Virtual Fools

Been reading some good things about Paranormal Activity, and I’m sure that it hits some nerves that most recent horror films don’t, even other ones that supposedly use that lo-fi, minimalist aesthetic most recently pioneered by The Blair Witch Project (1999–was it really that long ago)?

But have you noticed the way that the film is being advertised? I’ve seen banner sites all over which say: “Hit 1,000,000 demands and we will open nationwide”. The implication here is that the film, which initially seems to be something with a limited appeal, would not be worth opening across the country because of its cheapness, its lack of polish. So back in 1999, faced with a similar dilemma, The Blair Witch Project launched into a seemingly brilliant ad-campaign. It was the earlier, more innocent days of the internet: the film was given a cryptic web presence, was tied into a cable TV pseudo-documentary (later packed as an extra with the DVD), and never quite betrayed its veneer of “realistic” horror, even when most people learned of its falseness. The ruse worked well–I recall a good friend getting really into the mythology of the whole thing. Since we lived in Virginia, he was even considering a drive up to Maryland to investigate for himself!!

But the Paranormal Activity campaign is a bit different. They aren’t really trying to trick anybody into buying into the supposed reality of the situation. Hopefully, once in the theater, that old willing suspension of disbelief will kick in and the film will do that for us. Rather, this marketing campaign is less than a nation-wide gamble and more of a genius in region-specific selling. If you click the banner, you’re brought to a page where you can “demand” that the film be released nationwide (they claim that at 1,000,00 demands, it will). When I got that far, it told me that ~7,000 in the Pittsburgh area had already done so. Gotta love how they can trace my ISP! Anyway, rather than necessarily play the old game of guessing which markets to open into–what films used to have to do before the era of the blockbuster film like Jaws and Star Wars, where a gradual, regional release over time is what would make a successful film opening–the distributor can now simply see where the film has the most demands, focus further advertising in those already interested markets, and maybe bank secondarily on those areas who did not raise enough of a clamor!

The reason that I am thinking of this in terms of “recession era” horror is that finally we have a film that wears, as a badge, all of the virtues of thrift and cheapness. Made for around $15,000, it gets those great recession phrases like “no-frills” and “cheap.” Since it has the endorsements of mainstream Hollywood behind it–it was initially purchased with a remake in mind, but filmmakers saw the movie as it was and “endorsed” it (whatever that means)–it could usher in a brief cycle of recession era horror films, that are cheap in a good sense. Even with the dirt-low overheads, what remains to be seen is whether or not the trend will be profitable enough to justify its existence.