Horror films have long served as the gateway to a filmmaking career. Working with low budget auteur Roger Corman, the likes of Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola and John Sayles did early work in genre films on their path to cinematic legend.  Peter Jackson started on the lower end of the budget spectrum with Dead Alive, Spielberg worked on both Night Gallery and Duel, and Sam Raimi, of course, spilled plenty of green blood in The Evil Dead prior to his work on the Spiderman trilogy and A Simple Plan.  

The reality is that there is a built-in audience for horror films and, if you manage to do one in a creative and satisfying manner, you’re going to score.  Or, at least, turn a buck.  Thanks to straight-to-DVD distribution and video on-demand, now low budget filmmakers can produce their films for very little, due to the evolution of mid-range digital cameras, and get their films in front of an audience.  That has its downside, too, as potential producers, writers and directors are forced to actually make a movie, which leads to things like Zombies, Zombies, Zombies or Wicked Lake.  Turns out, it’s really difficult to make a good film, regardless of budget.  It’s actually harder to make a good film with little money, amateur actors and improvised production.

And, yet, there are success stories.  Ti West has steadily built himself a healthy respect within the genre with movies like The Roost before hitting it big with The House of the Devil.  We’ve talked about Raimi, who is the standard-bearer of the horror director kicking open the doors of Hollywood tale, but there’s also Oren Peli, whose Paranormal Activity has made him, and the model for his film, the next big thing.  

as potential producers, writers and directors are forced to actually make a movie, which leads to things like Zombies, Zombies, Zombies or Wicked Lake.  Turns out, it’s really difficult to make a good film, regardless of budget.  It’s actually harder to make a good film with little money, amateur actors and improvised production.

And, yet, there are success stories.  Ti West has steadily built himself a healthy respect within the genre with movies like The Roost before hitting it big with The House of the Devil.  We’ve talked about Raimi, who is the standard-bearer of the horror director kicking open the doors of Hollywood tale, but there’s also Oren Peli, whose Paranormal Activity has made him, and the model for his film, the next big thing.  

It ain’t easy, kids, but it can be done.  But now, horror films face a new model, along with the rest of Hollywood. The internet is a game-changer.  Record labels found this out the hard way as individual album sales plummeted in the wake of peer-to-peer sharing, download sites and good, old-fashioned pirating.  The big production houses are already reeling from the effects of net piracy, DVD authoring and Netflix-style services which, they claim, reduce the amount of DVDs sold.  

In recent days, Hulu.com premiered the first horror film distributed strictly through their free-to-view service, an hour-long piece entitled In the Darkness.  The movie is also available through the official site located here, as well as Netflix.  The DVD available includes director’s commentary, bonus scenes, etc.  Is that what would lure the average horror fan towards purchasing the film?  Is there a belief that the fans will support the film if they like it, mirroring the political argument that social programs undermine the natural benevolence of the people?  I’m unconvinced.

Our friend Lee Veervoort, writer and director of the indie feature Gun Town, weighed in on DVD piracy here, and discussed at some length the notion that the indie filmmaker suffers the effects of piracy far more than bigger budget films.  With the introduction of completely free viewing, as in the case of In the Darkness, it will be interesting to see if the experiment works, if the money follows the movie.  I assure you that without a financial return, this is an experiment that will fail.  The creators of In the Darkness have created a distribution company that focuses on online releasing.  If a way can be found to make it profitable for the filmmaker to do so, and horror fans are willing to follow a film to a computer monitor, they may be onto someth friend Lee Veervoort, writer and director of the indie feature Gun Town, weighed in on DVD piracy here, and discussed at some length the notion that the indie filmmaker suffers the effects of piracy far more than bigger budget films.  With the introduction of completely free viewing, as in the case of In the Darkness, it will be interesting to see if the experiment works, if the money follows the movie.  I assure you that without a financial return, this is an experiment that will fail.  The creators of In the Darkness have created a distribution company that focuses on online releasing.  If a way can be found to make it profitable for the filmmaker to do so, and horror fans are willing to follow a film to a computer monitor, they may be onto something.

some length the notion that the indie filmmaker suffers the effects of piracy far more than bigger budget films.  With the introduction of completely free viewing, as in the case of In the Darkness, it will be interesting to see if the experiment works, if the money follows the movie.  I assure you that without a financial return, this is an experiment that will fail.  The creators of In the Darkness have created a distribution company that focuses on online releasing.  If a way can be found to make it profitable for the filmmaker to do so, and horror fans are willing to follow a film to a computer monitor, they may be onto something.

Regardless, change is inevitable.  Netflix has stayed ahead of the curve with their “Watch Instantly” option, though they have made agreements with big players like Warner Brothers to delay their release schedule for a month to allow consumers to purchase the DVD outright before being able to rent through Netflix.  Entertainment media as a whole is on the precipice of major change as peer-to-peer exchanges allow many people to see a film without the creators ever seeing a penny of it.  What distribution model will work?  

It’s hard to forecast at this point, but it seems certain that it won’t be the model we have, rife with piracy and minor distributors looking to make a quick buck on a low budget horror flick.  Video on Demand, Netflix, Redbox, Hulu and pirate sites are going to change it.  The question is how the studios respond.  If they reject internet and streaming models, they’ll join their musical brethren atop an increasingly shrinking market.  If they embrace alternate forms of distribution, they stand a real chance to do something that can line their own pockets and please the fans.  IFC Films has already begun releasing movies (including the upcoming The Human Centipede) On Demand the same day it makes a limited run in larger markets.  Fans get to see it, in a theater or at home, if geographically prohibited, and the filmmakers get their money.   Seems like a win for both sides.  

their money.   Seems like a win for both sides.  

Now that would-be horror filmmakers have the equipment available to make their movies on the cheap, the changing landscape of the distribution world adds a new wrinkle to their release.  The old model of theater to home video will be around a bit longer, but it’s dying.  The new model has yet to take clear shape, but a revolution is coming.  Let’s hope it continues to be a bloody one.