How It Hits: Are horror musicals the future?

Are musicals the future of the horror genre

At first glance, this might seem obvious. After all, Ryan Coogler's Sinners not only became a box office hit

but also broke Academy Award records as the first film to ever score 16 Oscar nominations

Obviously, Hollywood will try to replicate the success with imitators, as they have over and over again, especially when it comes to horror

Like, remember how after the success of Scream, not only they launched the franchise

but also a flood of slick studio slashers featuring young, beautiful people being stalked by a mad killer

But when it comes to Sinners, will the takeaway be that people want horror musicals

I mean, how many of you even consider Sinners a horror musical to begin with? Since the film's release, its genre has been a source of debate

On one hand, it's a vampire movie with plenty of blood, terrific jump scares, and a haunting ending

so definitely horror. And its plot is deepened by the song numbers performed within the movie itself by humans and vampires alike

So that makes it a musical, right? When I asked Coogler himself, ahead of the film's initial release, he declined to label Sinners so succinctly, saying he prefers genre-fluid movies

But Sinners isn't the only recent horror gem that's fluidity involves musical numbers that have audiences cheering

Earlier this year, Nia DaCosta had critics raving over 28 years later The Bone Temple

which on top of being a stomach-churningly scary zombie film, also offered a brilliantly bonkers song and dance number seemingly out of nowhere

In the film's electrifying climax, the peaceful Dr. Kelson must convince Jimmy's followers that he is Satan

or else the vengeful cult leader threatens to force-feed you your own intestines until you can no longer breathe

So taking a page from RuPaul's Drag Race, Kelson literally lip-syncs for his life

performing Iron Man's The Number of the Beast, complete with stage makeup and DIY pyrotechnics

It brought the feeling of a live heavy metal show to the movie theater and to this franchise's post-apocalyptic landscape

shaking up the way we look at zombie movies. And then there's Megan

When the trailer first hit in 2022, social media went wild for the small snippet of the killer doll

dancing on her way to slay another hapless human. Megan's screenwriter, Akilah Cooper, told Mashable

that the response to the moment was so big among younger demographics online

that Blumhouse Productions re-edited the film that was intended to be R-rated for a PG-13 theatrical cut

The fervor for audiences, critics, and the Academy alike suggests that we are ready for horror musicals to rise as never before

The origins of the horror movie musical began with Phantoms No not the 1998 Ben Affleck horror movie In 1925 Universal Pictures The Phantom of the horror movie musical began with Phantom Who are you No not the 1998 Ben Affleck horror movie In 1925 Universal Pictures The Phantom of the Opera starred Lon Chaney as The Phantom

The film is set in a theater where ballerinas and opera singers are tormented by a so-called

phantom who is fiercely dedicated to the career of an ingenue named Christine

This was a silent film on its initial release, but it included on-screen performances of singing

and dancing, though the singing couldn't be heard. Then in 1929, Universal released a recut version of this iconic horror film with sound added

to some scenes, including an aria sung by Christine's professional rival, Carlotta

The re-release with sound was a box office hit, signaling a shift in what audiences wanted

to see and hear in the cinema. However, the next noteworthy horror movie musical didn't come until 1974 with Brian

De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, which was based in part on Phantom of the Opera

Here, the Phantom is a singer-songwriter named Winslow Leach, who's robbed of his

songs, voice, freedom, teeth, and face by a merciless club owner called Swan, played by the

film's composer, Paul Williams. So, naturally, Winslow wreaks havoc. The movie contains music

rocking, earnest, and trippy, along with stage performances that involve ripping the limbs off

audience members and allusions to Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This truly wild movie flopped at the box office, and largely with critics. However, Phantom of the

Paradise earned an Oscar nomination for Best Score. And over the decades, it developed a cult

following, as did the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which followed in its footsteps. Yes, Richard O'Brien's

stage production of Rocky Horror debuted before Phantom of the Paradise, but the movie musical

that became a midnight movie legend came a year after in 1975. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Meatloaf

were among the sweet and sexy stars who strutted their stuff in a gnarly tale of a mad scientist

from outer space who manipulates murders, parties, and experiments in science and sex. But while today

Rocky Horror is widely known, it took a cult following to grow it from a film that many

critics and audiences overlooked to an iconic horror musical with a massive cultural impact

Other horror musicals would follow, including Frank Oz's 1986 release Little Shop of Horrors

which was based on the off-Broadway musical made about Roger Corman's B-movie of the same name

