China’s domestic horror films still struggle to impress audiences
It was the most anticipated Chinese horror movie of the year (if ranking fifth in user votes on ticketing platform Maoyan is anything to go by), but Ning Ye, a self-proclaimed “horror enthusiast” residing in China, claims to be unimpressed by Case 1922, a period film released on February 18 about a phantom serial killer. “I don’t like Chinese horror movies. [They’re] not scary,” says the 33-year old, who watches up to half a dozen Japanese and Western horror flicks a month.
These thoughts are echoed by fans and industry specialists around China. “Major studios just ignore this genre by default nowadays,” Feng Zixuan, a producer with a major Chinese studio (who wished to use a pseudonym), tells TWOC, claiming to not have watched a Chinese horror film in 20 years.
Kai Ma, director of home-grown horror film The Possessed (2016), was paraphrased by online culture publication Poison Eye as saying that many young directors enjoy discussing horror films, but few express a desire to make them. From a peak of 69 horror films a year in 2016, domestic production has collapsed to just five in 2021, according to data collected by online film blog Sir Movies.
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What Spooked China’s Horror Film Industry? (Paywalled) is a story from our issue, “State of The Art.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
Jesse Young is a translator, tea-seller and sometime events organiser/poet based in Beijing.
