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I give TV and movie fans a lot of credit: when they get mad, they scare the crap out of the moguls. That’s happening at Lionsgate where the studio’s phones and email accounts are jammed with angry fans for the past week. They’re making a stink because new Lionsgate topper Joe Drake appears to be dumping all of ex-prez Peter Block’s movies. That includes Midnight Meat Train, the adaptation of the Barker short story that’s a fan fave. Supposedly the trailer tested higher than any film in Lionsgate history. But when Drake took over, he promptly bumped Midnight Meat Train from its May 16th release date. The result was that Rogue Pictures’ The Strangers (which was skedded two weekends later) had zero competition in the hard-R category. And guess who was exec producer of The Strangers? Joe Drake.
Then, the websites, Shock Til You Drop and Fangoria found out Lionsgate is planning only a 100 theater run on August 1st to merely fulfill the contractual obligation with Lakeshore Entertainment. The plan is to release the DVD immediately after. So fans are asking if Drake is such a dummy that he’d intentionally sink what to them is a sure-thing hit. And they want to know if the studio that was built on horror gross (both the gory and cash kinds) is going to bite the hand that’s fed it so well in favor of four Tyler Perry movies a year.
The result is a lot of anti-Lionsgate blogging in Horrorville by fans, by self-appointed horror flick experts, and also by Barker himself. ”I would passionately encourage everybody who cares about my work to use this chance to change the minds of the folks at Lionsgate,” Barker, whose Midnight Picture Show company co-produced the film, recently stated on the Clive Barker’s Revelations website. “I really think, this late in the day, that grassroots support for our movie could significantly improve our chances of reaching a much bigger audience theatrically.” Lakeshore, too, is pushing hard. Midnight Meat Train is described as a cold, unyielding but also stylish slasher film that relishes exploitive gross-out gags. Not my kind of pic, to be sure. Especially when director Ryuhei Kitamura making his U.S. debut promised as much gore, if not more, as Saw and Hostel. So I’d be a hypocrite not to applaud Lionsgate for wanting to move away from extreme hard-R. On the other hand, Lionsgate is far behind in studio market share right now. In the meantime, given the active imaginations of Clive Barker fans, I have this image in my head of Jon Feltheimer under the desk crouching in terror every time the phone rings…
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I am excited for Joe Drake to greenlight a new series of Larry The Cable Guy movies. Hits like Witless Relocation are clearly the real box-office draws, not these silly horror movies like… oh yeah, the Joe Drake-produced success The Strangers.
I too have seem REPO – I however really liked the film, though I would not call it a horror film. I think these ‘shelved’ movies are ‘shelved’ as they pose marketing problems, not quality problems.
Yes the title has recieved some titters in movie theaters when the trailer ran (before the highly mature audiences of Rambo…) but that is the original title of Barker’s short story and his most popular and precious amongst his fans.
Don’t know what all these haters are talking about.
I saw the film and the audience stood up and cheered at the end! Seriously! Personally, I thought the script was far more intelligent than your usual fright flick and Mr. Kitamura’s visual elegence was breathtaking. Sure there was blood but the violence was intermittent and served the story well.
The overall effect was very chillng and effective.
But let’s face it, this movie is not made for smarmy executives or whiney Drake worshippers. It’s made for horror fans! And it is these horror fans who are BEGGING to shell out their 10 bucks on opening weekend if the powers that be will let it play in their neck of the woods.
It is irrelevant if the final product is perfect filmmaking. See Joe Drake’s previous titles “Boogyman”, “Messengers”, “The Eye” or “Devil’s Rejects” as examples of this theory! I excluded the Grudge because that movie was actually decent.
The fact is TRUE BLUE horror fans are angry at the lack of adult themed, serious horror in general. And they are more than sick and tired of remakes and PG 13 teeny bopper dreck!
Midnight Meat Train was that rare project that had a long history in the genre (the story has been a cult classic since the early ’80s), a serious pedegre with Barker’s name above the title, a built-in fan base and a visionary director making his english language debut.
