The Twitter account for “The Cabin in the Woods” horror film has unveiled two new posters which point out the many delays the movie has been forced to tolerate.
The film is written by Joss Whedon, directed by Drew Goddard (one of the ‘Cloverfield’ scribes) and stars Chris Hensworth. I can sort of guess why the film’s release remains in limbo. Aside from the studio’s recent trouble, it looks as if they are factoring in what would be a good time for releasing the delayed film. Maybe they are waiting to see how well Thor does. Who knows. What I do know is the perception of an audience. It does not matter who is in the film or who put it together. Postpone a release long enough and a mindset sets in. One of the following will happen:
1- The studio will release the film, but not heavily promote it. Blink and you will miss it. You will hardly know it is there. If you don’t know when a film is coming out or where it is playing, will you go see a picture you can’t find? No. You go to the film that you can find and get to. That’s when folks say “I’ll wait for video”. That’s common sense.
2- The film may be a gem. Everyone connected to it may have done a stellar job. Tit for tat. The general public will think that the film is a crapfest they’d rather not step on. Or the film could be not so great, but it isn’t that bad, and the general masses still will not go.
3- The actors (and perhaps filmmakers) will have other films to promote. Some of them may even distance themselves a small bit from the delayed picture as to not distract anyone away from the current project.
4- All of the above.
Below are the “teaser” posters….
I generally favor the filmmakers and the frustration. Now, I haven’t seen the film. But…BUT…no film should have to have this sort of delay. If a studio, any studio, does not have faith in a picture for whatever reason, so be it. Put it on video and get it overwith. The longer the delay, the more audiences lose interest in the film. It isn’t thier fault. Again, it is MGM who just are getting themselves together- but once you have a date, the idea is to stick close to that release date as much as possible. Audiences need to find the picture if they are interested. Again, it’s that simple.
Am I wrong?
