PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2′s studio-funded teaser trailer
Jul 01
The first Paranormal Activity gained notoriety by using a viral campaign to get audiences demanding the indie film in their cities, selling a whole bunch of tickets in the process. Similar viral techniques were first used by another successful horror film in back in 1999, The Blair Witch Project. Both were shot independently on next-to-nothing-budgets, and both were picked up by studios for widespread distribution to cement their success. Both had integrity for their origins (even though I found Paranormal Activity underwhelming, director Oren Peli and his crew deserve kudos for achieving what they did) and both used the ‘is it real?’ amateur handycam approach (which is now cliché).
Now, having seen this teaser, it’s apparent that Paranormal Activity will continue following in the footsteps of The Blair Witch Project by delivering a dreadful sequel that completely lacks the appeal of the original. I’m expecting a lot of the independent charm found in the first Paranormal Activity to be missing in the upcoming studio-funded, effects-heavy sequel– due for release in the States on October 22, 2010.
Australian audiences will have to wait for Paranormal Activity 2, no release date has been announced yet.
THE LAST EXORCISM trailer is same-old horror style, no substance
May 27
At first glance the poster for the Eli Roth-produced The Last Exorcism looks like it could be yet another instalment to The Exorcist franchise. Thankfully it’s not, but if you’ve seen the 1973 classic you won’t be able to help drawing comparisons while viewing The Last Exorcism trailer (below).
I’m personally rather familiar with The Exorcist. As owner and operator of The Exorcist Fansite since the late 90s I’ve written about, critiqued and discussed the film that remains arguably the greatest horror achievement of all time– definitely the greatest demonic possession film. This also means I’ve been up-close to the making of some horrendous sequels in my time. Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist were both so dreadful (not only did they bomb, they also got a hiding from critics) that studio Morgan Creek has all but shelved their Exorcist license until further notice. There have been spats of promise from other demonic possession efforts like The Exorcism of Emily Rose and even, to an extent, Constantine, but all have fallen drastically short to the substance found in The Exorcist.
Hoping to re-capture the success of horror films like The Blair Witch Project, [REC] and last year’s Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism plays out through the lens of an amateur handycam (or, in this case, a high-def cam with post production filter effects). The trailer reveals it to be a completely stylised piece of filmmaking which will definitely hold up in today’s horror market of special effects and cheap scares. What it will need and ultimately lack in the long run is some substance; some reasons to care and some food for thought. Substance left horror a long time ago and it’s going to take one Hell of a film (pardon the pun) to bring it back. I sincerely doubt The Last Exorcism will be it.
When he arrives on the rural Louisiana farm of Louis Sweetzer, the Reverend Cotton Marcus expects to perform just another routine “exorcism” on a disturbed religious fanatic. An earnest fundamentalist, Sweetzer has contacted the charismatic preacher as a last resort, certain his teenage daughter Nell is possessed by a demon who must be exorcized before their terrifying ordeal ends in unimaginable tragedy.
Buckling under the weight of his conscience after years of parting desperate believers with their money, Cotton and his crew plan to film a confessionary documentary of this, his last exorcism. But upon arriving at the already blood drenched family farm, it is soon clear that nothing could have prepared him for the true evil he encounters there. Now, too late to turn back, Reverend Marcus’ own beliefs are shaken to the core when he and his crew must find a way to save Nell – and themselves – before it is too late.
IRON MAN 2 viral advertising is lost on me
Apr 09
Not literally lost, of course. I get it– I understand how viral marketing works and there’s no doubting it certainly has a very fad place in movies right now. Of course, Hollywood has borrowed heavily from the music industry which has been successfully promoting underground/garage/indie bands for decades using similar viral ‘tactics’.
Viral marketing has been a successful way for studios to bring their indie festival purchases to larger audiences. Most recently Paranormal Activity achieved great heights using viral marketing which somewhat mirrored the horror film many consider to be the first online virally-marketed film, The Blair With Project. And who could deny Warner Brothers masterful viral promotions for The Dark Knight back in 2007/8. That sure paid off! So, I understand that studios feel the need to expose that area of marketing and ensure they net as many people as possible. Yet there are times when that kind of marketing just isn’t necessary.
