With a large number of gory, thrilling overseas blockbusters being imported in succession, is this really intended to help the audience relieve stress?
01
Foreign gory blockbusters are being imported and released in a cluster this year
Recently when you walk into a cinema, you will notice a strange phenomenon: on the screen, there are either people being hacked to death or zombies.
Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair has arrived, running for more than four hours with blood splattering everywhere. The same goes for Resident Evil: Outbreak Night, which is released in Chinese mainland on October 5. It is a 94-minute R-rated survival horror work, and many people are asking: Why are there gory films everywhere all of a sudden? Is this deliberately arranged to help office workers relieve stress?
Source: Internet
After all, Kill Bill perfectly fits the kind of satisfying experience of "getting revenge for me".
The Bride's wedding is attacked by Bill and his men, and she falls into a coma for four years. After waking up, she does not write a whistleblower letter, seek mediation, or post a long essay, but directly makes a kill list, takes down the tough female assassin first, then breaks into the House of Blue Leaves, and finally settles the score with Bill. Quentin presents violence in a highly stylized way, which is extremely decompressing for people who have been holding back and suffering internal friction in long-term work. You cannot do that in real life, but you can do that in movies.
Still from Kill Bill, Source: Internet
But the answer is not that simple, because "gory content" is not equal to "stress relief", and stress relief does not mean that watching more killing films is beneficial.
First of all, looking at this wave of "heavy-taste" films in 2026, there is not just one or two, but a whole string of them coming one after another.
In January, the 4K restored version of The Shining was introduced to Chinese mainland for the first time. Kubrick's psychological horror film made 46 years ago finally met Chinese audiences on the big screen. In May, Jaws was publicly screened in Chinese mainland for the first time after 51 years.
Still from The Shining, Source: Internet
In July, Triangle was introduced without cuts 17 years after its release, running for 99 minutes, focusing on psychological thriller. In the same month, Obsession was also released in the summer film season.
Around August, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair landed in Chinese mainland, entering the market for the first time in its complete form. The feature film runs for 275 minutes with a 15-minute intermission, no frame is cut, and 7 minutes of never-publicly-shown hand-drawn animation by Production I.G is supplemented. The violent and gory content is basically retained, and the ticket page is marked with "Parental Guidance for Minors". Then in October, Resident Evil: Outbreak Night is scheduled for release in Chinese mainland, 9 years after the last installment Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was released in Chinese mainland in 2017.
Counting earlier releases, Backrooms has been screened, and Return to Silent Hill achieved good box office performance in its first week. There are horror, thriller, survival, psychological and gory action films of all kinds.
Generally speaking, there are mainly two types of films that have increased. One type is restored re-releases of old films, such as The Shining, Jaws and Kill Bill.
The other type is imported overseas thriller/horror films, such as Resident Evil: Outbreak Night, Backrooms and the Silent Hill series. They all have "strong stimulation", but the ways of stimulation are different: some are psychologically scary, while others are Quentin-style exaggerated violence.
Source: Internet
Why are film distributors and cinemas willing to release these films?
First, old films have predictable performance. New films are expensive, the promotion cost is high, and the box office is unstable. For old films, especially those famous in film history and widely discussed online for many years, there are always fans who will support them.
Take Kill Bill as an example. Its complete version has never been officially released in Chinese mainland before, and many people have only watched the two separate parts on their computers. The highlight of this "Whole Bloody Affair" release is "you have never watched this version in the cinema". With the 4.5-hour immersive experience, old fans are willing to buy tickets for the re-screening, and new audiences also find it novel.
Second, these films are used to fill the schedule gap. In the first half of 2026, the total box office of Chinese mainland dropped significantly, and there are not enough high-profile new films, so cinemas need genre films to fill the vacancy.
The screening arrangement of The Shining is not high, but its 4K IMAX version has achieved good box office results. Triangle relies on long-term word-of-mouth, and Resident Evil relies on game IP and the gimmick of R-rated. For cinemas, horror films may not be blockbusters, but they can be arranged in non-prime time and small halls, and young audiences are willing to come to watch.
