Screenwriting : Is Horror at the top of the genre lists for filmmakers trying to break into the business? by W. Keith Sewell

I think while this may be true in a some aspects, a good horror is still a very challenging genre. Sure you could turn out anything in the horror (mostly slasher style) and maybe have a small built in crowd but I see way too many people/movies try this route and get nowhere.

Yes its a popular way in only because they are done on such low budget levels that the risk is minimal and the upside is huge, even internationally. So yes, it tends to be an easier genre to break in with. but nothing is easy.

Yes people love a good horror movie!

W. Keith: Would you mind sharing which zero-to-zero budget horror film you watched? I'd like to see it too.

And you don't need stars for a horror movie

Horror can be filmed cheaply as has been proven by Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity and some lesser known/quality offerings. They tend to attract a decent sized audience.

Horror has a loyal audience - and plenty of websites and magazines and bloggers to get the word out. Compare that to, say, comedies - what are the magazines devoted only to comedy films? Way back in the Blockbuster Video days, that video chain realized that the loyal horror audience might come in every week (or several times a week) looking to rent a new horror movie... so they began producing their own "Direct To Blockbuster Video Only" horror films - 12 a year. They made money doing that. Blockbuster didn't do that with any other genre. I have a bunch of friends who are part of that loyal audience, always recommending some horror film starring no one, made for little to no money, which is hot in the horror scene. Years ago they told me about Jeremy Saulnier' MURDER PARTY, made for nothing (he's a cameraman and owned his own digi camera, skeleton crew, actors working for free, etc) and if you haven't seen that writer/director's crime film BLUE RUIN, check it out!

If you want the film screened and distributed, distributors are not interested in any project that doesn't have at least one name in the cast. That applies to any genre, including horror.

And Paranormal Activity

Are you comparing Jurassic Park with the low budget horror films we're talking about?

Steven Spielberg, the director of Jurassic Park broke into the business with a horror film, have you seen DUEL? What about hooper who made Texas Chainsaw massacre, or the director of Saw, the makers of Paranormal Activity and Blairwitch Project, James Cameron with Terminator, these are a few examples, there are more... Titanic also made a lot of money and so did Pirates Of the Caribbean

My first produced was a horror, even though I was writing with and for two action directors/stuntmen!

We're talking filmmakers not only screenwriters

Check the title of the thread

You have a good point Stuart

I personally like the horror genre and also other genres, but I know that it would be easier for me to make a horror film because I could probably make it low budget and with no need of A list actors, it would be easy to sell although it might not launch my career

Good horror and Bad horror always sells in my opinion not my experience, a bad drama is way more difficult to sell, good dramas need good actors, you can always get away with bad actors in a horror film

I agree with Stuart - don't write in a genre you don't like just to make a sale... because you won't be putting your heart and soul into it and it won't sell. You'll have wasted time. But you might still end up with some sort of a career off a bad (but commercially successful) horror film.

Suart, I love good horror, like I Said before, a lot of the great directors today started making a low budget horror film, some of them stuck to horror and some of them are doing all kind of stuff, but they got noticed with that first horror film. I did a psychological drama, haven't got distribution yet, but I will do a paranormal thriller in my next project and I will eventually make a Comedy, but personally I think I'm good with thriller and horror and I like it... My first professional short film was a thriller

I've written in a number of different genres. Some people say this is not a good idea, and I think Hollywood will tend to type you based on your first success anyway, but I've heard that more and more students in film school now are exhibiting this tendency: they want to be able to write anything. As far as having your heart in it, I find that my heart finds its way into whatever I'm writing. I'm not a huge thriller fan, though I love some of the classics, but I just wrote my first one (for the same reason as you -- because I saw that that was what was selling), and what happened was that I turned it into a kind of quirky, character-driven indie thriller, because that's where my heart is. It was a BlueCat semifinalist and in the Nicholl top 20% this year. So sometimes, I think, a stretch is good.

Well. Blair Witch Project came out in 1999. That's 16 years ago. In 1999, people were still using AOL email addresses because most people in Hollywood -- if they were online -- didn't know there was an email address ending that wasn't @aol.com, nobody sent scripts PDF, script submissions were all paper and people were still fighting about how many brads to use, Netflix wasn't streaming media yet it was mailing DVDs, and people were still using fax machines. A lot has changed since 1999. Including distribution channels. The Saw (2004) cast included Cary Ewles and Danny Glover, who are not unknowns. And I'm not arguing here, miracles happen, that's kind of how Hollywood works most days, but everyone I know working in film who doesn't have at least one recognizable name in the cast crashes and burns trying to get a distribution deal. *Erm, edited for typos, ahhhh!

No, Oliver, our statements are not the same. My statement was, "If you want the film screened and distributed, distributors are not interested in any project that doesn't have at least one name in the cast." I am pretty sure that is not the same statement you made.

[Please do not try to talk over me or rephrase my statements, it is problematic when men do that.]

That's a catchy title for a movie, or series Oliver... " Men Chatting Nicely, or deciding whether or not to launch the Nukes." ;)

You´ve a point there! Horror is very popular actually. Switch on the television and the news reports will offer you plenty of horror. Beside, it strikes me that one shrinks from nothings nowadays.It becomes more and more intense