Incredibly important picture of Scarlett Johansson
The viral campaign for Iron Man 2 has been surprisingly dull and increasingly irrelevant. A different term for this kind of viral marketing should be coined– I believe it’s no longer ‘viral’ once the film is a guaranteed summer blockbuster studio tent-pole film.
Iron Man 2 has a mass audience that is already guaranteed to go see it, viral marketing or not. I know this, because I’m one of those people. The Stark Industry website, the fake Stark Expo and the new videos have missed their mark with me. I’ve found most people are already talking about the film because of the trailer, the poster, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash character, and (to a lesser extent) the TV spots… The swing of promotion is so great that it seems the only people really noticing (and giving a fuck) about the viral are the comic book addicts who, at the height of it all, have determined they noticed what looks like possibly the Avengers logo during a commercial for Stark Enterprises… others say it looks like Fantastic 4‘s logo and should go. I say… really?
As if to underline my point, adding to the pointlessness of it all, those debating such trivial things are already going to see Iron Man 2 opening weekend, without question. So who, exactly, is benefiting from all of this viral guff? Who’s going to see it, put two-and-two together and decide, shit yes, I’m going to see Iron Man 2 when it opens. Who’s is convinced by the Stark Expo yet not by the trailer…? I’m honestly asking, I have no idea.
View the official viral website for Stark Expo which coincides with the release date of Iron Man 2 (29 April Down Under, 30 April in the UK and 7 May in The States).
Summer review round-up: the good, the bad and the ugly
Mar 01
Way back in the beginning of December, in our first week of existence, I posted a list of the five most anticipated films of the summer. Now that it is officially autumn (even if the weather obstinately refuses to accept this incontravertible truth), it’s the perfect time to look back over the past three months and put the summer releases in perspective. There were a few surprises, some hits and some misses, and more than the usual number of disappointments.
First of all I’ll deal with the aforelinked list. Here movies I was looking forward to the most:
Sherlock Holmes: 83/100
Holmes turned out to be better than expected. Downey, Jr’s ludic performance combined with Guy Ritchie’s gritty direction made for a fun, fresh and interesting reboot of the old super-sleuth franchise.
The Lovely Bones: 18/100
Peter Jackson’s saggy, bloated, boring fantasy was mired in CGI quicksand, lacked any engaging characters, and failed to entertain for its lengthy 150-minute running time. Here’s hoping that Tintin doesn’t also suck.
Shutter Island: 27/100
Martin Scorsese manages to achieve the impossible and make a terrible film out of an interesting premise. The cast is great, the locations are fun, and the direction is snappy and engaging– but the plot is none of these, hamstringing the film beyond any reasonable semblance of entertainment.
Avatar: 48/100
Eye-popping visual effects can’t help a mind-bogglingly asinine story, nor can competent action scenes undo hours of misanthropic preachery. The movie is too long by half, a bit too silly for its own good, and far too blue. Oh, and it failed to sell the premise of 3D, too.
It’s Complicated: 52/100
It’s Complicated was indeed on my list of summer movies, but it was filed under “Top 5 summer movies that will almost certainly suck.” Irony kicked down the door, waltzed into the room and force-fed us all humble pie when the Meryl Streep / Steve Martin / Alec Baldwin rom-com got a better score than nearly all of the movies that were supposed to be good. Oh dear. Sure, 52/100 is nothing to be proud of, but I’d rather watch a mediocre movie than a downright awful one.
The Hurt Locker: 80/100
If The Hurt Locker had had a solid release date at the time of writing, it surely would have made an appearance in the above article. As it stands, Hurt Locker is in my mind the best of the season, by a long way. I only caught it last night, but even on the last day of summer it’s still summer, so it counts. Contrary to Captain Howdy’s review of the flick, I didn’t find the script overly American in its discussion of warfare and the nature of humanity in the (typical of us) throes of violence and destruction; to me it was just a movie that pursues that most noble of enterprises in attempting to grapple that slippery thing somewhere in our skulls that apparently accounts for our bizarre cultural identity and unpredictable and oftentimes silly behaviour. The Hurt Locker was a wrenching, personal discussion of who we are framed with some of the most brutal, white-knuckle rollercoaster action scenes I’ve ever endured in a cinema, and for that it gets top nod from me: I’d give it 93/100, putting it right at the top of the two-dozen-odd movies of the past three months. If The Hurt Locker doesn’t win every single award at the Oscars, I will cry for days.
