“Ma da”, “Quy nhap trang” and “Tim xa” were released in a short period of time and achieved good revenue. However, the scripts and content of these projects have caused fierce controversy.

Once considered a genre that was not well received by many audiences, the Vietnamese horror film genre is now witnessing a strange "rebirth". Continuously in the past 2 years, a series of projects have been released and brought in enviable revenues. To the point that many movie lovers commented that this is "the time when Vietnamese horror films reign".

Notably, from mysterious phenomena, folk curses or even the theory of the five elements, spirituality is no longer simply contained in storytelling materials, but is pushed into cinematic universes, showing the long-term ambition of the production team. After the "folk supernatural universe" initiated by Vo Thanh Hoa, most recently, the "Five Elements supernatural universe" developed by Nhat Trung has also attracted the attention of many audiences.

Potential but controversial

From turn to turn Ghost , Possessed and recently Find the body: Headless Ghost, The production team aims to create a series of spiritual horror films based on stories related to local life. The three works, with three seemingly separate colors, share the same ambition: to shape the identity of domestic films through purely Vietnamese spiritual elements.

This idea is actually quite interesting and unique, showing Nhat Trung's creative perspective when pioneering the realization of a film universe revolving around the Five Elements, which is an important philosophical system in Eastern culture.

Start with Ghost, Released in mid-August 2024, the work is introduced as representing the element of Water - expressed in the context of rivers and water. Ma da is a famous horror legend, with many versions in each country. In Vietnam, it is described as the soul of a drowned person carrying resentment, lurking in rivers and lakes and trying to lure and drown victims.

to Possessed (3/2025), the film's promotional crew represents the element Metal. It is shown through the detail of a metal necklace appearing in a coffin, acting as a "conduit" for evil curses, as whoever wears it will meet a strange death.

With Ma da , when both the setting, the villain and the central tragedy revolve around the water element, makes the film's association with the Water element reasonable. Then comes Demon possessed, The introduction of the work with Kim elements is considered unnatural. In fact, this quality in the film appears quite faint, the pairing is somewhat forced.

Most recently, with Finding the body: Headless Ghost , although introduced as belonging to the supernatural universe of the five elements, the brainchild of Bui Van Hai has not been able to point out any related elements in the content. Some opinions say that the work represents the Wood element, when most of the scenes take place in the forest. There are also opinions that the film symbolizes the Earth element, when mysteries and crimes are buried deep under the ground.

This ambiguity makes many viewers question the exploitation of the Five Elements element in the film universe produced by Nhat Trung. Except Ghost, The remaining two works both show a departure from the main material, tending to abuse them as "advertising bait", instead of being special colors that are carefully exploited.

With great ambition to recreate the treasure trove of Vietnamese folk legends under the lens of the five elements, creating a supernatural world imbued with indigenous spirituality, but when put into practice, they are only weakly expressed. The five elements, which should permeate every structure and color of the story, are actually only briefly mentioned in a few introductory words, lacking a consistent presence throughout the entire work.

Looking more broadly, from Ghost, Demon in the womb and Find the body: Headless Ghost, Instead of overlapping into a complete whole, creating a distinct tone for the film universe, they appear separately, without showing any special discovery that contributes to promoting the general story line.

That's why, when placed next to famous horror universes in the world, like The Conjuring, Insidious, Cloverfield good The Purge, The new Five Elements Universe is just a list of individual projects, lacking the "key" - the key that opens a unique direction, helping to distinguish it from other universes on the market.

Audience turn signal

April 25, Find the body: Headless Ghost suddenly announced that it would be leaving the theater, much to the surprise of the audience. Director Bui Van Hai said that due to many objective reasons, the crew decided to withdraw the film from theaters, scheduled to be shown again next June. This sudden move continues to stir up much discussion from both observers and movie-loving audiences.

Currently, statistics from Box Office Vietnam recorded Find the body: Headless Ghost achieve revenue 41 billion VND , after more than 1 week of release. In the opening week, including special screenings, the film earned nearly 30 billion VND . Entering the second week, the film's popularity has clearly decreased, partly due to poor media effects leading to low discussion levels. On the other hand, Hai Bui's brainchild has received mixed reactions, as many opinions commented that the film's quality is "disastrous".

Not only was the script and storytelling criticized, the work's message was also criticized for being somewhat distorted and offensive. In response to negative feedback, the creator Find the body: Headless Ghost said it felt sad when the message he wanted to convey was understood differently. Share with Knowledge - Znews, He took responsibility for himself, saying that it was because of his incoherent storytelling that led to such an unfortunate misunderstanding.

On social networks, many opinions say that the crew's decision to withdraw the film from theaters Find the body: Headless Ghost partly to "avoid" public criticism.

Strategically, the decision to leave the theater Find the body: Headless Ghost It is considered reasonable that in the near future, the film will have difficulty holding on to the heat of the duo. Flip Side 8 - Detective Kien.

In fact, in the second week of its release, although it still has a wide path at the box office with few competitors, Hai Bui's work still shows signs of fatigue, the speed of earning money is plummeting. If it continues to stay in theaters, the film is unlikely to surpass the milestone. 50 billion dong

This achievement is not bad compared to the general level of Vietnamese horror films, but it is a shocking decline when compared to the two previous projects in the supernatural universe of the five elements. Specifically, Ghost each return 127 billion VND , while Possessed pocketed 150 billion - leading the list of most popular Vietnamese horror films.

Revenue slide of Find the body: Headless Ghost is a wake-up call for Vietnamese horror filmmakers, as it shows signs of audiences turning their backs on poor quality projects.

Previously, Ghost good Possessed All received negative feedback about the script and content, but still won big at the box office thanks to the benefit of the horror fever that broke out strongly in our country. However, when this wave showed signs of decline, horror films also became saturated, with few breakthroughs in ideas and scripts, and the audience's turning away was inevitable.

The loss of revenue of two consecutive works Find the body: Headless Ghost and just before that was Yin and Yang Road shows that audiences have become more demanding in the face of the current situation of domestic horror films being released in theaters without proper investment in quality and script.