tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4964885632131848660.post2446495565690877398..comments2023-03-31T06:55:42.398-07:00Comments on Dinner With Max Jenke: Join The Mist MilitiaJeff Allardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04265550466781988388noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4964885632131848660.post-14013307269071766722007-12-10T22:38:00.000-08:002007-12-10T22:38:00.000-08:00I agree that opening The Mist on Thanksgiving week...I agree that opening The Mist on Thanksgiving weekend didn't do it any favors. I also agree that the ad campaign wasn't so hot, either. <BR/><BR/>While I thought the teasers and trailers were great, I think they only worked for fans who were already pre-sold on the movie from Day One. Every co-worker or family member I talked to prior to The Mist's opening - people who aren't hardcore genre fans - had little-to-no interest in seeing The Mist. The common complaint being "isn't that just like The Fog?". The second complaint being "uh, isn't that just a movie about giant mosquitos?". <BR/><BR/>So either The Weinstein Co. didn't do a good job of getting the word out on what The Mist was about or people just like to put every movie about inclement weather in the same basket.Jeff Allardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04265550466781988388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4964885632131848660.post-50780328538078068942007-12-09T11:35:00.000-08:002007-12-09T11:35:00.000-08:00In the case of THE MIST, I think that part of it i...In the case of THE MIST, I think that part of it is poor scheduling on Dimension's part - witness the scheduling of GRINDHOUSE as the big Easter film - and it didn't help THE MIST to come out in the midst of family films on the eve of Thanksgiving... but then, THE THING had the summer of E.T. to contend with.<BR/><BR/>I think that it just goes to shore up William Goldman's saying on Hollywood: "Nobody Knows ANYTHING".<BR/>Would THE MIST have done better if it were released Sept./Oct. to take advantage of the Halloween season? Maybe. Would a better ad campaign have helped? Maybe.<BR/><BR/>Increasingly, I think that theatrical performance is going to mean jack shit in terms of the quality of the film. I have the feeling that THE MIST is going to find its audience when it hits DVD, like THE THING ultimately found its audience via home video and cable... I don't think that it's mere coincidence that it's referenced at the beginning of the movie - perhaps Darabont had a feeling early on about the reception of the film in today's horror film climate.<BR/><BR/>As far as mainstream horror goes, I think the audience is just too fragmented to really get behind a picture... notwithstanding the SAW and HOSTILE franchises, which I really don't consider to be horror pictures at all. If there's going to be any success, I think that DVD and downloads are going to be it - witness the bare theatrical release that Larry Fessenden's THE LAST WINTER got this fall - that's another film that people will discover when the R1 DVD becomes available (if they haven't discovered it via torrents already).L. Rob Hubbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11539336724694374785noreply@blogger.com