But despite sensational songs, a terrific cast, and top-tier puppet work from the Jim Henson

workshop, Little Shop disappointed at the box office, even with an alternate ending from the

previous versions which was intended to placate audiences who wanted a happy ending However it did earn Oscar nominations for visual effects and best song Of course we talking about Mean Green Mother from Outer Space

Like the various phantoms, Little Shop steadily found fans over the years, yet horror movie musicals are rare and even more rarely hits

Even Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street might be viewed as a box office disappointment

even though it paired a Tony Award-winning musical with A-list stars. Reuniting Johnny Depp and Helena Abadam Carter with director Tim Burton

this 2007 adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical earned three Oscar nominations

and a win for art direction. And it made three times its budget at the box office, but it fell far short of the highest

grossing movies of 2007, like Death's Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End or Carter's

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And these are just the best known horror movie musicals

There's also the zombie holiday musical Anna and the Apocalypse, Cannibal the Musical from

the creators of South Park, and the gothic rock opera Repo the Genetic Opera, which

stars both celebrity soprano Sarah Brightman and reality TV star Paris Hilton. Some of these are

good, some are bad, some are ugly, but none have managed to break the horror movie musical out of

being a cinematic anomaly. Until now. Sure, neither Megan or Bone Temple can be considered a horror

movie musical because their musical moments are pretty short in the runtime, but it's hard to

deny that Sinners is both a horror movie and a musical. The elements of horror, like vampires

jump scares, and gore are as crucial to the film's plot and messages as its musical numbers

Kugler explored the colonialism of black people through culture with a white vampire determined

to steal the songs of Sammy, a black bluesman. And it's the songs on both sides that show who

these characters are. With I Lied to You, Sammy sings a confession he wrote to his preacher father

admitting he loves blues music more than his family's religion. The vampire Remick, on the

other hand, chooses a classic Irish song to sing on his journey to this fateful meeting

The rocky road to Dublin tells of a long journey full of pleasure and pain. Each song in Sinners adds to Kugler's storytelling tapestry

and beyond being a terrific soundtrack, these songs could be chilling. Like when Remick turns a jig into the devilish lore into the night

Being a powerful example of a genre-fluid movie that blends horror and musicals

Sinners was an undeniable hit. At the time of its release, box office experts quibbled over how much Sinners would have to make to be considered a box office hit

However the goalposts removed Coogler film met them Plus it proved so popular in IMAX that Warner Bros re it in the fall of 2025 and then Sinners earned more Oscar nominations than any movie ever

This is a huge victory for Coogler, his cast, and filmmakers who dare to take a risk on original material

It's also a victory for a subgenre that's long been considered a laughingstock

Still, you might look at the long history of cult classics and box office bombs and think

there's no way the lesson from Sinners will be more horror movie musicals

However, it only takes one big movie to shift Hollywood's thinking. Consider Jaws

In 1975, Steven Spielberg's horror film about a man-eating shark became the first blockbuster

Offering unique scares, Jaws was a cultural phenomenon that changed the way studios thought

about making movies, especially genre movies. Two years later, Star Wars would hit, a genre-fluid film that combined a science fiction setting

in a galaxy far, far away with a western story structure about a simple farm boy who joins

forces with a hired gunman to take down a black hat villain. Movies haven't been the same since

Sinners could be the tipping point for horror movie musicals because it avoids the pitfalls

that afflict both genres. Haters abound for horror and musicals. Those who loathe horror

think these movies are gruesome and cruel and stupid, and those who despise musicals find them

silly and annoying and ridiculous. But sinners manage to find the common ground between both

genres without mocking either. Cooler understand that what unites musicals and horror movies is

excitement. For one, it's the terror of knowing something bad is coming, and the tension of waiting

for that to hit. For the other, it's the dizzying exhilaration of seeing a person do something

extraordinary, like hit an impossibly high note, pull a dance move that makes our jaws drop

or create a song so timeless it literally reaches across generations in one barn-burning number

In making a horror movie musical that is smart and thrilling and undeniably cinematic

Kugler has not just created an Oscar-worthy film, but also a touchstone for a new wave

of genre-fluid films to follow. He's broken the staunch expectations audience might have

for a horror movie or a musical, and created something so organic that giving it a label

risks putting it in a box. Now that he's broken the mold of what a horror movie musical

can be, who will grab the mic and the machete next? But what do you think? Let us know in comments. We'd love to hear from you. And if you enjoyed

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