Don’t Breathe continues the rise of ‘smart’ low-budget horror

A new wave of low-budget “smart” horror movies is challenging the studio behemoths with a recipe that swaps gratuitous gore and elaborate special effects for good old-fashioned suspense.

Don’t Breathe – which is due for release in the US this week on the back of widespread acclaim, and is tentatively set for an October 6 release in Hong Kong – is hoping to emulate the success of The Babadook, It Follows and a series of other made-on-a-shoestring creepy hits.

While they lack the marketing muscle of the summer tentpoles, these films often become word-of-mouth hits, gathering momentum as reviewers praise their uncompromising refusal to rely on the usual horror tropes.

“Mainstream horror these days is really all about whatever’s clever – a new twist on an old story, or one hell of a trailer,” says Jeff Bock, of film industry research firm Exhibitor Relations.

“As we’ve seen lately, ‘smart’ horror films are in vogue,” he says, adding that there would always be excitement when “a horror icon is revived for one more hunt.”

It Follows (2014), a thematically rich modern slasher that takes its cue from the 1980s output of masters like Wes Craven and John Carpenter, is often cited as the jewel in the crown of horror’s new wave.