Horror Fims Are Hot Again!

Studios and independent filmmakers alike are cashing in on the recent
success of horror films at the box office, according to The Hollywood
Reporter. "I think there's clearly been a demand in the marketplace both at
the distributor level and at the consumer level [for new horror titles],"
Joe Drake, president of Senator International, told the trade paper.

Last year, Drake formed genre banner Ghost House Pictures with Spider-Man
and Evil Dead director Sam Raimi and his longtime producing partner Rob
Tapert. The company's first film, Boogeyman, is set to begin shooting in New
Zealand in a matter of weeks, followed by a remake of the Japanese horror
hit The Grudge (Ju-On), which starts filming this fall. Further down the
line, Ghost House plans to release a big-screen adaptation of the
award-winning horror comic title 30 Days of Night, the trade paper reported.

Other supernatural horror films in the works include Lions Gates' Cabin
Fever, in which a flesh-eating virus attacks a group of college graduates
trapped in the woods, May, a quirky but creepy take on the Frankenstein
legend, and Godsend, a thriller about parents hoping to resurrect their
murdered son starring Robert De Niro and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, the trade
paper reported.

Drake cautioned that the potential glut of genre films is not necessarily a
good thing. "Do I believe that all these companies that are announcing
horror brands are going to be around in five years? No," Drake told the
trade. "I don't think that there's room for a boatload of companies to be
specializing in horror, but the marketplace will dictate that. Somebody else
will be successful at comedy, and then everybody will go make comedies."