Why Aren't Horror Movies released in October?

Factual Questions
1

Does anyone know why there are very few horror movies released in October? Personally, I would think it would be the perfect time for a horror movie: right before Halloween. I’ve noticed this trend over the past few years, but to make sure that I wasn’t just imagining things, I looked up the release dates (at http://www.imdb.com) on as many horror movies I can remember seeing. Boy, I guess I’ve seen a lot of them!

**Disturbing Behavior July 24th, 98
The Haunting July 23rd, 99
Blair Witch Project July 30, 99
Sixth Sense August 6th, 99
Halloween: H20 August 25th, 98
What Lies Beneath July 21st, 00
Phantoms January 28th, 98
The Frighteners July 19th, 96
Lake Placid July 16th, 99 **

Many of them have come out during the summer, which I understand, since it’s the time of year the movies that are hoped to make the most money come out.
I Still Know… November 13th, 98
Sleepy Hollow November 17th, 99
Scream December 20th, 96
The Faculty December 25th, 99
Scream 2 December 12th, 97
Scream 3 February 4th, 00
Interview with The Vampire November 11th, 94
From Dusk til Dawn Jan 19th, 96
The Mouth of Madness February 25th, 95
The Rage:Carrie 2 March 12, 99

These are the ones I can’t figure out. Why do they so often come out soon after Halloween?

I found these that came out shortly before Halloween, but they are in the minority.

**I Know What You Did Last Summer October 17th, 97
House on Haunted Hill October 29th, 99
Lost Souls October 13th, 2000
I Know What You Did Last Summer October 17th, 97 **

And in the “close enough” catogory, there are a few, too.

**Urban Legends September 25th, 99
Urban Legend:Final Cut September 22nd, 00
Stir of Echoes September 10th, 99 **

Is there some sort of Taboo against October releases? And has it always been this way? I looked up the release dates for the orginal Haunting and House on Haunted Hill, but neither have US release dates listed…

2

Well, guess who was bored tonight…

October: 58
August: 50
June: 46
May: 46
September: 46
March: 45
January: 43
November: 41
July: 39
December: 35
April: 34
February: 33

That’s the number of horror movies released per month. It only includes movies in the Horror genre that had a US release date in the IMDB. And I’m sure it’s off by a bit, because the IMDB data format sucks balls and is hard to parse.

Notice October is in fact the most popular month. :slight_smile:

Add’l well known movies released in October:
[li]Bride of Chucky, October 15, 1998[/li][li]Evil Dead, October 15, 1981[/li][li]Halloween II, III, 4 & 5[/li][li]Strangeland, October 2, 1998[/li][*]Texas Chainsaw Massacre, October 1, 1974

3

I see. I’m just not paying attention to movies with higher body counts, I guess, since I don’t watch them.

However, I think I should have clarified my question to include only “high grossing horror movies” as I’m sure a fair number of the horror movies released each month are B movies that go directly to video without ever having seen the light of day.

4

Maybe you should compare the number of movies overall released in October to horror movies released. October is not a big realease time for any type of movie.

Run the same comparison for every month. Once we have those figures we can probably figure it out.

5

I would think the reason is that the people who make a horror movie don’t want their movie to have to compete with a dozen other horror movies that are released at the same time. My guess is that they would try to release their movie at a time when there are no other horror movies out, so that they could have the horror-movie-going demographic all to themselves. The result is that horror movies are spread around the calendar.