I hate to post non-scouting stuff on this blog, but I’m going to make an exception, as I’m pretty disappointed.
Two years ago, a guy named Oren Peli made an indy horror film called Paranormal Activity on a shoestring budget. The film, a pseudo-documentary ala Blair Witch, is about a couple who discovers that their house might be haunted and set up digital video cameras to document the ongoing incidents (the film is an assembly of the more frightening clips, ostensibly presented as “real”).
The film only had three or four screenings before it was bought by Dreamworks and locked away, but those screenings have since become the stuff of film legend. People who saw it swore that Paranormal Activity was the scariest movie ever made, our generation’s Exorcist. Viewers were allegedly trembling from fear in the theater, screaming, swearing they’d never sleep again (the above trailer attempts to confirm this). A growing fanbase was desperate to see the film, which wasn’t available anywhere.
For some reason, Dreamworks couldn’t figure out what to do with the film. An attempt at remaking it ultimately failed, and they were unwilling to release it. Now, two years later, Paramount, who acquired the film recently, decided to see how strong the interest was in a release. Midnight screenings were set up this month – in New York, a free screening was offered at the Landmark Sunshine theater tonight. I’ve been following this film for two years, and I was very excited to finally see it.
Whoever organized this event should be fired. I can’t imagine how the prospects of Paranormal Activity’s success in New York could have been more damaged than by what went on tonight.
A free screening is the first sign of bad tidings. If you’ve ever been to a free screening in New York, you know it’s a nightmare – way too many people clamoring to get in, half of whom have no idea what they’re seeing but are just happy to get something for free, and no guarantee at all of a seat. Smartly, for this event, you had to RSVP, so they had least had an idea of the numbers to expect.
For this reason, I got there at 8, four hours early. By then, there was already a line of about 30 people in front of me. I believe their largest theater seats about 250, so I sat down with my book, fairly confident I’d be seeing the film after two years of waiting.
At 9:00, the line was well on its way around the corner. At 10:00, the line was stretching down Forsyth to Stanton. There were TONS of people, way more than their largest theater could’ve held. Yet people who were excited to see the film were still lining up in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, they’d show it in a second theater. Sure, it was incredibly unlikely, but then, they wouldn’t just let people wait in line hundreds deep for hours for nothing, right? I mean, they had some idea of the numbers from the RSVP count, right?
By 11:30, the place was a mob scene. There still was no word on how the audience would be let in, and people were getting annoyed. Meanwhile, not only had the line gotten even longer, the crowd had swelled. Friends were joining friends, girlfriends were joining boyfriends…but I did a count, and there were still less than a hundred people in front of me. Still a good bet. Meanwhile, everyone in line was assuming that because they hadn’t heard anything, there was still a shot.
Then, 12:00 rolls around. 12:05. 12:10. We haven’t moved. Literally, we haven’t moved an inch. Now people are getting angry. Meanwhile, some idiot on the roof of Schimmel’s Knishes kept spraying water on the crowd, which didn’t help the mood (though is sort of funny in retrospect).
Finally, at about 12:15, a guy came out and said they had let everyone in that they could, and there was no more room.
As far as anyone in line could tell, not a single person had been let in.
I really thought there was going to be a riot. People were furious. It wasn’t that they were angry about not seeing the film for free (everyone I talked to would have gladly paid to see it tonight), but that we had been kept in the dark for literally hours, left to stand around like idiots. People were yelling at the organizers, who could offer no consolation other than a movie promo email address. A few guys were yelling “Don’t worry – It’ll hit Bit Torrent soon!” Worst of all, the popular quote of the night became “fuck this movie.”
People leaving after being turned away
I have no evidence, but what I suspect happened is: the theater ended up getting filled early with Paramount execs, reviewers and media types, and “friends of Paramount,” leaving approximately 7 seats for the literally thousand or so people that showed up. Sadly, rather than announce this to the people gathered all the way to the corner of Stanton & Forsyth, they let everyone stand around wasting their Thursday night (most having to get up for work the next day) as if there was some chance of them getting in.
