I love the running joke “Is horror back?” writer Joe Russo’s ongoing jab at box office pundits who are quick to declare the genre dead whenever a single horror film underperforms.
As we all know, horror has never gone away and continues to thrive, but it’s a special treat when two of the top films at the box office are genre films… especially when they kick the oh-so-generic Avatar: Fire and Ash to the curb (sorry, Varang, I still love you).
This weekend was pure fireworks for both indie and studio as Markiplier‘s video game adaptation Iron Lung went head-to-head with Sam Raimi’s island thriller Send Help, which is currently sitting at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 88% audience score.
Even as Iron Lung was met with mixed critical response (50% on Rotten Tomatoes), fans of the video game embraced the self financed adaptation, driving a 90% Popcornmeter score. That divide between audiences and commentators translated to turnout, with fans showing up to support the film in theaters.
We’re working off estimates, but Send Help appears poised to edge past Iron Lung this weekend with $20M versus $17.9 domestically. Both films are overperforming expectations, and both represent significant wins for horror and video game audiences. They could both hit $50M+ in their domestic run.
In Raimi’s Send Help, Rachel McAdams stars as an employee pushed too far who finally flips the script on her boss, played by Dylan O’Brien, after they crash land on a desert island.
Iron Lung follows a lone prisoner forced to pilot a rickety submarine through an ocean of blood on an alien moon, and the film came to be when YouTuber and filmmaker Mark Fischbach independently financed and produced the adaptation after securing the rights to the hit indie game Iron Lung by David Szymanski.
The contrast between the two films highlights the strength of both indie and studio releases, underscoring the appetite for original genre filmmaking.
Which brings us right back to the running joke: Is horror back?!
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