2019: The Year for Superhero Horror?

A great run of films

2018 has been a monster year for superhero films, largely due to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe with Avengers: Infinity War & Black Panther being the two highest grossing films in the world this year. With the release of the trailer for Avengers 4: End Game, audience appetite for the Marvel’s franchise shows no signs of slowing down.

Similarly, if you’re a fan of horror films the last few years have been something of a golden age: Get Out, A Quiet Place, IT, Hereditary, Halloween & Mandy are all part of a new generation of horror films that have seen critical success and have spearheaded a revival in the genre. A testament to this is horror films increasing their take at the U.K Box Offices, going from £50.8 Million in 2016 to £66.2 Million in 2017. 

2017’s Logan has served as the precursor what we could potentially see from grittier-darker toned superhero films. As the appetite for both superhero and horror films show no immediate signs of slowing down, surely it’s only a matter of time until we see these worlds merge, right?

New Mutants Delay

The New Mutants was one of our own selected Must See films of 2018. The X-Men spin-off sees five mutants escaping from a secret facility where they are being held captive. The release of the film was delayed by a year, as a result of reshoots and the Delay of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The reshoots have reportedly allowed director, Josh Boone, to make the film “scarier”, with him even calling the film “a full-fledged horror film“. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the film can reach it’s potential.

Enter BrightBurn

“What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?” – the synopsis of Brightburn reads like an “evil” Superman and certainly, that’s the direction the first trailer appears to be heading in. The film is directed by David Yarovesky (Guardians of the Galaxy) who has coined the phrase “Superhero Horror”, to describe the merging of the two. Brightburn will be released in May 2019.

History repeats

The idea of a popular superhero-horror franchise on the big screen isn’t exactly new. Marvel first saw success 20 years ago with the release of Blade in 1998, the film followed Blade (played by Wesley Snipes) who stars in the lead role as a vampire killer. Amassing an impressive $130 Million worldwide, a cult following and spawning two more successful sequels, the Blade trilogy has the honour of being Marvel’s first trilogy franchise and first live-action superhero film led by a black actor. Wesley Snipes has spoken openly about bringing Blade to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so perhaps a reboot isn’t too far-fetched.

Keeping on the theme of vampires, following the commercial success of the Spider-Man spin-off Venom, Sony has had its eye on the continued expansion of its own Spider-Man Universe (not part of Disney’s MCU) with Morbius, the Living Vampire. The lead antihero, Biochemist, Dr Michael Morbius, will be played by Jared Leto. In the comics, Morbius has pseudo-vampiric superhuman abilities and physical traits stemming from a failed biochemical experiment which was intended to cure his rare blood disorder. Although exact plot details of the feature film aren’t known at this stage, expect to hear more news soon. The film is currently at the pre-production stage, so will likely be released in 2020 at the earliest, however, with the release of edgier comic-book based films beforehand Sony will be keen to build off the momentum of other films.

One reboot which is definitely happening is Hellboy. However, based on the trailer it might not be as dark in tone as the original 2004 feature film starring Ron Perlman. Should the reboot prove successful it should film studios further incentive to work on developing more superhero – horror films.

Who wins?

Ultimately this could be a win-win situation for fans and the film studios. In order to maintain interest in comic book film adaptations in a post-Avengers; End Game world, it makes sense for the major studios to branch out and experiment with the genre to keep fans engaged. Increased attention in comic-book films also allows studios to take more risks in producing more niche titles, which may already have their own cult following among comic-book readers.