They are rightly pissed off that Drake selfishly cleared the market for his own movie at the expense of his shareholders interests!
LONG LIVE THE MEAT!!!
maybe he’ll change his mind and redo it as a pre-teen comedy, Bratz Meat Mall
My client is in this movie and I will be pissed if it doesn’t get a more wider release. Clive Barker is a great writer and I think it will be a waste. At least his horror stories are original compared to all the other crap that is out there now.
I saw the movie and the audience stood up and cheered. Literally. I thought it was awesome. I have read the reviews online and the horror community has vouched for it as well. Does anyone really think that with Barker’s name above the title that Drake couldn’t sell this movie to the core demo? Anyone remember how bad Boogeyman was?
They wanted to call it “Midnight Meat Train To Georgia”, but I wouldn’t give up the rights.
Under new management, Lionsgate hopes to shed the stigma of being a horror entity, and start making entertainment the whole family can enjoy. Great move there, Drake. That last Prod. Co. to do that was New Line Cinema. And look where they are now. “The House That Freddy Built” made the same mistake you’re making now, after building a war chest from the revenue stream its horror titles generated, New Line Cinema abandoned the genre for high risk ventures. While the roll of the dice paid off with THE LORD OF THE RINGS films, it certainly didn’t pay off with THE GOLDEN COMPASS, among other flops.
Horror films generate revenue which you can use to solidify your cash flow and take risks on non-horror brands.
No horror films generate no revenue.
And neither did THE GOLDEN COMPASS.
Take a look at New Line Drake… and see if that’s where you want to end up.
One does not need to eradicate their supporting fan base in order to expand their label. To do so is just silly.
–Raider
Sorry, Ben 10, you’re wrong.
I read B-D, too, and they never revealed those specific details about its release. They just kept saying “possibly limited.” Finke’s correct in giving credit where credit is due.
I’m still waiting to here what happens to Repo! Long live the Meat!
Who’d have thought a Brooke Shields flick would cause such a ruckus?
Anyway, if Lionsgate is going to piss on all the fans that kept them in business for years, then they shouldn’t be surprised if Drake’s flick The Strangers become a reality, doll masks and all.
Who put a stick up your ass, ‘viewer’? Hatchet was a solid slasher film that had a lot of good laughs to boot. Repo is the closest thing to an original film we’ve had all year, and MMT is far more than just ‘ho-hum’. And I am one (of many) that gave Repo a good review – but I can’t recall ever being invited to Darren Bousman’s house for a party. Ever stop to think maybe these movies get good reviews from our sites simply because we see a lot of complete garbage that simply recycles shit we’ve seen a million times? Maybe The Burrowers, with its underground monsters (wow, GENIUS!) will save horror, maybe it won’t. The difference is, MMT and Repo have been seen, and enjoyed, and thus we’re trying to help them out for the good of the genre as a whole – not because of alleged “bribes” from the filmmakers. “Petty”, indeed.
I was involved in the making of this movie and I have to say that everyone who worked on it was SO DAMN PROUD of what we accomplished.
It is easy to set up a film like PROM NIGHT throw in a handful of faces from the CW and then chop them up one by one. And, yes, I know those films make money.
But as a horror fan from WAY BACK (as in I read the Books of Blood by Clive Barker in paperback, dawg!), it was an HONOR and a PRIVLIDGE to work on this film.
This movie was for the fans from the beginning so perhaps it is fitting that the film’s greatest achievement is in drawing attention to the fickle tastes of the oh-so-brilliant suits with their manicured fingers on the zeitgeist.
As for all of us involved with the project, WE KNOW WE DID A GREAT JOB AND THE FANS HAVE SHOWN THEIR SUPPORT.
My hat goes off to Clive, Lakeshore and all the others involved enduring many years of B.S. to get this film to the big screen. I don’t care if it comes out on one screen in Boise, Idaho…I’ll be there opening night!
LONG LIVE THE MEAT!