Still from Triangle, Source: Internet
In addition, overseas film distributors also attach great importance to the Chinese mainland market. For franchises like Resident Evil, the final chapter performed very well in Chinese mainland back then. Although this reboot does not follow the old hero storyline, there are game fans, zombie fans and audiences looking for rare R-rated works in Chinese mainland. The film distributors will also provide support such as original materials, restoration and special aspect ratio.
Therefore, behind the increase of gory films, the reason is not entirely to help people relieve stress, but also follows the commercial logic of box office performance.
02
Why are thriller films getting more and more relaxed on import approval this year?
A few years ago, many people thought that films like Kill Bill, Resident Evil: Outbreak Night, The Shining and Triangle could never be released in Chinese mainland.
Now that these films are available, a change is taking place: the censorship is based on category classification, instead of banning all films with blood content indiscriminately.
In the past, when importing thriller, violent and zombie films, the most worrying parts were gory close-ups, severed limbs and over-amplified process of extreme pain. Now film distributors and importers will classify the films first: to distinguish whether it is stylized violence or realistic torture and killing.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is Quentin-style violent aesthetics, where blood is like paint, and the killing scenes serve the revenge narrative, not realistic brutality. Resident Evil: Outbreak Night is a sci-fi story about virus infection and zombie survival, not a superstitious ghost film.
The Shining and Triangle are more focused on psychological suspense, with very little gory content so they are easier to pass the censorship. That means now films are not banned just because there is a lot of blood, the censorship team will check whether the violent content looks like real situation. In short, films of stylized violence, sci-fi zombie and psychological thriller categories are easier to pass the review as long as the warning is properly set.
But there are so many horror films, why do people regard "overseas imported films" as a stress relief artifact?
Kill Bill was split into two parts in 2003 and 2004, and in 2026 it is combined into one complete work directly. More than 20 years after the original release, watching it now is more like a nostalgic experience with double the pleasure of the two original films. Resident Evil is also an old IP for audiences who have played the related games. Old players still remember their first time entering the mansion in the game and the first time they ran out of bullets, which brings them back to the feeling of their youth.
Re-releasing old films also has another advantage: the audience expectation is stable. Audiences roughly know what Kill Bill is about and which part of The Shining will scare them, so they will not buy a ticket for a disappointing film.
Many people dare not go to watch new domestic horror films without good reputation, while classic gory films have film reviews and recommendations from friends, so audiences are more willing to buy tickets for them.
Just like the 4.5-hour runtime of Kill Bill itself has become a hot topic, "bringing food into the cinema", "15-minute intermission", "the full-color House of Blue Leaves scene" are all great points for viral communication. Resident Evil has natural marketing highlights such as R-rated, 9 years after the last installment, over 90% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes, and over 100 million US dollars box office in the first week of North America release.
In addition, due to the operating pressure of cinemas themselves, new films released in recent years are uneven in quality, and short video platforms are also seizing people's spare time. Cinemas need strong stimulation to attract audiences back to the cinema, such as zombie, revenge and psychological horror elements, which are still the eye-catching codes.
From the early trial import of R-rated films such as Alien, Final Destination and Deadpool, to the concentrated release of Kill Bill, Outbreak Night, The Shining and Triangle in 2026, importers are more willing to try these films as long as they do not cross the legal red line. The box office performance is also good. Triangle and The Shining both exceeded 50 million yuan at the box office, and Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair exceeded 40 million yuan, contributing a lot to the overall box office.
After all, the reason why overseas films can be imported is not that the censorship scale has been loosened, but that the films have good stories and proper content handling.
Instead of envying these imported films, domestic films should learn how to make genre films more interesting. There are also some domestic films with pretty good plots and gradually relaxed content scales, and I am planning to watch them.
Gory content is never the purpose. What audiences come to the cinema for is the immersive emotional experience. Blood can splatter, but the film should make people want to sit for a while and reflect on the story after the scary part ends.
Whoever achieves this first will be able to seize this wave of dividends.
This article is from WeChat Official Account "Chief Business Review" (ID: CHReview), Author: Qi Yue, Published with authorization from 36Kr.