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Horror is big business

The genre has become a tentpole across gaming, film, and television.

恐怖题材已成为游戏、电影和电视领域的核心支柱。

How it started

Resident Evil has been around for 30 years, but the survival horror series is more popular than ever. The most recent game, Resident Evil Requiem, has sold 8 million copies since it launched in February, already making it the 14th best-selling game that Capcom has ever made. At the same time, a reboot of the Resident Evil film series from Weapons director Zach Cregger is on pace to become the top-grossing movie in franchise history. This has had the effect of renewing interest in Resident Evil at large; according to a report from Game File, six different titles in the game series have sold at least 3 million copies so far this year. In an earnings report, Capcom called it “a virtuous cycle in which sales of both new and past titles grow together.”

现状如何（一）

《生化危机》系列已经存在了 30 年，但这个生存恐怖系列如今比以往任何时候都更受欢迎。其最新作品《生化危机：安魂曲》自 2 月发布以来已售出 800 万份，成为卡普空历史上销量第 14 高的游戏。与此同时，由《武器》导演扎克·克雷格执导的《生化危机》系列电影重启版，正有望成为该系列历史上票房最高的电影。这使得人们对《生化危机》整体的兴趣重新高涨；据 Game File 报道，该系列游戏中有六款作品在今年已售出至少 300 万份。卡普空在财报中将其称为“新旧作品销量共同增长的良性循环”。

Resident Evil isn’t alone. Rather, it’s indicative of an ongoing trend. Horror was once seen as largely a niche genre, but now, thanks to a combination of factors — including the rise of YouTube and widespread influence of indie games and viral memes — it has steadily grown into a dominant force. Horror tends to be cheaper to produce than other genres, but now it also has sales numbers that compete with the biggest blockbusters. It’s not that there haven’t been major horror success stories before. 2017’s It remains the top-grossing horror flick of all time, and the Resident Evil 2 remake from 2019 has sold almost 20 million copies. But in 2026 the concentration of horror hits, particularly across multiple mediums, has reached a new level, making it clearer than ever that scaring audiences is a big business.

《生化危机》并非个例，它代表了一种持续的趋势。恐怖题材曾被视为小众类型，但如今，得益于 YouTube 的兴起以及独立游戏和病毒式模因的广泛影响等多种因素，它已稳步成长为一股主导力量。恐怖片的制作成本通常低于其他类型，但现在其销售数据足以与最热门的大片相抗衡。这并不是说以前没有过恐怖片的成功案例，2017 年的《小丑回魂》至今仍是史上票房最高的恐怖片，2019 年的《生化危机 2》重制版也售出了近 2000 万份。但在 2026 年，恐怖题材热门作品的密集程度，尤其是在多种媒介上的表现，达到了一个新的高度，这比以往任何时候都更清楚地表明：吓唬观众是一门大生意。

How it’s going

The most obvious example of this in 2026 is in movies. Obsession and Backrooms — two films helmed by young directors who came up through YouTube — have raked in nearly $1 billion combined at the box office. They out-grossed established franchises like Star Wars and even legendary directors like Steven Spielberg. This despite costing a fraction of what a blockbuster film usually costs; Backrooms was made for an estimated $10 million, while Obsession cost less than $1 million. Before that, Iron Lung, another YouTube-centric horror flick, managed to rake in more than $50 million without the backing of a major studio. Horror movies have always been comparatively cheap to make, but now they’re frequently able to make a huge return on that investment.

现状如何（二）

2026 年最明显的例子体现在电影领域。《Obsession》和《Backrooms》这两部由 YouTube 出身的年轻导演执导的电影，总票房收入已接近 10 亿美元。它们的票房表现超过了《星球大战》等成熟系列，甚至超过了史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格等传奇导演的作品。尽管它们的制作成本仅为大片的一小部分：据估计，《Backrooms》的制作成本为 1000 万美元，而《Obsession》的成本不到 100 万美元。在此之前，另一部以 YouTube 为中心的恐怖片《铁肺》在没有大型制片厂支持的情况下，也成功斩获了超过 5000 万美元的票房。恐怖片的制作成本向来相对较低，但现在它们往往能获得巨大的投资回报。

Meanwhile, in the world of streaming, October has become something of a battleground. This year basically every major service has a tentpole series meant to lure subscribers during spooky season. Amazon just released a remake of Stephen King’s Carrie on Prime Video, helmed by Mike Flanagan, who made his name with a quintet of limited horror series on Netflix between 2018 and 2023, starting with The Haunting of Hill House. With Flanagan now at Amazon, Netflix’s big release this year is Below, a six-episode sea monster thriller starring Josh Hartnett and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton. Elsewhere, Peacock has a Friday the 13th prequel called Crystal Lake starring Linda Cardellini as Jason Voorhees’ mom, and AMC Plus is putting out a spooky detective series called Yaga, which features Carrie-Anne Moss and Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams. Not to be excluded, Disney Plus is currently airing the 13th season of American Horror Story.