Look, “real” horror fans. You can complain about PG-13 horror movies all you want, but the well-reviewed-by-the-horror-press film “The Ruins” made $17 million at the box office with an R rating.
The utterly unwatchable “Prom Night” made $43.8 million at the box office with a PG-13.
“The Eye” remake – PG-13 – made $31.2 million. Junk.
“One Missed Call” was cut from R to PG-13 and squeaked by with $26.8 million. If it was R, you’d better believe it might’ve made $8 million.
You’d better believe Warners wishes they could’ve done the same to the “Funny Games” remake. Or “The Reaping” last year, which did okay with $25 million on its R-rating, but cost a lot more with all the reshoots.
“The Mist” – also R – made $25 million. “The Messengers” at PG-13, made $35 million with a $2 million cheaper production budget. Piece of shit? Yes. More profitable than “The Mist?” That, too.
Yes, “The Strangers” is almost at $50 million and climbing with an R rating, but it was a big gamble to release that in the summer.
Look at “30 Days of Night” – HUGE marketing campaign, very expensive, meant to start a franchise to follow-up “Resident Evil,” pushed it out there in October just in time for Halloween. It made $39 million with its R rating. A few months earlier, “1408″ – with its PG-13 rating – made $71 million, which is probably what “Strangers” would be at if it wasn’t R as it had just as great and scary a trailer.
It’s just not good business sense anymore to spend $15 million on “The Hills Have Eyes 2′s” production budget to get a domestic gross of $20.8 million.
If it takes about $15 million for P&A to launch a movie theatrically on over 2,000 screens and horror fans MIGHT bring $15 million in ticket sales, it’s just not good business to spend $15-$20 million – a low-budget in Hollywood terms – to make a movie aimed solely at them (see: the R-rated “Hitcher” remake disaster).
And if you suggest taking indie horror flicks – zero-budgeters like “Hatchet” and giving them theatrical releases – there’s zero crossover appeal as savvy audiences see trailers in the theater that look “cheap” and stay away.
So, until something changes, look for studios to make MORE PG-13 horror films, not less.
HATCHET a solid slasher film? It said it was a return to harcore American horror and turned out to be a slapstick comedy rip-off of everything, even VENOM. I never understood what all the fuss was about on that one.
Re: Brian
I will agree that “Repo!” is somewhat original in its concept, audacious even in its presentation, but also thoroughly ridiculous as a whole. Like the similarly future-set musical, “The Apple,” “Repo!” is just one of those movies that makes you realize the filmmakers were very, very dedicated to a specific vision which is something I respect. But also like “The Apple,” it feels like that filmmaker is Menahem Golan.
Your site looks cool. You probably don’t want me as a reader, but now you have me.
Clive Barker can’t get a fair shake in Hollywood to save his life. He makes HELLRAISER (and after the second one, had nothing to do with the series but cash the occasional check), has his next two features — NIGHTBREED and LORD OF ILLUSIONS — cut to ribbons and everything else he’s been involved with, from New Line’s AMERICAN DESCENT to Paramount’s THE THIEF OF ALWAYS to Disney’s ambitious ABARAT, stranded in development hell. Finally one of his stories is adapted, approved and endorsed by him and it gets tweaked because of studio politics. I’ve met the guy and he’s not just incredibly talented, but exceedingly pleasant and nice. Like the dedicated horror fans Lionsgate is turning on — uh what about those SAW movies, “Mo Money”? — Clive Barker deserves a helluva lot more respect than he’s getting here.
I love it when the haters point to box office results to shore up their weak arguments.
Thank you, Mo Money, we KNOW that PG-13 is profitable.
The Ruins sucked that’s why it didn’t do business.
The Reaping was boring that’s why it underperformed.
One Missed Call and The Eye were duds because people are sick to death of J-horror remakes.
Funny Games… are you serious??? It was flat out stupid to expect Haeneke to make a commercial horror film. I love his work but Caché does not make him Wes Craven or John Carpenter.
But 1408 was cool and interesting. And it was a hit.
