Small, cool horror films scare studios

A new wave of low-budget “smart” horror movies is challenging the studio behemoths with a recipe that swaps gratuitous gore and elaborate special effects for good old-fashioned suspense.

Don’t Breathe, which is due for release next week on the back of widespread acclaim, is hoping to emulate the success of The Babadook, It Follows and a series of other creepy hits made on a shoestring.

While they lack the marketing muscle of the summer tentpoles, these films often become word-of-mouth hits, gathering momentum as reviewers praise their uncompromising refusal to rely on the usual horror tropes. “Main-stream horror these days is really all about whatever’s clever — a new twist on an old story, or one hell of a trailer,” Jeff Bock, of film industry research firm Exhibitor Relations. “As we’ve seen lately, ‘smart’ horror films are in vogue right now,” he said, adding however that there would always be excitement when “a horror icon is revived for one more hunt.”

It Follows (2014), a thematically rich modern slasher, is often cited as the jewel in the crown of horror’s new wave.