The Babysitter made the same nod to Home Alone. Do you think Hollywood is starting a new trend of making horror adaptations of 80s and 90s comedies?

Well, with all the reboots it's easy to say Hollywood is out of ideas.

There, I said it. See how easy that was?

@Innovator said:

The Babysitter made the same nod to Home Alone. Do you think Hollywood is starting a new trend of making horror adaptations of 80s and 90s comedies?

BTW, I didn't catch the nod to Home Alone...but I saw someone reference it.

@Daddie0 said:

@Innovator said:

The Babysitter made the same nod to Home Alone. Do you think Hollywood is starting a new trend of making horror adaptations of 80s and 90s comedies?

BTW, I didn't catch the nod to Home Alone...but I saw someone reference it.

It was when Cole was being chased by Max. Max said something like this ain't Home Alone. Except, it pretty much was.

@Daddie0 said:

Well, with all the reboots it's easy to say Hollywood is out of ideas.

Low budget Horror Films have the biggest ROI of any movie genre (I did the math, and calculated that they can return up to 30x their budgets), and Hollywood is starting to catch on that Blumehouse has been printing money all year because of them. So expect more low budget horror/comedies to come from other studios in the future. Genre bending to satisfy more audiences is a no-brainer. So I wouldn't say running out of ideas, but more banking on sure things.

There's 56 low budget horror films this year alone. I wonder why no one has started complaining that's all Hollywood makes these days? There, I said it. See how easy that was?

@Innovator said:

It was when Cole was being chased by Max. Max said something like this ain't Home Alone. Except, it pretty much was.

Having just seen The Babysitter...it is not really similar at all to Home Alone.

I can't recall anyone saying this ain't Home Alone either but if that was a nod, it was nowhere near as directly referenced as Happy Death Day's to Groundhog Day.

I thought it was pretty cool to mention GHD in the end. The movie was really fun and that reference was the icing on the cake.

@Innovator said:

@Daddie0 said:

Well, with all the reboots it's easy to say Hollywood is out of ideas.

Low budget Horror Films have the biggest ROI of any movie genre (I did the math, and calculated that they can return up to 30x their budgets), and Hollywood is starting to catch on that Blumehouse has been printing money all year because of them. So expect more low budget horror/comedies to come from other studios in the future. Genre bending to satisfy more audiences is a no-brainer. So I wouldn't say running out of ideas, but more banking on sure things.

There's 56 low budget horror films this year alone. I wonder why no one has started complaining that's all Hollywood makes these days? There, I said it. See how easy that was?

I think the reason horror doesn't receive that criticism is twofold... First, horror movies aren't advertised and marketed as heavily as the big comicbook movies. So people don't feel it's in their faces as much. This is because horror filmgoing is a habit and horror fans aren't precious about seeking their thrills and watch loads of horror movies per year so it's easy for these low budget movies to hit their revenue targets through word of mouth as we've discussed in detail before (your analysis was solid if i recall correctly).

The second reason is that they aren't distributed as heavily, per movie. So when you go to the theatre, any individual horror movie is less likely to dominate the number of screens and showtimes the way the big comicbook, video game and CGi cartoon movies do. My local multiplex has 4 screens dedicated to Pacific Rim this week, but is also showing 2 horror movies with one screen each. Next week Pacific Rim will still show on two screens, at least, but there will be two completely different horror movies with one screen each 😉

Black Panther still has two screens, even though it's been out for 6 weeks or so.

So, non-fans of the genre, or people who have already seen the movie aren't going to resent horror movies the way they do the big kids, comicbook and video game movies...

If only other genres could emulate horror movie's model in some way. Develop an audience that is willing to give movies a chance and develop filmmaking that is solid and with a high level of craft and enjoyment.

@Renovatio said:

If only other genres could emulate horror movie's model in some way. Develop an audience that is willing to give movies a chance and develop filmmaking that is solid and with a high level of craft and enjoyment.

Agreed. That said, I'm not a horror movie guy, I just happened to catch this one because it was in the buzz. I like to think great films find an audience, but with movies ultimately being a profit-generating business (it is what it is) I'm not sure there's a passion or tolerance to risk it. Or at least not often.