What people are complaining about isn’t R vs. PG-13… this is about original ideas vs. the same old sh*t.
Meat Train is different than anything we’ve seen in the genre for many years and the fans are hungry for originality.
Based on fan response, if it had received similar marketing to (Drake’s) “Strangers” it would have certainly cleaned up as well.
What’s at issue here is an executive’s conflict of interest and the repercussions it will have for his company’s fan base. Not the state of the genre in general.
So many are proclaiming MTT to be “different,” yet offer no examples…no discussion.
Go by the trailer (unfair, but hey, it’s all that’s out there), and I see ANOTHER desaturated, urban decay horror film packed with hacky visual cues, a laughable cast, and the worst title of the last 50 years of cinema.
So…what’s good about it? I find the silence around here very telling.
drake is a dildo. pete block rules.
Agreed with Brian.
Sorry, ‘Viewer,’ but I call ‘em like I see ‘em no matter how many parties Lionsgate dangles in front of me. Your blanket statement about horror journalists and their supposedly low standards doesn’t hold. “Hostel: Part II”? Roth knows how I feel. “Repo!”? Yeah, I saw it, too, and told Darren and the other creators I disliked it. I stand by what I like, whether it’s “Hatchet” or “Midnight Meat Train” or “Funny Games.” There are some of us out there with a modicum of integrity.
The issue at hand isn’t the endless debate of R versus PG-13 horror; it’s about horror fans across the country being deprived of seeing a long-awaited (by Barker and genre fans) film on the big screen because of a petty personal dispute. And it is personal. If I was some kid living in Michigan – one following what was written about the film in the pages of Fangoria and on various horror sites – I’d be pretty livid.
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, other films under the old regime are going to have problems. I love how “The Burrowers” (which I’m looking forward to) held a cozy spot on Lionsgate’s press page (“Coming soon,” it read) before being taken off completely. “Repo!” “Creek,” “Haunting in CT”…all shoved to undetermined dates mysteriously.
Viewer:
Hahaha quite the contrary – you and I clearly have different tastes, something I wish I could say about more of my readers. Ideally, half the response to any given review would be agreeable, and half would be opposed. Feel free to ‘argue’ on any film – I read each and every comment posted, regardless of how old the review is.
As for MMT being different, I can offer a few examples. One, its suspenseful, so that’s automatically “unique” in today’s marketplace, where there’s hardly even any ATTEMPTS at suspense (ironically, The Strangers is another exception), let alone successful ones. It’s also very stylish, it has more in common with Argento in his prime than it does the usual music video style of most studio horror. And while it’s not nihilistic like the Hostel films, it’s not upbeat either – prepare for a downer ending that might not be what you expect even with that warning. It’s possibly the best setup for a sequel I’ve seen in ages, due to the sheer amount of possibility as to where they could take it. It’s very much like an origin film, in comic terms, except you don’t realize it until it’s over. Add all that up, not to mention solid acting, and you have yourself, yes, something different. The title may be goofy, but it’s the source material’s title. Shawshank Redemption is a terrible title too, you know?
P.s. i’m not the “drake is a dildo” brian. Just to clear that up. Don’t know the man.
12 producers? Wow. That’s a lot of meat.
As for me, I love the title. It’s disturbing and evocative. And, as others have pointed out, it’s the name of the source material.
I think the last film Barker was so enthusiastic about (other than his mucked-about “Lord Of Illusions”) was Bernard Rose’s fantastic “Candyman,” which made $25m on an $8m investment back in 1992.
Meat Train is different from most horror movies in that it has actual CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, GOOD ACTING, UNIQUE ACTION SEQUENCES and INTERESTING THEMES.
Not to mention the best scares I’ve seen in years…
Don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it, dude.
LONG LIVE THE MEAT!!!
I for one LIKED the apple. It was so fucking out there you had to respect it. Was it terrible? YES? But it’s a film that took balls to make. the APPLE is not for the masses, nor is REPO. REPO and THE APPLE are musicals about ‘out there’ subject matter. I would take that over another SAW film or remake any day.