DIMENSION PISSES OFF HORROR FANS... AND MATT DAMON?!?

[Scott W. Davis]

They did it again. Even the drastically crumbling reputation of the once mighty Miramax can't stop its genre division from shrugging off their horror properties while gobbling up even more.



Dimension has been promising a theatrical date for Jaume Balaguero's DARKNESS ever since it bought the property in 2002. The latest date was this June which they promised would finally see it in theatres, only to yank it at the last second once again. Another film they were promoting this summer was MINDHUNTERS, directed by Renny Harlin who currently has the number one movie in the U.S., EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING. Now to be honest, MINDHUNTERS looked like crap from the trailers that Dimension pasted all over theatres to await its big summer premiere. Nevertheless, it was a high-profile film starring Christian Slater, L.L. Cool J., Johnny Lee Miller, Patricia Valasquez and Val Kilmer. They spent tens of millions on it and it has sat on the shelf since its completion in June 2002. Both of these films have already been released in other countries, so chances are our readers in Europe, Asia and Australia have already dealt with these films. You guys have no idea how lucky you are not to have an isor like Dimension.



Well, the good news is that Dimension is finally releasing these films. But no surprise here, they are getting a quick release straight to video later this year. In turn, DARKNESS may be renamed THE DARK in case U.S. consumers can't figure the other title out. The studio typically does this and often its on a pretty bare bones release. We've seen this happen many times before, and chances are we still will.



For example, the U.S. still hasn't seen THE HOLE, CYPHER, THE GATHERING, more Asian films than can be mentioned or Balaguero's other film THE NAMELESS... which they snatched up two years before DARKNESS! These are just a few of the films they have been sitting on. In actuality, there are dozens. That's right... dozens!



It is only a mild comfort seeing Miramax burn every bridge it has. Remember when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were their golden boys? Remember when they could do no wrong? Forget it.



A few years ago, Affleck and Damon started up PROJECT: GREENLIGHT. It was a noble cause - have a screenwriting contest for a newcomer director and agree to produce and distribute the result. To be honest, I never made it past a few episodes of the first season. It was dull and when I saw the PR girl from Miramax push the sticky, sentimental claptrap that was STOLEN SUMMER, I knew where this was going. Having actually sat through STOLEN SUMMER made it worse. Instead of groundbreaking films, each of the two Greenlight films (the other being THE BATTLE FOR SHAKER HEIGHTS) is one of the most mainstream that was offered. And while Affleck, Damon and producer Chris Moore ultimately had a say in what was greenlighted, the Miramax rep always pushed the least intriguing project.



Well, the good news is that the latest PROJECT: GREENLIGHT offered up a possible horror property. The bad news is this time, not only was it a less intriguing choice, but Miramax flat out overruled the producers and creators of the project... on behalf of their Dimension wing.



The winning film was FEAST. To be fair to first-time filmmaker John Gulager, who will no doubt be dragged into the middle of this, it is a horror film and will probably be much better than STOLEN SUMMER or SHAKER HEIGHTS. It is promised to be not only a horror film, but a satire that lampoons horror stereotypes. It's about a bunch of people at a snowed-in bar who fight off a horde of winged creatures.



Okay, maybe it doesn't sound that good. In fact it sounds horrible. But you've gotta have faith, right?



Well, it's not the film Affleck, Damon and Moore wanted. Matt Damon has come clean in a recent interview with Moviehole. ""You'll see on one of the first episodes of PROJECT: GREENLIGHT me having this big argument, a total meltdown actually, with the guys from Dimension," Damon said. "They walked in and basically chose that movie FEAST for us. It was supposed to be a community decision. I was like 'what the fuck is going on'?"



Rumors have been abound that Dimension may pressure Gulager in order to cut it down for a PG-13 rating. Creature Corner asked the director about this last month. Gulager has promised that the film will be a strong "R" with an even more graphic DVD to follow.



By the way, to add insult to injury, Dimension is distributing Damon's next film, the $ 80 million THE BROTHERS GRIMM. The film is directed by Terry Gilliam (BRAZIL, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS) and also stars Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce and Monica Bellucci. That film has now also been pushed back by over a year, courtesy of Dimension. It will now be released for Thanksgiving 2005. At least, we hope so.



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Do you hate these guys as much as I do? Comment on it in our FORUMS!