As you can see, I was wrong on nearly every count. This goes to show just how treacherous and misleading film advertising and critical hype can be, not to mention how terrible my skills at predetermination must be, but bear in mind that The Lovely Bones, Shutter Island, and Avatar should have been good — great directors were in charge of all three, and early trailers were promising – but they faltered on the home stretch and flopped lifeless and dull into cinemas.
Now that we’ve got the article recap out of the way, here’s a rundown of the films of the season, from worst to best (or at least the ones we managed to review):
New Moon: 01/100
Paranormal Activity: 12/100
The Lovely Bones: 18/100
Shutter Island: 27/100
Up In The Air: 28/100
The Wolf Man: 37/100
From Paris With Love: 39/100
Where The Wild Things Are: 46/100
Avatar: 48/100
Julie & Julia: (average)
It’s Complicated: 52/100
Bran Nue Dae: 55/100
2012: 62/100
The Road: 63/100
The Princess And The Frog: 70/100
Zombieland: 78/100
The Hurt Locker: 80/100
Sherlock Holmes: 83/100
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: 84/100
Of course this list doesn’t include all of the other many, varied reviews we’ve been ransacking our DVD collections to write, or the hefty number of news article’s we’ve produced over the weeks.
So, three months in, how is our driving? We are vaguely aware of a regular audience of sorts that pops up to check out our posts, and we would very much like to hear from you. Do you enjoy current reviews, do you like chuckling at the hilarious witticisms we scribe while revealing new trailers or posters, or do you prefer the random old movies we dredge out to give a reel good inspection? Any and all feedback is appreciated, even if it boils down to “you are an idiot” or “my crippled blind dog with alzheimer’s can write better reviews than you.” As much as we love the sound of our own voices, we love the sound of our own voices yelling back at people in heated argument even better, so let fly your opinions and comments! What were your favourite movies of the past three months, summer or winter, depending on where you live? Were you disappointed by something you were sure would be awesome, or pleasantly surprised by something you thought would be awful? Let us know!
Paranormal Activity sequel aims for cheap and nasty with a budget
Jan 20
Part of the charm that made Paranormal Activity so affective on audiences late last year was the cheap and nasty quality of the production. Critics were quick to sight The Blair With Project as an obvious comparison, and the shoestring budget film-that-could met expectations by making a killing at the box office– thanks mostly to strong word or mouth backed by some neatly planned viral marketing (also similar to ‘Blair Witch‘) by distributor Paramount.
Clever and successful as Paranormal Activity was, I still didn’t find it frightening. Quite the opposite. Fellow Reel Thinker writer Froley agrees.
So excuse me as I cringe a little at the news that Paramount have hired the director of Saw 6 (yes, Saw SIX) Kevin Greutert to helm their upcoming cash-in sequel, currently titled Paranormal Activity 2. Television writer Michael R. Perry is busy writing the screenplay at the moment. Any guesses for a less obvious title? My money’s on More Paranormal Activity. Or perhaps Paranormal ActiviTWO.
I can understand why Paramount would want a sequel right away, to strike while the iron is hot and people who remember being (apparently) scared at the original film should be willing to invest in a sequel — I’m just not convinced that a budget, typical structure and a likely glossy output is the way to go. Paranormal Activity worked because of the gritty handycam style the filmmakers were forced to use in leiu of money and time. Having those things in waiting for the sequel isn’t keeping to the true fabric of what Paranormal Activity was all about. I’ll be interested to see how or if they can make it work– because I clearly how ridiculous Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows turned out… not to mention the horrendous mess that was Saw 6. It all seems to be heading in the same direction.
For all the things Saw 6 got wrong, it got one thing right – it made a profit. And that’s all the Paramount execs need to worry about: the bottom line.
Paranormal Activity 2 is slated for an October 22 release, making timely for Halloween. Should we also expect it on DVD by Christmas?
OPINIONS COUNT