As a horror fan who spends over 12 hours a day watching the horror biz I believe horror fans and the genre need Sam Raimi’s latest film Drag Me To Hell to succeed on May 29, 2009. The reason being is that it is one of the v few non-horror remakes in theaters this year, but I’m nervous that it may fail. Even though I have seen a lot of interest for it online (one of the most viewed trailers on HYB and our sista site 2snaps) I’m nervous that its competition may be too stiff. Normally it’s a good idea to put a horror film up against a family comedy, or release it around a holiday like Christmas, because it offers people not in a family-friendly mood an alternative. However, Pixar’s Up (which opens the same day) is the type of PG-13 movie that attracts everybody — kids, adults and teens — leaving just horror fans wanting to see a horror film, and unfortunately we’re not enough to make a theatrical film a success.
So I was wondering what horror fans think of the movie’s chance, will it flop or not? I’m also curious to know what horror fans thoughts about the rest of 2009 because in my opinion the upcoming horror schedule isn’t looking that exciting either. We have:
The Orphan, Final Destination: Death Trip 3D, Halloween 2, Jennifer’s Body, Sorority Row, Night of the Demons, Zombieland, Stepfather, Saw VI, and The Wolfman. That is two horror comedies, four remakes and three sequels. The only original films being the comedies, and you all said 2008 sucked.
I believe that Drag Me To Hell will be a flop not only because it has to compete with Up! but the whole month of May. I believe Star Trek, Terminator and, yes, even Wolverine still will have a long ass run. The trailer for DMTH is great – it shows the roots of Raimi but the guy has never done a PG-13 horror and hasn’t done a horror film since 1992 with Army of Darkness. To tell you the truth, it is a bit worrisome. Maybe Horror is Raimi’s niche? Maybe, if he even makes a PG-13 horror movie, it will still be fantastic and, hopefully…and I’ll stress that again…hoooopefully, horror fans will see it twice as well as the occasional casual horror moviegoer.
I think it will be a flop unfortunately. All of the good original films are ignored in theaters and mainly PG-13 remakes make the cash.
I’m interested in Jennifer’s Body, Night of the Demons, and Wolfman, although I am not dying to see those when they first come out.
This is PG-13 so it has that advantage, and like I said there is a lot of Online interest in it another good sign.
I think this is going to surprise a lot of people and do well. It seem be gaining interest plus it’s being promoted big time on myspace and other big sites.
This film has sleeper hit written all over it! From what I hear, Raimi pushes the limits of what’s acceptable on screen and ends up with a film that shocks, surprises and amazes. It’s good counterprogramming for those who can wait to see UP.
UP won’t be what’s talked about at the office water cooler. DRAG ME TO HELL will be.
I agree with you. I didn’t think so at first but there is a lot of interest for it on the Internet.
Everyone dies, and death even of old age can be painful and agonising. So a horror movie where all you have to fear is death is not all that horrifying. Sam Raimi gets it. This is the only promising horror movie trailer I’ve seen in years.