Today Lionsgate releases Midnight Meat Train––by all indications a cousin to the studio’s, um, classic fare like Saw and Hostel, but actually starring some name actors, like Bradley Cooperin just a hundred-something theaters, with no reviews. According to Grady Hendrix, it’s part of the studio’s effort to essentially slap the R-rated horror fans responsible for a decade’s worth of success in the face.
“Horror fans, who don’t get much respect anyway, are feeling particularly persecuted these days as R-rated horror films regularly bomb at the box office and lightweight, PG-13-rated horror movies for teens gross buckets of cash,” Hendrix writes in the NY Sun. At the urging of Clive Barker, who wrote the short story on which Meat Train is based, these jilted fans apparently complained to Lionsgate, but the studio persisted with new acquisitions head Joe Drake’s plans to release the film as quickly and quietly as possible.
“It’s an indication that Lionsgate is no longer in the business of genre filmmaking and that, with its massive new credit line, it’s aiming to join the ranks of the major studios,” Hendrix sums up. Interestingly, Meat Train is tentatively scheduled to hit DVD in October––right around the planned theatrical release of Lionsgate’s first serious “serious” film since Crash, W. One more tragedy to blame on Oliver Stone, I guess.
Via GreenCine Daily
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SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth