When it comes to horror, few movie genres are more specific when determining what is a hit versus a flop.
Either the movie gives good scare or it doesn’t.
There really isn’t much more deep, or critical thought going into it from the point of view of the studio and the moviegoers they are looking to ensnare, as their ready made core audience.
However, when it comes to the outsized success of “The Conjuring” and the success of “The Conjuring 2,” which stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
The movie is on pace to rake in $40 million during the opening weekend of June 10.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprised their roles as the real life poltergeist fighting duo of Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com
Wilson, despite having been involved in relatively few horror movies before or since, noticed a marked change in the typical audience response.
“How often do you have a film or really anything that is critically and commercially successful? I mean, how often does that happen in your career? Almost never, “said Wilson in awed but humble respect for the unexpected magic that was the reception for “The Conjuring.”
In trying to quantify the unique response for the first movie, Wilson had this to say:
“For me, I think those fans that came up to me and I’m sure came up to Vera as well after the first one and said, ‘you know, I don’t even like horror movies, but I love ‘The Conjuring.’ That to me says so much about a film reaching a much broader audience instead of your typical whatever it is 18 to 35 year old male. And I love that.”
When pressed further for the reason that fans flocked to see “The Conjuring 2” in the manner that they did with it’s predecessor, Wilson responded with a nod to the Horror genre’s cinematic heyday.
“When you think about what sort of defined our youth – ‘The Shining’or ‘Poltergeist’ or ‘The Exorcist,’ those movies from the seventies or eighties usually are a much broader scope. It’s about a family in trouble, about a mom and a dad, about a son, because that’s actually what people care about. It’s nice to be scared but you have to care about these people. That’s what separated the film from just a typical horror movie.”
So take that, “Bride Of Chucky.”