The Horror Cash Machine
Sure, a number of them crash and burn -- but as a genre, the horror film has proven to be worth its weight in box-office gold. All they require is a simple premise, some pretty young stars to shriek and scream -- and die off, one by one -- some heavy-handed marketing and the ability to scare the bejesus out of us. The Saw franchise, in particular, has become a Halloween constant, as folks continue to line up to be terrorized by Jigsaw and his increasingly fiendish antics. As frightening as real life can be at times, scary movies allow a visceral and primal escape from real life. And the ticket sales prove the point.
The top fright-fests of the year:
Saw V ($56.7M)
The Strangers ($52.5M)
Prom Night ($43.8M)
Quarantine ($31.6M)
The Eye ($31.3M)
Mirrors ($30.6M)
One Missed Call ($26.8M)
The Ruins ($17.4M)
The Haunting of Molly Hartley ($13.3M)