‘The Wretched’: how an indie horror movie became the surprise hit of 2020
The Wretched, released to streaming services in May, has enjoyed a run of five consecutive weeks at the top of the US box office, placing it in the lofty company of Avatar, Titanic, Black Panther and The Sixth Sense, albeit with total takings of around $2 million compared to, say, Avatar’s $2.9 billion. Where those movies were blockbusters with Titanic-sized budgets, The Wretched is a low-cost, little-hyped indie horror movie about a coastal town terrorised by a witch who lives in a tree and has the power to erase all memory of a person’s existence.