[Raven]

It seems to me that Dimension really has it in for the whole horror genre. The last films i saw that dimension had anything to do with were in a word... shit no thats a bit harsh... crap.

With films like Scream 3, Halloween: H20 and Halloween: Resurrection. I am a fan of these series but it's obvious that Dimension are trying to damp them down and effectively removing what makes a horror film a horror film.

I am really starting to despise these people.

[UnHoLy]

FUCK DIMENSION!!! It's all about LIONS GATE now

[UnclePoe]

Regarding Project: Greenlight:

Project: Greenlight 2 --- I participated as a reviewer, reading about 20 or so scripts. The rules, as I understood them, was to seek out a good screenplay that could be produced for a million dollars (or less).

Two of the top 50 screenplays: Order of the Dragon and Darian's Pointe. Order of the Dragon was about the saga of the Tepes' family war with the Turks. Darian's Pointe was a 1910 Scotland involving a man returning home to confront his family's curse, to battle three harpies. ...

... OK, absolutely right up my alley. But, for less than a MILLION dollars, you'd have to be on LOTS of Hollywood crack to think either screenplay could even be story-boarded for less than half that amount much less PRODUCED and FILMED. Therefore, by the RULES, I didn't recommend Darian's Pointe (which I had a chance to read and loved). When I saw it in the Top 50, I was sort of happy, but completely baffled. Then, the Top 5 or 10, raving about Order of the Dragon, I'm sort of thinking "What the ?"

Project: Greenlight 3 --- I participated with an old script and naturally reviewed, reading about 16 scripts. The one script that I read, one that made me wish I had written it was called "DUST" ... I was absolutely convinced this would be a finalist at the very least --- it made the top 250 and that's it.

It's not just a noble effort like Project: Greenlight, it's Hollywood's collective head up their rears. But Greenlight deserves criticism and blame itself as well. It made for great TV, a screenwriter's vision in the hands of two ego-maniacs. I was ready to blame the directors, but once I saw "The Battle of Shaker Heights," I realized it was just a flat-out, very bad screenplay.

I had hoped the Horror Channel would somehow find a way do a Project: Darklight or something like that. Make good TV and a good movie for programming at the same time. Who knows, maybe it will.

Ultimately, it just amazes me how a majority of the absolute crap is made and distributed. Then again, its no more baffling than a movie like Van Helsing and its quasi-success compared to The Sixth Sense and its gigantic success. A display and dedication to a story and vision in the face of a Hollywood Blockbuster machine where everyone is involved, marking a project by lifting their leg over until it turns to crap.

Wow, that last graph really rambles; I hope someone can make sense out of it, lol.

[Scott W. Davis]

Hey, it's nice to have the POV of an insider for a change. Too often we just have to look at what they give us and make our own mental connections from there.

It would be nice if a really great horror film could win a GREENLIGHT competition. I seem to remember a couple in the works, one was called BLUELIGHT or something. But haven't heard much else about them. But dealing with the limited resources available, one would have to make a film that could be done on a low budget and scare the living beejeezus out of people at the same time - very possible, as some of the best horror films have shown.

But it does have to be low budget. Hollywood needs to save their big bucks for their truly great films, like CATWOMAN, BABY GENIUSES 2, KING ARTHUR, VAN HELSING.... Man, now I'm depressed!

[UnclePoe]

Budget is never an element for effectiveness in a movie --- its PLOT / STORY. Big secret, right? :D

Budget can enhance a movie, but as you said, there have been numerous, great and effective horror films done on the cheap. I happen to love the new Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but I still scratch my head as to WHY anyone felt it necessary to be remade.

Re: Catwoman
I have proven, via B.A.P.S, that I will watch anything with local girl (Cleveland) Halle Berry. But, (hairball), it was a challenge. Very, very bad movie. This may be harsh, but a lame story was intensified by the execution of actors who didn't seem able to act! Benjamin Bratt was HORRIBLE. Berry also (but based not on Monster's Ball but Losing Isiah, we know she can act).

Re: King Arthur
A new envisioning of Excalibur, this I was not excited about. To my surprise, this is my favorite movie of the year, having seen it twice now.

Re: Baby Geniuses 2
No comment

Re: Van Helsing
OK, full disclosure: Sommers took an element I wanted to execute --- the first 15 minutes of my story done in (grainy) black & white. Having said that, I still found many reasons to dislike this movie, and find it amazing not that some would like it, but some who praise it as the best film they have seen in years.

