Recently, a batch of online movies containing exotic animal elements have been launched, which has caused heated discussions in public opinion. Movies containing alien elements mainly describe or present the confrontation between humans and alien animals. In the early 1930s, films featuring alien beasts came out. After nearly a hundred years of development, films containing exotic animal elements have now developed into a mature film type, which has a great influence in the field of Chinese online films. Although the commercial value of such online movies is affirmed by the producers, promoters and market analysts, the quality is unsatisfactory. Except for a few movies, online movies with alien elements are generally called "bad movies" and have been severely criticized by the audience. This paradoxical phenomenon deserves attention.

Big Snake poster

In 2018, an online movie featuring a giant snake was launched on a video website, and it earned tens of millions of yuan at the box office with an investment cost of several million yuan, making the theme of exotic animals a popular online movie creation. Since then, the number of such films has soared, and the proportion of these films entering the "10 million box office club" remains high. According to incomplete statistics, in 2018, three video websites, Youku, iQiyi and Tencent, produced 8 films with elements of exotic animals, and two of them had a box office share of over 10 million, accounting for 25%. And of the 36 films related to exotic animals produced by 2020, 15 will enter the "10 million box office club", accounting for nearly 50%. It is not difficult to see from the voices such as "Irregular animal films are the future of online movies?" "Online films have been developed for many years, why is it still only alien animal films that have broken the circle?" It is not difficult to see that the industry is full of expectations for online movies related to alien animal elements. What doesn't match the high box office is the low ratings from the audience. From 2016 to 2021, iQIYI, Youku, and Tencent released 83 movies that meet the requirements of "anomaly as the protagonist", "human-monster confrontation as the theme", "thrilling feature" and "released only on video sites", etc. conditional movie. Only 18 of them have ratings on Douban, and most of them hover between 3.0 and 4.0. The audience expressed their dissatisfaction with negative terms such as "five cents special effects" and "plagiarism", and some even rose to the level of "garbage" and "destroying three views".

"Big Snake", the big Internet IP, has already filmed its third film, but none of the three films scored more than 4 points on Douban

Why are audiences willing to contribute to the box office while they dislike it? One is because of the love for the element of alien beasts. The main audience for movies with alien beast elements are men over 25 years old. They enjoy the suffocation of life and death when they come into contact with alien animals and the sense of relaxation after the crisis is lifted, so as to release their worship of power and satisfy their desire to conquer and destroy. . The second is that audiences are attracted by other factors other than exotic animals, such as successful movie marketing activities, such as preview copywriting, short videos, promotional posters, and social platform interactive activities. Some works cooperate with merchants to plan themed package store activities, and launch IP-themed activities in conjunction with takeaway platforms, which have played a role in diverting traffic. There are also cases of being attracted by the elements of the movie itself, such as big IP guidance, soft pornography, etc.
Online movies with exotic animal elements have changed from "blue ocean" to "red ocean", and the competition for attention and traffic is very fierce. Audiences have passed the novelty of such films, become more and more rational, and have higher and higher requirements for film quality. In 2019, the "Notice on the Upgrading of the Online Audio-Visual Program Information Recording System" was released, and the supervision of IP cheating, violence, and pornography in online movies has become increasingly strict. , it is increasingly unfeasible to continue to attract attention with female characters dressed in strands, large-scale and meaningless ambiguous actions, and violent and bloody images.
Most online movies are produced at a low cost. To achieve "small investment, big return", the key is to spend money on the "knife edge". And "special effects" and "plot" are the "blade" of online movies. The special effects of alien animals are the primary factor to attract audiences, and also one of the indicators to evaluate the quality of this type of film. First of all, the props should not be too inferior, at least not easily seen in the lens as "fake" and "plastic feeling". In a certain film, the snake king snake slough is a plastic film with a snake pattern, which allows the audience to play. Secondly, the alien beast should be clearly shown in the lens. Several online videos showing small creatures such as bees have no close-ups throughout the whole process, and the screen is completely black, which cannot create a terrifying atmosphere, but instead makes people commit intensive phobia.
The plot is more important than the special effects, and this is precisely the weakest point of our country's online alien movies. Audiences often complain, and movies with exotic animal elements give people a feeling of "déjà vu". In view of the type characteristics of alien movies, audiences do not quite reject stylized plots, but they must have a beginning and end, a clear main line, and smooth logic, and cannot be copied mechanically. For example, a work showing sharks directly copied foreign movies, and even the lines were very similar. Some viewers bluntly said that some of the "exotic animal films" had confusing stories and could only be viewed as "comedy films". For example, wearing a thin shirt and short jacket to explore the jungle, after climbing and rolling, the clothes are still neat and the hairstyle is not messy. The professionals who come to the rescue do not have professional equipment and common sense. repel. In order to achieve the heroic feat of the protagonist, all kinds of "coincidences" are everywhere. There are also obvious scientific flaws in some sci-fi movies, which can even make male sharks pregnant.

As of 10:00 on June 8, the box office of "Exotic Beast" was 5.54 million yuan

What kind of alien beast to choose is also an important part of constructing the alien beast universe. The themes of the currently broadcasted online movies involve 13 kinds of alien beasts in general meaning, such as crocodiles, snakes, sharks, octopuses, and lizards, and 5 kinds of traditional Chinese beasts, such as Qiongqi, water monsters, and dragons. However, the distribution of alien beasts is highly concentrated. And imbalance, the number of films about snakes, sharks, crocodiles, spiders accounted for more than two-fifths. Not only the shapes are the same, but even the titles of the films are highly similar. At the same time, except for snakes and traditional Chinese exotic animals, other exotic animals are commonly used in foreign films, which are far from the psychology and life of Chinese audiences. To create a Chinese alien-type online movie, it must have Chinese characteristics. Specifically, there should be traces of exotic animals in our country or origins in Chinese culture. The memory points and innovations of their shapes should be in line with the way of thinking and aesthetic habits of Chinese audiences, and the final theme of the work should be on the performance. Chinese people are brave, strong, united and other excellent qualities.
Although the problems of online alien movies are highlighted one by one, it is undeniable that it still has a development prospect worth looking forward to. We should develop new types of exotic animals, break the phenomenon of over-concentration of themes, take the box office as the driving force, the quality as the cornerstone, and the positive energy as the guide to further tap the market potential of online exotic animals movies, promote their benign development, and build A rich and dynamic imagination space.
(Author: Gan Lu, associate professor at the Institute of Communication, Communication University of China. This article was originally published on the 15th edition of Guangming Daily on June 8, 2022)