New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Pay close attention here...

Kim Hollis: Was horror film saturation the biggest problem for The Unborn?

Reagen Sulewski: Seeing as how you mixed up the title in the question, I'm going to say it's at least part of the problem.

Kim Hollis: Right. Obviously the film I meant to discuss was The Uninvited. Or perhaps some other random horror film with "Un" in the title.

Max Braden "Undead Films Need More Brains To Fill Seats."

Joel Corcoran: I'd say that's at least part of the problem, but not the entire explanation. Even though the movie market is saturated with horror films (and has been for a while), good horror movies will still do well. But The Uninvited strikes me as the Clay Aiken of horror movies - looks pretty good at first glance, run-of-the-mill, mostly inoffensive, average talent level, but nothing truly outstanding to make it stand out from the crowd.

Brandon Scott: I am going to say yes. Week after week after week there has been another horror movie of late. Also, I can't say awareness was sky-high here. That's just my guess, though, since my awareness of ads on TV is entirely minimal anyway.

Tim Briody: As I mentioned in the Friday column, this feels like the 12th horror film already released in 2009.





Scott Lumley: Perhaps they should have just titled it "Unwatchable" and tried the reverse psychology route.

David Mumpower: I'm not generally one to criticize titles or release dates, but if a film named The Unborn claims a January release and you're selling a title called The Uninvited, there are two options. The first is to change your release date and the other is to change your title. That is, these are the options unless you're intending to draft off the bigger title, but did someone at Paramount really see The Unborn as that type of strong performer? This one is just strange. I'd write it off to bad luck and bad timing if not for the fact that both issues were avoidable.

Renee who?

Kim Hollis: New in Town, the Renee Zellweger film being generously described as a romantic comedy, opened to $6.8 million in only 1,941 exhibitions. Say something funny about New in Town.

Max Braden: It actually got a bunch of laughs in the theater I was in. The funny thing is this was probably one of Zellweger's most natural performances in a while. You could even see her eyes.

Joel Corcoran: Minnesota accents are always funny.

Brandon Scott: True story: a few months back I was in a car holding a little dog with me and Renee is straight up staring at me as we drive. I thought it might be the dog, but even so, I found it a bit off-putting. I mean, a Jerry Maguire-era Zellwegger, I would have been more inclined to let her gaze so adoringly at me, but this felt...."creepy". What does this have to do with New in Town? Likely, nothing. But perhaps her judgment in script choices is clouded as she has yet to forget that day. Just a hunch. I mean, this film is apparently so bad, it had to have been shot, edited, and released in a matter of three to four months, right? Oh, Renee...you stop it, now.

Continued:       1       2