美国国家公共电台 NPR With A Little Magic, Small Budget Horror Films Pack A Big Punch

With A Little Magic, Small Budget Horror Films Pack A Big Punch 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0000:00repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

This past weekend, the number one film in the U.S. was the horror flick² "Don't Breathe."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DON'T BREATHE")

DYLAN MINNETTE: (As Alex) We're trapped in here.

JANE LEVY³: (As Rocky) There has to be a way out of here.

SHAPIRO: Number two was the comic book blockbuster "Suicide Squad," which cost $175 million to make. "Don't Breathe" cost less than a tenth of that, $10 million. Lots of horror movies with tiny budgets have had a monster-sized impact on the box office, like "The Blair Witch Project"...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT")

HEATHER DONAHUE: (As Heather Donahue) I am so scared.

SHAPIRO: ...Or "Open Water."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OPEN WATER")

BLANCHARD RYAN: (As Susan) We're stuck in the middle of the ocean.

SHAPIRO: And, of course, "Paranormal Activity."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PARANORMAL ACTIVITY")

MICAH SLOAT: (As Micah) My girlfriend Katie, she thinks there's something in the house. I don't know.

KATIE FEATHERSTON: (As Katie) You believe me, right?

SHAPIRO: Jason Blum runs the production company behind Paranormal Activity and other micro-budget horror movies. He told me success with this genre⁴ comes from great storylines, riveting⁵ drama and also something else.

JASON BLUM: Scary movies benefit from lower budgets. And that's because the scariest things are things that seem the most real. And when you take out all the bells and whistles in production you really have to focus on, you know, small stories that take place in a house. And that's, I think, where people usually feel most vulnerable, in their house. And the room in their house they feel most vulnerable is their bedroom. And if you don't have a lot of money, you kind of have to force - it forces the director to tell these very intimate stories, which I think are much scarier than big effects extravaganzas.

SHAPIRO: You know, we're describing "Don't Breathe" as a movie that was cheap to make. It cost $10 million. But "Paranormal Activity" cost $15,000, a tiny fraction. What kinds of ruthless decisions do you have to make when you're operating on that much of a shoestring⁶?

BLUM: Well, that is definitely the most extreme example for sure. But I think there's kind of a triangle, three things that affect budget - the number of characters, the number of locations and the number of stunts⁸ and special effects. And I tell the directors they can kind of choose one of those three things. They can either have a lot of speaking parts, you know, a handful of locations or we can do a stunt⁷ or two, but only one of the three.

And if you actually went back and kind of looked at our movies, you'd kind of see that play out. I actually believe, though, that when you really forced parameters⁹ from the beginning, it leads to interesting things. And I can't say, you know, the movies are always - always benefit from it, but more often than not I feel like the movies benefit from the lower budgets which push directors to make unusual choices.

SHAPIRO: That seems like it would be true of any genre, and yet we only seem to see these low-cost breakout hits in horror. Why do you think that is rather than, I don't know, drama or romantic comedy or other things?

BLUM: Well, I don't - I actually don't agree with that. I think when you go to see a romantic comedy, I think a couple things are different. First of all, you want a movie star in a romantic comedy. A horror movie is almost better with someone who you don't see every day in magazines because it's kind of scarier. You don't know them, and you can put yourself in their position more easily. I think when you go see a romantic comedy, you want big, big stars that you know well and you want to see them fall in love. And I think that, first of all, right there, it's more expensive.

When you go see an action movie, you want a great action sequence. And that costs money. So it's easy for me to say, you know, I keep my budgets low, but I have a big advantage because I think horror benefits from that. And I don't really - I think most other genres¹⁰, you actually do need a lot of money to deliver what the audience wants.

SHAPIRO: Do you think the success of cheap horror movies has had an impact on the big studios?

BLUM: You know, that's a great question. It's had less of an impact than I would've thought. Two or three years ago, everyone used to ask me, are you worried about people copying your model? And I used to say no, I don't worry about it. It seems no one's doing it. If you ask me that now I would say I'm certainly concerned about it a little bit more, for sure. I think studios are - they're - you know, they're oil tankers¹¹. They're slow to react, but I do think they're beginning to react now. And it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next year or two. And I bet there'll be a lot of great scary movies, which I'm certainly looking forward to seeing and hope some of them I will have made.

SHAPIRO: Jason Blum, founder¹² of the production company Blumhouse Productions. Thanks for joining us.

BLUM: Well, thanks. Thanks so much for having me. Talk to you soon.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

3 levy   

n.征收税或其他款项，征收额

参考例句：

• They levy a tax on him.他们向他征税。
• A direct food levy was imposed by the local government.地方政府征收了食品税。

4 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

5 riveting   

adj.动听的，令人着迷的，完全吸引某人注意力的；n.铆接（法）

参考例句：

• I find snooker riveting though I don't play myself.虽然我自己不打斯诺克，但是我觉得它挺令人着迷。
• To my amazement,I found it riveting.但令我惊讶的是，我发现它的吸引人处。

6 shoestring   

n.小额资本；adj.小本经营的

参考例句：

• In the early years,the business was run on a shoestring.早年，这家店铺曾是小本经营。
• How can I take the best possible digital pictures on a shoestring budget?怎样用很小投资拍摄最好的数码照片？

7 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

8 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。

10 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

11 tankers   

运送大量液体或气体的轮船[卡车]( tanker的名词复数 )； 油轮； 罐车； 油槽车

参考例句：

• They should stop offloading waste from oil tankers into the sea. 他们应当停止从油轮上往海里倾倒废弃物。
• The harbour admits large tankers and freighters. 这个港口容得下巨型油船和货轮。

12 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。