience accustomed to what the author had to offer; those found footage evolved and that particular aesthetic. So, despite not having such a huge community when Hollywood knocked on his door, he built it based on a very specific idea.
“What has happened here shows that it is possible to create a niche in the network, make it work sustainably, and then scale it when more resources come in. I’m sure there are a lot of people right now trying to figure out how to repeat that phenomenon, how to make lightning strike twice.” Kane Parsons
These phenomena are the next great mutation of the genre. What’s more, Hollywood studios are betting on digital assets and are not just limited to Tiktok or YouTube: now their radar points to Reddit. They search the platform for short stories and ideas that can become films after happened this last year; come on, a’blood list‘(compilation of best scripts of the year) more modern and reformulated.
Nothing crazy, since Reddit’s own marketing director, Jim Squiresdefined the platform as “a kind of almost real-time IP incubator, with moderators and communities that are creating these spaces in which stories and fandoms can grow organically.”
And in Spain?
If we look at the national territory, we do not have a case as clear and recent as that of Parsons or Markiplier, but that does not mean that the Spanish industry has remained immune to this phenomenon. Long before Hollywood noticed YouTube, Spanish cinema had already incorporated ‘REC’ some of the visual codes that would later become common on the internet: a first-person camera, that sensation of improvised recording and false immediacy that worked perfectly for the viewer’s immersion.
And, as far as language is concerned and leaving aside gender, national figures such as Carlo Padial He has been exploring that border between the internet and cinema for years. From his videos to Playground or projects like ‘You are my movie’ Padial has converted the codes of viral videos, memes and the online community into cinematic material long before Hollywood used YouTube as its quarry.
If we finally try to cover all audiovisual production and accept a format like the documentary within this search for similar paths in our territory, we find a recent case of success like that of Carles Tamayo. It has been a long time since his documented infiltration in El Palmar de Troya caught the attention of general television but now it is specifically Spanish Television that commissioned his latest documentary project with ‘It’s gotten out of hand‘.
Whenever Hollywood tries something, it experiments with horror first
And yes, it is not an isolated trend, much less recent, terror has been functioning as the great test bed of the industry for decades. Unlike drama or comedy, this genre does not need to conquer all audiences to be profitable; by connecting with horror fans it can already become a phenomenon.
Just look back: the found footagethat recorded material later found by the characters, rears its head in the 80s with ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ but it is with the famous ‘The Blair Witch Project‘ (1999) when this experimentation with the format creates a sensation of reality never seen in the genre and, thus, 27 years ago Hollywood confirmed that a home camera could create more anguish than any blockbuster.
During the 2000s, digital cinema consolidated itself with this genre. While canonical studios opted for traditional productions, horror became friends with those low-cost digital cameras, turning them into its creative tool. Later, when Blumhouse Productions appears focuses on a different aspect and changes the rules of the game, it does not want to revolutionize the technique or language of the genre but rather its economic model: low budgets, creative freedom for authors and considerable benefits if the public supports the products. Thanks to this formula we have totems like ‘Insidious‘(2010) or ‘The Purge’ (2013).
The next step is more artistic than economic. Movies like ‘It Follows‘(2014) showed that horror could once again conquer critics without losing the favor of the general public. A24 He knew how to read that change like no one else and made it his hallmark. Starting in 2015, it eliminates that niche category and catches some of the most interesting directors of the moment such as Robert Eggers (‘The Witch’) or Ari Aster (‘Hereditary’, ‘Midsommar’).
Since then, that gasp from Florence Pugh in ‘Midsommar’ or that penetrating look from Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘The Witch’ are hard to beat. Now the cycle seems to repeat itself, only this time we are not talking about a new camera or a new mode of production.
The real key
Beyond technical innovations and budgets, horror has functioned as a nexus and creative spark for the industry for decades thanks to the everyday nature of fear. It is a genre that has known how to read the fear and challenges of each era and each generation like no one else. Under a fantastic lens or an unreal element, Jordan Peele or Ari Aster talk to us about racism, grief, family relationships or anxiety, thus building a fear more disturbing than any monster or disturbing festival.
“I’m very afraid. All the time. But horror movies have helped me since I was a child: while feeding my fears and generating many new ones, it has given me a place to shelter, to learn” Desiree of Fez in ‘Scream Queen’
So, the conclusion seems obvious: Who can better understand the fears and better challenge a generation that has grown up among viral videos, algorithms and online communities? The creators themselves who have learned that language from within. And, if this phenomenon continues to demonstrate something, it is that if Hollywood needs to reinvent itself, look to horror. And whenever horror needs to reinvent itself, it looks outside of Hollywood.
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