Seven days.

That's all the warning unsuspecting victims get in the creepy horror flick The Ring. In the movie, which was No. 2 at the box office over the weekend, folks who watch a cursed videotape receive a phone call letting them know very bad things are about to happen.

Wall Street has something like this -- it's called insider information. After former ImClone Systems(Nasdaq: IMCL) CEO Sam Waksal tipped off his celebrity buddies over a drug deal gone bad, insider information has been front and center in the media.

In The Ring, the poor souls who come across the video have seven days to get their lives in order. With insider trading, the time is spent buying or selling -- depending on the magnitude and direction of the leaked info. The last thing a victim in the film sees before expiring is a ring. The last thing inside traders see is a jail cell.

But the early success of The Ring and Disney's(NYSE: DIS) spooky sleeper hit of the summer, Signs, has movie studios embracing horror flicks in earnest again. For a while, it looked like Hollywood was only good for as many Freddy Krueger, Mike Meyers, and Jason sequels it could string together. Then came the low-budget TheBlair Witch Project, and then the nearly $300 million box-office payday from The Sixth Sense. So we're now back to celluloid days where story and substance matter more than guts and gore.

According to UpcomingMovies.com, more than three-dozen horror films are in the planning stages. While it seems like Chuckie and Leprauchan will be back with more of the same, other fear flicks have far loftier intentions. You know, like shrieking all the way to the bank.