NOTE: For Scott in particular, I've wanted to do an article / analysis of Universal's Monsters. In the 50s, Universal made the Classic Monsters pawns of Abbott & Costello; In the 21st Century, the Classic Monsters have been made into Action Characters. MMmmm ... how about making films with Classic Monsters as CLASSIC MONSTERS!

But above all else, I hate how Hollywood exec-types think they can do anything and Horror Fans will be there like mindless Zombies. Unfortunately, Horror Fans have such a love and desire for the genre and show up for crap like House of the Dead in sufficient numbers that give Uwe Boll free reign on yet another film. Thus, the Hollywood exec-types think they are right.

Ang Lee's Hulk (the movie) - "Bad"
Ang Lee's Hulk (box-office) - "Good"
Thus, Ang Lee's Hulk II -

Will it never end?

[Raven]

Budget can enhance a movie, but as you said, there have been numerous, great and effective horror films done on the cheap. I happen to love the new Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but I still scratch my head as to WHY anyone felt it necessary to be remade.

Im not a great fan of the series but i do take your point. The first TCM was a classic in it's own right. Having not seen the remake im in no position to comment, but i feel that remakes tend to take the thing away that made the original so great. This is obvious in low budget classics that have been remade with a bigger budget, e.g. Dawn of the Dead.

But i also take scott's point horror films that were made in the 70's were just so much better than horror films today (with exception to a few). My all time favourite was The Fog for me that defined a horror film.

Too many horror films today don't have that same "atmosphere" that keeps us on th edge of our seats that films back then did.

It just seems to me that horror films with a big budget seem to waste time and money on special effects and make up rather than concentrating on atmosphere and tension that the low budget horror's bring out so brilliantly

[UnclePoe]

Actually, I think we are all on the same page about this. My point was, though I enjoyed TCM '03, I would have never thought to do this movie because the original couldn't be improved upon IMO.

The point about "atmosphere" is dead-on. First, atmosphere is often a result of the story. Second, locations/sets that created that atmosphere are now too easily CGI-ed in 21st Century Hollywood.

Thus, a big budget (CGI) with low results (lack of atmosphere / story) = No. 1 at the Box Office Movie ... something that looks "cool" in a trailer and just interesting enough to sucker in the masses for a big opening weekend box-office.

Has there EVER been anything more lacking in Budget than the BBC's Doctor Who or ABC's Dark Shadows? No. But few things have ever ... EVER ... been as cool or embraced as these series. It's not wise to compare TV to Movies, but I'm sure you get the concept.

There is such a great run of horror films of the very late-70s and early-80s, of which "The Fog" and one of my all-time favorites "Phantasm" were released.
An era where you needed a story and just enough $$$ to pay a SFX wizard to create a creature or a disgustingly gruesome effect.

I'm certainly no opposed to the advances of film-making, but I am opposed to a showcase of those advances and no FILM (story/atmosphere) to go with it.

Long Live Pumpkinhead

[Raven]

I agree with on all of those points, especially with the trailers, people like myself do get suckered in because the trailers look so good we think the film is bound to be fantastic.

Although im yet to see Alien Vs Predator, from what ive heard it isn't as brilliant as the trailer made out

[UnHoLy]

Phantasm.. ahhh lovely movie!

[Scott W. Davis]

FYI: Just came through that THE HOLE will allegedly finally make its U.S. premiere courtesy of Dimension on October 16th... straight to video, of course! This is the word from Fangoria:

"DVD Answers reports that a full year after it was originally supposed to debut, and three years after its international release, Nick Hamm’s British psychological chiller THE HOLE will finally see U.S. video release October 19 from Dimension. Thora (AMERICAN BEAUTY) Birch, Desmond (LOVE OBJECT) Harrington and Keira (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) Knightley star as three of a group of private-school students who decide to spend a holiday weekend in a subterranean bunker. When the classmate who’s supposed to let them out never returns, their party turns into a struggle for survival. The DVD will include commentary by Hamm, deleted scenes, a still gallery, the trailer and cast and crew biographies and retail for $19.99."

Check out the cover art with the not-so-subtle reference to Knightley's sex appeal, who is also in Dimension owned DIsney's KING ARTHUR and PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN (which just coincidentally has yet another double dip DVD coming out around the same time). Anyone see anything in this pic that actually says "horror?"