No matter how much buzz Paranormal Activity gets out of tonight’s midnight screenings, they’ve lost something that no amount of marketing can buy from film audiences: fan goodwill. The type of goodwill that has grown organically over two years. There was more goodwill toward a film in that line than I’ve seen for ANY movie in a very long time, and the idea that it was for a little $11,000 film that barely even had a poster was incredible. Unfortunately, most of that goodwill was completely decimated by the shitty organization of the event and the way people were treated.
And that sucks, because Peli’s film has already gone through enough crap since its first screening. Meanwhile, reviews are starting to surface that the film is way overhyped, and that if you go in expecting to be scared, you’ll be sorely disappointed, that it’s not the next Exorcist, or even Blair Witch, for that matter. More bad news.
At the end of the day, I think Paranormal Activity is going to be the movie that could’ve…but didn’t. And it has nothing to do with Oren Peli, or how good or bad the movie is. It’s dumb studios that don’t know how to handle something new. People shouldn’t have been leaving the Landmark tonight saying “fuck this movie,” they should’ve been calling friends to tell them what a great movie they just saw. It’d be one thing if the line was a surprise, but then, every single person had their RSVP form printed out with them.
OK, enough ranting. More New York scout stuff soon!
-SCOUT
PS – Oh, and nothing kills me more than film industry types who feel the need to let you know they work in the film industry whenever they can. Tonight’s example: the woman who came up to me in line and asked “What movie are you in line for? I work in film.”
I was in the exact situation tonight, and agree with your sentiments completely. Everyone who got turned away was obviously disappointed and bitter, which could have been easily avoidable with better management by the management. Why keep so many people waiting for so long if they were only going to let in less than 280 people (after letting all of the press people in, who were in a different line). To make it worse, after the initial rush into the theatre, the management then decided to make a new, arbitrary line from which they would pick random groups to be let in. Everything just reeked of bad planning and unequal treatment. I wasted a Thursday night on this, but i will DEFINITELY not be wasting any more time on any other ‘free previews’ that paramount decides to give out.
A crying shame! I’m surprised the huge crowd didn’t start a riot, I was getting furious just reading about it.
Wow, that sucks. I live around the corner from the Sunshine and I can tell you that they hold ill-organized screenings often. The screened an episode of BSG there early, and it was like Comic-Con bled out on Houston Street.
But damn, now I want to see Paranormal Activity.
It screened at Fantastic Fest last night here in Austin. Harry gushed about it, but then he gushes about everything. I’m hoping to find someone I know in town that saw it and is a little more objective.
I saw a trailer for Blair Witch while at a conference in San Francisco before I’d heard anything about it and months before it was released. I thought it looked amazing and really wanted to see it. It was release, the hype went over the top and I eventually saw it on video (my son was an infant at the time, so we didn’t make it out to the theater for many movies). Man, was I disappointed. I thought it completely sucked and (like many people) I wanted to kill Heather by the end.
Hoping this doesn’t play out the same way, but won’t be surprised if it does.
That is a deeply shocking story. What an inexcusable turn of events! As I read your post, I expected the payoff to be that the movie was lousy, not that no one got in!
I had a similar experience with the Daily Show, I’m sorry to say. Waited with my friend in the hot hot sun–we were, like, the 5th and 6th people on line–for hours, with numbered tags in our hands, only to all be herded into a huge room where everyone got mixed up, and then herded into the theatre in no order whatsoever. The first few rows went to “comp” seats for VIPS who had only gotten their tickets that day (I’d emailed 7 months earlier). I ended up in the next to last row.
Never again.
Amen on everything you said, I’m passing your article on.
ahhh….the new york screening.
well, lucky enough i HAVE been to free screenings in NYC and know what a disaster they can be. (years ago i attended a free screening for JERSEY GIRL – kevin smiths film featuring j.lo and ben affleck during the whole ben-lo affair and gigli- as you can imagine – the press was DYING to see this movie – i was FOURTH in line….needless to say – so much press showed up that they only let in the first THREE people on line. and i had waited HOURS!!! but anyway, having THAT experience…) i knew to show up at least 5 hours early – when my friend and i arrived a line about 15-20 people deep had already formed. by the time 11:30 came around suddenly there were at LEAST 50-60 people ahead of us. here is what happened – ALL the lower east side derelicts, thugs and homeless people walking by saw that it was a free event, and with so many people standing in line they figured it HAD to be something good and just started getting IN FRONT of everyone – ironically enough NO ONE was brave enough to confront these people and tell them to get off the line. (so much for NYers being tough!) some quotes heard on line – “NAH SON I BEEN HERE FO HOURS KID…”, “YO I HEARD HILLARY SWANKS IN THIS, SHE BE SHOOTING SUMTIN ROWN DA BLOCK”, “YO MY MAN TELL EM HOW I BEEN WIT CHOO FOR YEAH – FIVE OWUHS”….you get the idea, not to mention that the people that eventually ended up in front of us REAKED urine. its unfortunately that THESE were the people that got let in – not the people who actually are horror fans or had genuine interest in the film.
