A series of Vietnamese horror films have recently reached the milestone of hundreds of billions of dong in revenue. Although there are still controversies about content and special effects, it cannot be denied that this is a positive signal for directors pursuing this genre of film.
Continuously reaching the hundred billion dong milestone
On February 24, Huynh Lap's film "Ancestral House" officially reached the 100 billion VND mark. Vietnamese movies reached this milestone the second fastest in 2025, after Tran Thanh's "The Four Guardians".
Currently, “The Ancestor’s House” is also the Vietnamese film leading the box office rankings of Box Office Vietnam with nearly 5,000 screenings per day, far surpassing other films such as “Dark Nuns”, “Billionaire Kiss”...
“The Ancestral House” tells the story of My Tien (played by Phuong My Chi) - a Gen Z girl who works as a content creator. After many years, the character returns to the ancestral house and unexpectedly sees the spirit of her deceased brother Gia Minh (played by Huynh Lap). From there, the two brothers devise a plan to keep the house that is being disputed by relatives, and at the same time help Gia Minh to be able to be liberated.
Although it still faces many mixed opinions, "House of Ancestors" also scores points thanks to its transmission of spiritual and traditional cultural elements such as the art of Southern glass painting, ancestor worship... The film does not exploit the dark, heavy horror direction but follows the spiritual, idealistic direction and has humorous situations.
Another horror film that has recently made an impression is “The Ghost Lamp” by director Hoang Nam. Inspired by “The Tale of Nam Xuong”, “The Ghost Lamp” has a spiritual feel with a fresh approach, blending spiritual and action elements. Released in theaters since February 7, the revenue of “The Ghost Lamp” has so far exceeded the hundred billion mark and helped director Hoang Nam enter the list of hundred billion directors despite this being his first foray into cinema.
Similar to “Ancestral House”, “Ghost Lamp” also exploits cultural elements, is a journey back to the roots, imbued with folk culture, using spiritual elements to serve the direction towards traditional culture.
The success of “Den am hon” and “Nha gia tien” is partly due to the fact that these two films are considered a “new breeze” for Vietnamese cinema in early 2025. Before “Den am hon” and “Nha gia tien”, “Quy cau” released at the end of 2023 was the first Vietnamese horror film to reach the hundred billion VND mark, marking a new step forward for domestically produced horror films. Not only successful domestically, “Quy cau” surpassed 335 competing works to win the “Best Film” award at the 2024 Kanazawa Film Festival.
The film also helped the crew win the “Best Production” and “Best Director of Photography” awards at Tuesday of Horror - a film festival specializing in honoring horror films; “Best Cinematography” and “Best Makeup” awards at the Sinister Horror Film Festival (Mexico)... “Ma Da”, “Linh Mieu: Quy Nhap Trang”,... are also high-grossing horror films.
Shortcomings to be overcome
It can be seen that revenue is only one of the measures to evaluate the success of a film. A film that earns hundreds of billions of dong or more does not mean that the film is perfect and without flaws.
“Ghost Light” made the audience regretful in the special effects and acting of the new cast and still caused a lot of controversy, such as the scene where the characters “reincarnate”, the scene where monsters appear... The male lead Phu Thinh was criticized for his lack of emotion in his acting, especially in the first part of the film. Director Hoang Nam himself admitted that he was still confused when he first entered the film industry and would listen to constructive comments to improve in future projects.
The special effects are also a weakness of “The Ancestors’ House”. Besides, the way the images and details of “The Ancestors’ House” are processed is considered to have more of the mark of a web drama than a movie.
Next, the script is still one of the weakest points of Vietnamese films in general and Vietnamese horror films in particular. The script lacks logic, sometimes takes on too much...
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