与此同时，在流媒体领域，十月已成为某种意义上的战场。今年，几乎每个主流平台都推出了旨在“恐怖季”吸引订阅用户的核心剧集。亚马逊刚刚在 Prime Video 上发布了斯蒂芬·金作品《魔女嘉莉》的翻拍版，由迈克·弗拉纳根执导。弗拉纳根曾凭借 2018 年至 2023 年间在 Netflix 上推出的五部恐怖限定剧（以《鬼入侵》为开端）而声名鹊起。随着弗拉纳根转投亚马逊，Netflix 今年的重磅作品是六集海怪惊悚剧《Below》，由乔什·哈奈特和《怪奇物语》的查理·希顿主演。此外，Peacock 推出了《13 号星期五》的前传《水晶湖》，由琳达·卡德里尼饰演杰森·沃赫斯的母亲；AMC Plus 则推出了名为《Yaga》的恐怖侦探剧，由凯瑞-安·莫斯和《Heated Rivalry》的哈德森·威廉姆斯主演。当然，Disney Plus 目前也正在播出《美国恐怖故事》第 13 季。

The one name missing from this list is Apple TV, but that’s because the service got a jump on things by releasing the horror / comedy hybrid Widow’s Bay back in April. The show then proceeded to win a record number of Emmys, and it remains a fixture on Apple TV’s most-watched list. While streaming viewership data is much harder to come by than box office data, the sheer fact that every major streaming service is investing in horror-related series, with the backing of some major star power, is an indication of just how important it is.

这份名单中唯一缺席的是 Apple TV，这是因为该平台早在 4 月份就抢先发布了恐怖喜剧混合剧《Widow’s Bay》。该剧随后赢得了创纪录数量的艾美奖，并始终稳居 Apple TV 最受欢迎剧集榜单。虽然流媒体收视数据比票房数据更难获取，但每个主流流媒体服务都在大牌明星的支持下投资恐怖相关剧集，这一事实本身就足以说明该题材的重要性。

And then there are games. While Resident Evil is the biggest name, there are plenty of other titles and franchises that have been buoyed by the current horror renaissance. Silent Hill has been on a steady run, highlighted by the Scottish spinoff Townfall this year, and the iconic Hellraiser just got its first proper video game adaptation. But it’s not just blockbuster releases. Indie horror games have not only been consistent bestsellers on platforms like Steam, they’ve also been the source material for a number of more moderate theatrical hits, including both Iron Lung and Exit 8. And a lot of that success begins with people watching horror games on Twitch and YouTube; Twitch says that viewers watched 287 million hours of horror content between January and September this year, and that the dedicated “horror” tag saw a 6 percent increase in viewership compared to last year.

最后是游戏领域。虽然《生化危机》是最响亮的名字，但还有许多其他作品和系列也受益于当前的恐怖题材复兴。《寂静岭》系列一直表现稳健，今年的亮点是苏格兰衍生作《Townfall》，而标志性的《猛鬼追魂》也刚刚获得了首个正式的游戏改编作品。但这不仅仅是大作的天下。独立恐怖游戏不仅在 Steam 等平台上持续热销，还成为了一些中等规模影院热门影片的素材来源，包括《铁肺》和《8 号出口》。而这些成功很大程度上源于人们在 Twitch 和 YouTube 上观看恐怖游戏直播；Twitch 表示，今年 1 月至 9 月期间，观众观看了 2.87 亿小时的恐怖内容，且专门的“恐怖”标签下的观看量较去年增长了 6%。

What happens next

With the potential to make a lot of money with very little investment, movie studios are naturally jumping all over the trend. Kane Parsons has reportedly signed up for a Backrooms sequel, Obsession director Curry Barker already has a new film due out next year, and Cregger’s next film has some major star power behind it. Meanwhile, studios are searching for the next Backrooms or Five Nights at Freddy’s anywhere they can. Both A24 and Neon are working on competing movies set i

未来展望

由于可以用极少的投资赚取巨额利润，电影制片厂自然纷纷涌入这一趋势。据报道，凯恩·帕森斯已签约制作《Backrooms》的续集，《Obsession》导演库里·巴克明年已有新片计划，而克雷格的下一部电影也拥有强大的明星阵容。与此同时，各大制片厂正竭尽全力寻找下一个《Backrooms》或《玩具熊的五夜后宫》。A24 和 Neon 都在筹备各自的竞争影片，背景设定在……