Horror enjoys new golden age as low-budget films drive box office boom
Channel 4 reports that horror is in a new golden age, with low-budget films from young, social-media-savvy filmmakers taking huge box office returns and gaining awards attention.
How it was covered
- Channel 4 was the only channel found covering it, concentrating on young, online-native filmmakers and low-budget horror's box office returns.
- Channel 5, BBC News, BBC One, GB News, ITV and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Channel 4 has reported that horror films are enjoying a new golden age, with low-budget independent films taking millions at the box office and winning nominations for top awards. The report said spooky season was no longer confined to Halloween, as the genre attracted both mainstream audiences and awards attention.
Channel 4 reported that this year's biggest hit, Backrooms, began as YouTube videos made by 21-year-old director Kane Parsons while he was at school. It has overtaken Marty Supreme to become A24's highest grossing film of all time. The report also said Obsession, a Romeo and Juliet story crossed with a wish gone wrong, was made for less than $1m and took more than $500m worldwide, a return of more than 500 times its budget.
The channel framed the boom as a generational shift. It said young filmmakers were bypassing industry gatekeepers and using horror to explore realistic subjects such as drug use, going to school for the first time and discovering sexuality. Bison, a coming-of-age queer drama from the London Film School about a mushroom trip gone wrong, was held up as an example. One person involved told Channel 4 that queerness itself is not scary, but other people's reactions can be terrifying and isolating.
Channel 4 reported that horror accounted for just 5% of the box office a decade ago, but nearly 20% this year, close to a fifth of all takings. It said studios were racing to sign young filmmakers. The report credited word of mouth and well-told stories, rather than huge advertising budgets and studio franchises, for the genre's success.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| Horror accounted for nearly 20% of box office this year, up from 5% a decade earlier. | |
| The film Backrooms began as YouTube videos created by 21-year-old Kane Parsons at school and became A24's highest-grossing film. | |
| The film Obsession was made for under $1m and grossed over $500m worldwide. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
Channel 4 framed the boom as a generational shift led by young filmmakers who built audiences online and bypassed traditional gatekeepers. It paired box office figures with cultural criticism and awards recognition, and gave space to queer and coming-of-age stories using horror as metaphor. The tone was enthusiastic but analytical, presenting low-budget success as a challenge to studio franchises and huge advertising budgets.
- “this year proving to be a new golden age for horror”
- “a golden age driven not by huge advertising budgets and studio franchises, but simply by word of mouth and a well told story”
- “Everyone's going to look at it differently but they can still relate to the emotions.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.