Does hype ruin movies? It’s a simple question with a not-so-easy answer. Nowadays, every horror movie is “the scariest” thing to hit the screens. It’s like being on the New York Times Best Selling list; while it can be a close call, it all can’t be true. Hype trains are a big contributor to this, with both good and bad hype forcing us to think a certain way before even seeing the movie — and a lot of times, keeping us away from them entirely. Let’s look at a few examples.
At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was finding out just exactly how hard it was for some to be working from home, being cut off from your loved ones and the outside world. Host (2020) shone light on that issue in a way that previous POV and Found Footage films tried and failed to do, probably because it was extremely relevant. Host was received well, grossing almost $450,000 (from a $35,000 budget) and scoring 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Two years and many lockdowns and mutated strains later, the world has opened up and is getting back to a new normality, getting ever closer to the “before times” (i.e., 2019). Looking back now, Host fits in more and more with the likes of Unfriended, Paranormal Activity, and The Den. That’s not to say Host wasn’t a great movie, it’s just that we need to add “for its time” to that sentiment. With Host, the hype was almost a cry for help in a world we were having trouble dealing with. I have a hard time believing that if it came out now, or just before, it would get the same type of reaction. Our vision was a bit clouded, I think, looking for something that “understood” what was going on.
Jordan Peele’s Get Out was as much a cultural movement as it was a good horror film. Then Us came out, and some hardcore horror fans dropped from the hype train a little, leaving mostly Peele fans. Where Get Out also came at a time of massive societal and social unrest — a few years after the unrest in Ferguson, among growing reports of police brutality on Black people, and the election of President Trump — it hit right on the money with themes heavily into American racism. Us rode that wave to good — but not as good — reception. Many of the reviews I’ve read stated that Get Out spoke directly to people’s unconscious, but Us was far-fetched and riddled with plot holes. Sure, the message is still there, but you had to look for it in more than one viewing. With Nope on the horizon, we’ll see how audiences take another Peele movie.
One-offs and up-and-coming filmmaker projects aren’t the only ones feeling the effects of the hype train. Much-loved series, like Halloween and The Conjuring, are affected as well. When Halloween (2018) was released, fanfare was heard through the streets as we’d get to see the return of one of our favorite slashers from a beloved director. Learning it was a 3-part comeback (with Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends as the next two installments) made it all the better. But 2021’s Halloween Kills became a definite middle sibling and made some fans rethink seeing Ends upon its release. The Conjuring series too just seems to be getting worse and worse each time. In 2013, The Conjuring was one of the scariest movies shown in theaters, so it was a known thing that it would spark sequels and spin-offs. But the more movies came from this one story, the less important it became to see them all. Like Marvel’s MCU, The Conjuring series (including The Nun and Annabelle) is good at making money, but not so great at coming up with newer, creative material.
I’d be remiss to say that hype can only go one way. A movie can be projected to be amazing, but end up mediocre, or it can be the one that got away because you thought it was going to be terrible. For example, there are plenty of bad movies that actually do have redeeming qualities. Almost any remake will go through this process, where half of the fans will be happy to see a film coming back to the screen, and the other half would rather remain as it was in their memories. Even films that only reference prior stories, but are 75% new material, can’t catch a break. Before being released, 2019’s Doctor Sleep had fans ignore the majority of the film for the last 15 minutes where characters return to the Overlook Hotel. It turned out incredible and was pretty much a love letter to the Kubrick film. Pet Sematary in the same year has the opposite outcome; fans wanted to see a faithful retelling, but got… uhh, differences that didn’t feel as great. Was it scary? Yes. Was it worth the remake? Probably not.
Hype is never going to go away. I will almost always be excited about a new horror movie, regardless of if it’s a remake, reboot, sequel, prequel, spin-off, new idea, etc. What we have to keep in mind, though, is that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what others think. It only matters how you personally feel about a particular film. So take any hype you hear with a grain of salt and go see the movie anyway. Rewatch them years later for a new perspective. Hype isn’t inherently a bad thing, as it helps get the word out about new films; you’ll just never truly know unless you see it for yourself.
What hype train did you have to get off of? Let us know in the comments!
