Vietnamese horror films are flooding theaters, but quality is uneven.
Vietnamese Cinema Over the past 2 years, there have always been horror film projects, and even in the period from late 2024 to mid-2025, the number of films with this theme released by filmmakers will increase.
Since the beginning of the year, Vietnamese cinema has had a series of horror films released such as: “Quy nhap trang”, “Den am hon”, “Tim xa”, “Duoi boi”, “Duoi boi”, “Am duong lo”, “Nguoi muoi”, “Nha gia tien”... Among them, many projects have exceeded the hundred billion dong mark, bringing good profits to filmmakers. However, the large number of horror films released in theaters has made audiences somewhat overfed and bored.
The movie “Under the Lake” (directed by Tran Huu Tan) was released in June 2025. The movie attracted attention when it first exploited the theme of doppelgangers. This is a familiar theme in many Hollywood movies but is not yet popular in Vietnamese cinema.
The film is a confrontation between the “original” and the “copy”, between the present person and their past self. Although the idea is good, the implementation is still clumsy, the special effects are still flawed, the acting of the cast is not equal, so the project does not receive high ratings from viewers. After nearly 1 week in theaters, the film has only earned more than 19 billion VND.
Another case is the horror film “Five Ten” currently showing in theaters. The film is inspired by the folk game of five ten, the plot is not heavy on scaring ghosts but focuses on psychological factors, condemning current hot issues such as privacy, body shaming, and cyberbullying. Although it was also rated as having a good idea, when it was released in theaters, it was criticized as a disaster, with weak acting by the stars. The work has only earned over 2 billion VND.
The film “Yin and Yang Road” was released not long ago, pioneering the genre of road horror. The film also has something new when it deals with the dark side of the ambulance driving industry, the psychological burden of ambulance drivers. However, because it was too caught up in tricks, the project left theaters without really breaking through in revenue.
The movie “Finding the Corpse” is a similar case. The movie faced many controversies about its quality but still sold well in the first few days. However, after the movie earned more than 30 billion VND, it suddenly withdrew from theaters because it was afraid of competing with a series of new movies released a week later such as “Lat mat 8”, “Tham tu Kien”...
The producer of the film “Finding the Body” has changed the project’s name to “Headless Ghost” to release it in theaters again at the end of June. However, many viewers believe that the project is no longer attractive because it was released earlier. In addition, “Finding the Body” has also been criticized in many aspects such as content and special effects, making the film unable to win over the audience.
Horror movies are not just about luck or curiosity.
Most Vietnamese horror films in recent times have in common that they are inspired by folk tales, urban legends...
This makes the audience curious because these stories are familiar to many Vietnamese audiences as they have been passed down through many generations such as: "Ghost", "Ghost in the mouth", "Legend of Ho Da"...
However, overusing the curiosity factor without improving the quality of the film and acting causes the projects to become routine, lacking creativity and difficult to attract viewers.
The fact that many Vietnamese filmmakers are rushing to produce horror films also creates a negative effect as audiences will be more careful and cautious in choosing a new work to watch instead of being curious.
Currently, Vietnamese filmmakers have only lightly touched on some new points of the horror film genre. There, the spiritual element is still used because it is an indispensable "color", but the approach and perspective have begun to change towards being closer to modern life, going more inward. However, the weakness of Vietnamese horror films still lies in the development of the script, special effects and acting of the stars. Most Vietnamese horror films are frightening but not profound enough in exploiting human psychology.
Much Vietnamese movies criticized for repeating old patterns and formulas, leading to audiences being skeptical and considering spending money to buy tickets to see future works.
Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/phim-kinh-di-viet-duoi-suc-3362450.html
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