Does an indie horror film, have to have gore to be likely successful?

H

harmonica44

A lot of horror movies at a local film festival, last year and this year, have a gratuitous amount of gore in them I find. More than what is necessary to make the point of what is happening. Even the disemboweling sound effects are overdone and not that necessary to get the point across.

I have a script for a feature length horror, which I would highly consider making in the future. But do I need all that gore to entertain the audience? It seems that making the situations scary and terrifying without so much blood and guts, can be more effective. For example, I was a lot more scared at Paranormal Activity than I was compared to V/H/S. Or I was scared more from the original Halloween, compared to the more gore concentrated remake.

Or do indie horror film audiences not want to be scared and just grossed out?
 
Should I? Do I need to? What does everyone else think?

Damn it, Harmonica, why can't you ever make a decision on your own? You do what you think is right, what you think your audience wants! Don't make your decisions based on what others think like as if this were a marketing survey or some frigging focus group.

There is right way and a wrong way for the TECHNICAL aspects of filmmaking; everything else is either purely a commercial venture or an artistic endeavor. If you are talented and financed you can sometime combine the two.

You do what you like; screw the rest!
 
I'm going to go against Alcove on this one.

I think it's a decent question to ask, however, I think this is a poor choice of venue where to ask this question. As a filmmaker, we need to understand what makes the audience enjoy what we make. The more they enjoy it, the better our films will be.

To answer Harms questions: Yes and no. If your target audience needs that to be satisfied, then yes you need it in. If not, then no. It depends on the viewer.

You can however do exactly what Alcove said. Work out exactly what you want in a horror movie and make it that way and hope like hell that enough people agree with your vision.
 
Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place, I wasn't sure which the right thread would be, but this seems like one where you talk about genres and audience's tastes maybe.

I wouldn't want to make a movie that the audience is not going to like though. This is why most of the indie films at the festivals are horrors I think. My friend read my script and she says to not use a lot of gore. My script is of a similar tone to United 93 she said, and in that movie if they had made the deaths similar to deaths you see in a splatter film, the movie would have lost it's right tone. I don't want to loose a good tone, but at the same time I want to appeal to audience's expectations, if gore is necessary to sell that is.
 
harmonica44 said:
Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place, I wasn't sure which the right thread would be, but this seems like one where you talk about genres and audience's tastes maybe.

I wouldn't want to make a movie that the audience is not going to like though. This is why most of the indie films at the festivals are horrors I think. My friend read my script and she says to not use a lot of gore. My script is of a similar tone to United 93 she said, and in that movie if they had made the deaths similar to deaths you see in a splatter film, the movie would have lost it's right tone. I don't want to loose a good tone, but at the same time I want to appeal to audience's expectations, if gore is necessary to sell that is.
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original) is a great horror movie that has almost no gore (surprisingly) Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead is a great horror movie that has tons of gore. Pick your poison.
 
In your first post you mentioned possibly the most indie of horror films, 'Paranormal Activity'. There you have an indie horror with no gore. Does that not answer your question?

The majority of horror films you saw contained gore. But, the majority of indie horrors are not 'successful' (also depends on your definition of success).

What happens in your film? Is it a Slasher film? Torture porn? They tend to be gory, the audience likes gore. Is a ghost story? If so, gore's probably not necessary. The audiences for these films are sometimes differnt, but sometimes they overlap.

There's room for gore. But it's not always necessary.
 
Well my script is about a gang of terrorists who take hostages and want their demands to be met. There is one big sequence for example, where the villains decide to massacre 30 people to make a point. Once they run out of bullets, they beat the others to death with knives, blunt objects, etc. One main woman character, gets beaten to death with bare fists. This is suppose to horrify the audience, but not sure if I should have a lot of gore for this, unless it will likely help sell.

I know Paranormal Activity did not have much gore hardly at all, but most indie horrors seem to, especially evidenced at the film festival I went too, and from some of the indie horrors on netflix.
 
Yeah, I was gonna say your description sounds more like a thriller, drama or even an action than horror.

But as far as horror movies go, it's a pretty wide genre, some horror movies have almost no gore, like the Paranormal Activities, and some horror movies are pretty much dependant on their gore effects, like Hostel.

Most horror movies will be R-rated anyway, so any excess gore will probably not be a problem when seeking distribution, in fact it's not even a factor at all.

Go ahead and use gore, if you think it will fit the style of the movie, and if you think that you can execute them well enough with your budget.

But distributors won't likely care about the effects, the first thing they're gonna ask is "who's in it?".
 
harmonica44 said:
Well my script is about a gang of terrorists who take hostages and want their demands to be met. There is one big sequence for example, where the villains decide to massacre 30 people to make a point. Once they run out of bullets, they beat the others to death with knives, blunt objects, etc. One main woman character, gets beaten to death with bare fists. This is suppose to horrify the audience, but not sure if I should have a lot of gore for this, unless it will likely help sell.

I know Paranormal Activity did not have much gore hardly at all, but most indie horrors seem to, especially evidenced at the film festival I went too, and from some of the indie horrors on netflix.
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Why would you have your villians run out of ammo? Isn't that something they'd make sure not to do cause then the SWAT team can shoot them one by one.
 
Alcove Audio said:
Should I? Do I need to? What does everyone else think?

Damn it, Harmonica, why can't you ever make a decision on your own? You do what you think is right, what you think your audience wants! Don't make your decisions based on what others think like as if this were a marketing survey or some frigging focus group.

