A Hollywood Reporter blog has a blistering attack on the Weinstein Company for releasing a Christmas-themed slasher film. The full story is here. "Weinsteins & MGM To Release Xmas Crap
Shame, shame, shame on Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and their distributor MGM's Harry Sloan, for opening a holiday-themed slasher movie on Christmas Day. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the ads and release date for Black Christmas from Dimension/MGM. The promos even make fun of "people who express outrage" as well as the plot's body count. And the entertainment industry wonders why it continues to have a huge PR problem as promoters of garbage? Showbiz marketing calls this counter-programming. Still, I don't understand: just how many disturbed human beings does The Weinstein Company and MGM think actually want to go see a gory movie on December 25th -- specifically, a remake of a 1974 horror flick in which a college sorority house is terrorized by a psycho who makes frightening phone calls and murders the girls during the holiday break. Is the intended audience supposed to be non-Christians? Really, investors in The Weinstein Company, and MGM, need to protest this deplorable decision. It should be noted that, in 2003, the Weinsteins made Bad Santa, a distasteful comedy which at least wasn't released on Christmas Day. The only other Christmas-themed slasher movies I could find in the records was 1996's little-seen Santa Claws, and 1984's Silent Night, Deadly Night, released by TriStar that November and so repugnant that it prompted protests at theaters where it was shown. Unfortunately, it did big box office and spawned 4 sequels. Moviegoers, don't let this happen again."
I'd be really curious what people thought on this. I think it's absurd to suggest that the film is targeted at "non-Christians." So jews are all going to go see Black X-Mas on the 25th as some protest against their office Christmas party? No, it's about the teen market! And the article is about genre bias -- action movies are okay fror Christmas (Like Rocky's going to turn the other cheek), but horror is unacceptable for the holiday. Anybody agree with the Hollywood Reporter?
2 comments:
I think the entire idea of this being targeted for "Non-Christians" is rather absurd. People enjoy slasher movies because they're a voyeuristic jolt into the mentality of sado-massochism. Nothing wrong with that. Why is releasing such a movie during Chrismas somehow more offensive than releasing one around any other Holiday? If anything, Christmas is supposed to be about being close to the ones you love, showing how much you care about them and holding them tight. When do you show more trust in a person (in the movie-sense) than when you're holding another close out of fright?
Releasing a clearly-advertised horror movie during Christmas, to me, is far less offensive than releasing movies like "Stepmom" and "What Dreams May Come." These movies in general I have no problem with, but they are advertised as comedies - the kind of films one wants to bring children to, to share with grandparents - and aren't. They're depressing tear-jerkers.
The biggest problem with Holiday movies isn't releasing a variety of genres, but that these movies are often completely misadvertized. When I go to the movies I expect to see what I've been led to believe I will see. When I see something different I'm angry. But now I babble.
By the way, If they wanted to be offensive and target the movie to non-Christians, they'd release it around Easter.
Also, I interned for the Weinsteins this past semester and have a copy of this movie on DVD (one of the perks of my internship was that I got copies of pretty much everything they have released and will release for the next several months on DVD) and it's mostly just funny - the kind of horror movie that follows the recent genre of "Cabin Fever" to create a movie that's both horrific and hysterical in it's own self-parody. I have no problem with a little blood, especially when it makes me laugh - not even on Christmas.
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