Valentine’s Day Massacre: Inside the Trend of Romantic Horror Movies

The teaser trailer for the gonzo horror-sci-fi comedy “Companion” released late last year stated that it was “from the studio that brought you ‘The Notebook.’”

This is cheeky, for sure, but it’s also technically true: “Companion” studio New Line Cinema was responsible for the beloved Ryan Gosling/Rachel McAdams romance. It works to offset your expectations, particularly because the next card reads that the movie is also “from the unhinged creators of ‘Barbarian.’”

More than just a funny marketing hook, the “Notebook”/”Barbarian” comparison also speaks to the vibe of the movie, described by the studio as “a new kind of love story,” which splits the difference between terror and tenderness as it traces the dissolution of a relationship over one chaotic weekend. That’s when Josh (Jack Quaid) and his robot companion Iris (Sophie Thatcher) find their relationship strained – and covered in blood. (The film has grossed a respectable $27 million worldwide so far.)

“Companion” is the first in a glut of romantic horror movies that also includes Screen Gems’ “Heart Eyes” (also in theaters) and Apple TV+’s “The Gorge” (now on Apple TV+). Horror movies have historically been a staple of date nights, since the idea is that whoever your date is would get scared and grab their, er, companion’s arm (or maybe jump into their lap).

These recent movies, though, both in theaters and on streaming, place the emphasis on heart as much as horror.

“The reason why it’s going to work for Valentine’s Day is because our approach was like, ‘Let’s not think of this movie as a sci-fi movie or a horror movie.’ Let’s filter every decision we make – acting-wise, department heads, how we shoot it, the makeup, the wardrobe – this is a relationship drama. This is a breakup story,” “Companion” writer/director Drew Hancock told TheWrap. “Let’s stop thinking of Iris as being a robot. Let’s think of her beat as being a person that’s trying to get out of a toxic relationship. All the beats that it hits are supposed to be very relatable – bad relationship signposts, but the twist is that it’s a robot breaking up with her owner.”

“Heart Eyes,” which grossed $10.7 million in its first week, is the most overtly Valentine’s Day-y movie of this latest crop, with a masked killer, the titular Heart Eyes murderer, stalking lovers on the romantic holiday. He comes across a couple in the early stages of their relationship (played by Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt) and mistakes them for being deeply committed. The movie operates on two separate tracks that are constantly crossing over – one is a cute romantic comedy, and the other is a viscera-soaked slasher movie.

“The best thing about a romantic scary movie is now you have two excuses to clutch the person you love while being scared and/or in the feels,” Michal Kennedy, writer of “Heart Eyes,” said.

Cracking the horror code

Not that cracking the code was all that easy.

“’Heart Eyes’ was a great chance for Chris [Landon, Kennedy’s frequent collaborator] and I to challenge ourselves by placing what most consider to be two disparate genres in the same movie. When we sat down to write, we realized they go hand in hand,” Kennedy said. “Memorable romcoms and memorable horror movies have one thing in common: characters to root for. Characters with real emotional journeys and intelligence. Even in a heightened world like ‘Heart Eyes,’ the grounded relationship at the center of the story allows you to take the characters and the audience anywhere.”

“The Gorge,” from Apple Films, is set up straightforwardly enough – two lethal soldiers (played by Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller) are situated in individual watchtowers on either side of a seemingly bottomless abyss. Their job is to guard their side from whatever crawls out of the gorge. They are forbidden from communicating with one another. But the days grow long and they start up a friendship, before it becomes downright flirty. They exchange messages, play chess and are the center of a falling-in-love montage that could have come straight out of any number of romantic Hollywood movies.

Finally, they decide to see each other, which might scratch that romantic itch but could mean certain doom for them (and the gorge).

For director Scott Derrickson, it was the romance in “The Gorge,” not the other elements of the screenplay, that really hooked him. He should know – he is constantly mixing and matching genre ingredients, like he did with Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange,” bringing genuine spookiness to the MCU.

“It was sent to me by Skydance, and when I read it, it spoke to me personally in the place I was at my life, because I had recently fallen in love and gotten remarried. And so the love story, I really thought it was sublime,” Derrickson said. “I thought the idea of these two people fighting hard to be together was unique, and it felt unique in the landscape of romantic movies. But then, to my surprise, it then went on to blend four or five other genres with that romantic story. I was like, ‘This is crazy. This movie is really daring and really trying to do something that I haven’t seen a movie do before.’

“This is the kind of event movie I want to see,” he continued. “It’s not a franchise, it’s not a sequel, it’s not IP. It’s unique, it’s original, it takes big swings. All of those became, for me, real motivations for saying yes to it.”

While Apple hasn’t provided a budget for “The Gorge,” considering the movie-star cast, big-name director and extravagant special effects, it’s likely to be in the over-$100 million range.

As for its mix of genres, Derrickson said that the romance, of all of the different strains of the movie, was the most important.

“I do think the romance is the overarching rainbow over all the other genre rainbows that are in that movie,” he said. “It’s the thing that stays consistent all the way through and is the glue that holds the other genres together as you get into the sci-fi and horror and action, and even the political thriller aspects of it … It didn’t feel to me like another movie that I had seen, which is very hard to do, especially at that budget level.”

In other words – in order to set your scary movie apart, you’ve got to let in the love.

The post Valentine’s Day Massacre: Inside the Trend of Romantic Horror Movies appeared first on TheWrap.