The New York Times published a piece yesterday claiming Hostel 2‘s weak opening put the nail in the coffin of the horror genre. The article cites the weak performance of Grindhouse, 28 Weeks Later, and most of last year’s horror releases as signs the genre is on it’s last legs, with Saw III the lone exception to the rule.

Op-ed’s like this one always seem to jump the gun. Remember how after 9/11 we got obituaries announcing “the death of irony,” or when reality-tv exploded onto the scene it was “the death of the sitcom?” I understand that entertainment writers have columns to fill, believe me I know, but as people constantly watching from the fringes of the industry shouldn’t they be the first to recognize how cyclical this industry is? People get tired of things for awhile and then they come back; it’s the nature of the beast. Mark Burns, the head of Lionsgate seems to realize this, saying:

“It’s kind of like that Mark Twain quote, ‘Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated…Everything takes a breather.”

The article goes on to say he attributes “the weakening performance of horror to a marketplace glut rather than to any growing revulsion to the genre’s excesses or a backlash against violence in the wake of the Virginia Tech killings, as some have suggested.”

Exactly. So sit tight New York Times, like all good killers, the horror genre will definitely be back for a few good scares.