i was eventually lucky enough to get in and this is my verdict – after a short introduction by spielbergs partner claiming 35 people walked out of the first screening in LA because they couldnt take how scary it was or that after screening it for their writers – they still couldnt come up with a better way to remake it and left it as is – i think the movie leaves much to be desired. i can think of 100 ways to have made this movie scarier. and i can honestly say those 35 people who walked out got scared that they would fall asleep. did the movie have scary moments? yes. and for such a low budget, some of the effects were quite impressive. as for not being able to sleep at night – i wouldnt go THAT far. the movie is at about 60% on a scale of 100. the scares were to few and far between and like most of its genre (blair witch, open water, etc.) in between the scary moments the movie kinda drags. one reviewer hit the nail in the head when he observed that it seemed the filmmakers were unable to make up their minds on what the movie was about – was it about the haunting and the nightmare that the couple are put through, or was it about a couple not knowing how to deal with a haunting in their house?
finally for all those that are disappointed about the possibility of this movie not being released – the movie was bought by PARAMOUNT. you really think in this economy theyre not gonna release a movie with this much hype?? this can (and probably will be) the next BLAIR WITCH…. C’MON SON.
“ALL the lower east side derelicts, thugs and homeless people walking by saw that it was a free event, and with so many people standing in line they figured it HAD to be something good and just started getting IN FRONT of everyone – ironically enough NO ONE was brave enough to confront these people and tell them to get off the line. (so much for NYers being tough!) some quotes heard on line – “NAH SON I BEEN HERE FO HOURS KID…”, “YO I HEARD HILLARY SWANKS IN THIS, SHE BE SHOOTING SUMTIN ROWN DA BLOCK”, “YO MY MAN TELL EM HOW I BEEN WIT CHOO FOR YEAH – FIVE OWUHS”….you get the idea, not to mention that the people that eventually ended up in front of us REAKED urine. its unfortunately that THESE were the people that got let in – not the people who actually are horror fans or had genuine interest in the film.”
Why 7Jayson’s story is unbelievable:
Unless the local thugs and derelicts had instant access to the internet, printed RSVP copies of which the idiot organizer collected at the entrance , and emitting a foul odor on top of that, Lets just say I’ll just take that scenario with a grain of salt.
Glad you remembered all the memorable quotes You must have missed the part of the organizer yelling belligerently and unfairly at the waiting crowd-”You have a fifty fifty chance of getting in, I’M tellin’ ya now!!!!!” It was a nice touch of him not going around the corner and reminding the other thousand of patrons waiting on line.
By the way did you say anything to those derelicts, homeless and thugs jumping the line, especially the that one thats been there for “..five OWUHS” ?
Yea boyyy!! New Yorkers are tough, but I applaud their restraint that night, not getting into a scuffle over a screening, and not tearing up the block after waiting hours and being turned away at the last minute.
Jayson’s experience seemed to differ from the majority of not only here but across other websites of that same night in NY.
Might I hazard a guess that Jayson had his own Paranormal activity, a lapse of reality.
uhh, sorry you hipsters can’t *always* have it your way.
gman i dont know if you got in or not – but the truth is it got so hectic that they STOPPED collecting the printed RSVPS and when the door guy couldnt find anyones name on the supposed guest list – he just started handing out entrance tickets, this is when all the homeless and degenerates took advantage and jumped in front of everyone!! . …yea you can say it was a paranormal experience – but it happened!! lol
but anyway, like i said – the movie is now playing in theaters all over nyc, so all that waiting and the horrible conditions were for nothing!
i was there…and i am one of many that said fuck the movie i will get it on torrent.
On that Jayson we will agree.