There is right way and a wrong way for the TECHNICAL aspects of filmmaking; everything else is either purely a commercial venture or an artistic endeavor. If you are talented and financed you can sometime combine the two.

You do what you like; screw the rest!
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+1
 
By popularity: http://www.movieweb.com/movies/2012/horror
(Lazy muther... You've seen me do enough of these searches you ought to know how to conduct one yourself by now. :lol: Bum.)

Underworld Awakening - little gore
Prometheus - little gore
Silent Hill: Revelations - some gore
Resident Evil: Retribution - little gore
The Hole - didn't see it
The Cabin in the Woods - some gore
Mother's Day - didn't see it
Dark Shadows - gore free
The Woman in Black - gore free
Tim and Eric'$ Billion Dollar Movie - didn't see it
Piranha 3DD - didn't see it, but Piranha had lotsOgore!
Night of the Livining Dead: Origins - didn't see it
Twixt - didn't see it
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer - little gore
The Possession - didn't see it
Detention - didn't see it
Beneath the Darkness - didn't see it
Vamps - didn't see it
The Innkeepers - didn't see it


http://www.movieweb.com/movies/2011/horror

Apollo 18 - gore free
Scream 4 - didn't see it
Priest - little gore
Insidious - gore free
11-11-11 - didn't see it
Drive Angry - gore free
Final Destination ... - didn't see it
Don't Be Afraid of... - didn't see it
The Ring 3 - didn't see it
Fright Night - little gore
Dylan Dog: Dead of... - didn't see it
Trollhunter - little gore
The Ward - didn't see it
Vanishing on 7th S... - didn't see it
Scream of the Bans... - didn't see it
The Thing - plentyOgore
Red State - little gore
Bereavement - didn't see it
YellowBrickRoad - didn't see it
Rubber - some gore


So, there you have it, (you lazy ba... bum)!

Most popular films from the last two years (that I've seen) have little gore in them.
Only two do.

And by "gore" I mean 'Tokyo Gore Police' levels of gore, which I consider amusingly absurd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BUUzjrz5ik

NOTE: I noticed "Hobo With A Shotgun" failed to make the 2011 popular horror list, but I would consider that a gore-filled film - BUT - it WASN'T POPULAR, meeeeeeeaning....
 
South Side Dreamer said:
Why would you have your villians run out of ammo? Isn't that something they'd make sure not to do cause then the SWAT team can shoot them one by one.
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Well they have already used up a lot of their ammo exchanging fire with the SWAT team already, so they are low, when they get to killing the hostages after.

EuropeanDistributor said:
Yeah, I was gonna say your description sounds more like a thriller, drama or even an action than horror.


But as far as horror movies go, it's a pretty wide genre, some horror movies have almost no gore, like the Paranormal Activities, and some horror movies are pretty much dependant on their gore effects, like Hostel.

Most horror movies will be R-rated anyway, so any excess gore will probably not be a problem when seeking distribution, in fact it's not even a factor at all.

Go ahead and use gore, if you think it will fit the style of the movie, and if you think that you can execute them well enough with your budget.

But distributors won't likely care about the effects, the first thing they're gonna ask is "who's in it?".
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Well I was thinking of not showing gore, as most gory horror movies are over excessive and just comes off as overkill, at least to me. So I thought I woud show the horror of it rather than the gore. For example when one character busts another character's head open with a pipe, I can just show the pipe come down, and you hear it, but you don't have to actually see it. Unless audiences will feel cheated if I don't, for this genre.

mad_hatter said:
Your film isn't horror.
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It doesn't have the plot of most horrors, but I was going to portray the shootout, as well as other sequences of violence, in a horrifying fashion. But I guess that does not count as horror still then.
 
harmonica44 said:
It doesn't have the plot of most horrors, but I was going to portray the shootout, as well as other sequences of violence, in a horrifying fashion. But I guess that does not count as horror still then.
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Come on, seriously?

By that definition most war films would be horrors. Please think before you post lol
 
I would say no. Horror has so many different genres. and it can be pretty much bout anything. some of the most creepy movies I have ever seen weren't even ment to be horror. I guess it all depends on what the movie entails
 
Well my tone of the script was inspired by the Last House on the Left and that movie is gangter's vs. innocent people, in a violent massacre. So if that movie is horror, I thought mine would be since I'm using a scary serious tone like that one.
 
Also Alvcove Audio is correct. Like Angus's Grandad would say " Screw em!" your target audience should be You, always you. if your making a movie based on what other people want then you are limiting your self. who care how many people watch it.
 
mrpink89 said:
if your making a movie based on what other people want then you are limiting your self. who care how many people watch it.
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That's all fine and dandy if you don't want to mainstream or commercialize your movie. However; if you want to actually make money from your movies then you need to either find a niche that you know or you make the movie with as many universal elements as you can to try and generalize your film to as many people as possible.

So I guess you have to ask yourself, are you going for self indulgent or try to make a movie that a large number of people will like?


There are many types of horror films. When I want to see gore/guts, I'll watch a gory slasher. If I want a supernatural ghost story then I'll find one to watch. It's alright to mix elements as well, which has made horror/comedies quite popular.

Good luck!
 
harmonica44 said:
Well my tone of the script was inspired by the Last House on the Left and that movie is gangter's vs. innocent people, in a violent massacre. So if that movie is horror, I thought mine would be since I'm using a scary serious tone like that one.
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For your movie I think that having gore is important because you want the terrorists to be frightening so by the way they kill their victims, that's how you'll make them scary.
 
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