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Reviving Hong Kong's horror movies. What needs to be done?

JayF

JayF

The Idol Producer
Not definitive, but this list of some classic HK horror movies shows a glimpse of the decline of the HK horror movie genre.

15 Great Hong Kong Horror Movies Worth Watching

As someone who grew up on HK horror movies, with them being a staple every Saturday late night on TV I felt their loss greatly. There's been two HK horror movies of note this past decade that's made it to the big screen outside of HK and turned a tidy profit I can remember.

2013- Rigor Mortis

2015- Keeper of Darkness.

A Google search gave me exactly 3 horror movies produced in 2015, and two produced in 2016. Of course, this are the ones that made it to the West.

Compared to the 90s and 80s where they basically dominated Asian cinema, HK horror movies have fallen a long way. While Thailand, S.Korea and Japan still churns them out.

What needs to be changed in order to revive the jiangshi and HK horror movie scene?

Is it the outsized influence the Chinese market has on HK film production? Because while Korean, Thai and Japanese film producers are eyeing China too they're still willing to churn out horror at a respectable pace. Or does the average HK film studio believes that missing out on a domestic release in China is too great a prize to fork out the money for a horror film that may or may not make bank in the rest of Asia, with a smattering of Western takings?
 
Considering the timing of HK films in general waning I think China rolling in was a pretty big cause.

I doubt they rolling out would have any effect though since the people making and starring such movies have long since fled or moved on to better things.

I still miss the wire-fu movies myself. Grew up with the stuff thanks to the video craze :V

Jackie Chan's early ones are a riot.

Hum I wonder can I still find the olympic games one? :drevil:
 
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Horror is a niche genre, making it very difficult to find funding and an audience. And horror movies generally work if they aim to target a clear fear that the audience has.

So if you want to revitalise a genre, you need to find a way to provide funding, find a way for the audience to want to see the movie, and you need to understand the society you're looking at to play on their fears.

Most importantly, I think, is to keep your budget and expectations low. Like I said, horror movies are a niche genre.

Or you could attempt another approach, namely writing a mixed-genre movie, combining a different genre with horror elements -- this is more difficult, but perhaps it's easier to get funding and audience attention. Though I'm personally unsure.
 
Fernandel said:
Or you could attempt another approach, namely writing a mixed-genre movie, combining a different genre with horror elements -- this is more difficult, but perhaps it's easier to get funding and audience attention. Though I'm personally unsure.
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If it is a horror absurdist comedy I at least would watch it. This mix also shouldn't be too hard to write as some traditional horror movies already are absurd enough that you can laugh about them :D.
 
HK horror movies in their heyday of the 90s and 80s were very much a mix of horror, kung-fu action and slapstick comedy. There's also a general undertone of modernist optimism for those set in the early modern era. It was exceedingly rare to find a HK jiangshi film that's completely about scaring the beejezus out of you. Most were exceedingly commercial, and there's a general pride in their hard work and drive in the frantic camera work, the dialogue and themes.

The two modern horror movies I've listed on the other hand, are very different. The 2013 Rigor Mortis was both a love letter and a eulogy for the HK jiangshi film industry. The Keeper of Darkness, has Western horror movie influence all over it.

Take this scene from Rigor Mortis.



It's actually a reference to an older movie from the eighties, which I wasn't able to find. The theme song from the movie itself is also a remix of a song that was lighter in it's original incarnation.

I personally would love to see it revived as a genre, since Horror in HK is almost dead due to lack of funding. All the major studios have China on the top of their minds when deciding on signing checks.
 
I think that if a geographically specific markets wants more large scale attention it's has a downhill battle competing with both other east regional film scenes and the Hollywood behemoth.

You could try to get in on western audiences. East Asian media has taken the west by storm and maybe it can do it again. The problem there is that modern Hollywood is a mindless lumbering animal and the most you can expect is your movie getting a western peemake. To even have a chance the paradigm as a whole needs to change.

Fernandel said:
And boy, do these movies ever suck
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... You mean Scary Movie 3 and upwards suck right?
 
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