Slither is an amazing film. If you didn’t see it earlier, you can watch my review of it here. It’s fun, funny, scary and overall just under 2 hours of total fun! The critics loved it (It’s got an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes right now), those who saw it loved it (Holding a 93% for viewer approval) and damn it I Love it!
So why didn’t anyone go to see it?!?!?! It only made $3.8 million on its opening weekend!!!!
This is the second fantastic film in a row for Nathan Fillion that has totally fallen flat at the box office. Serenity was a wonderful film, Slither is even better… any actor would cut off his left nut to be in projects this good. Fillion has had both… and yet both bomb.
It’s not Nathan’s fault. Fillion is a great on screen (although I do need to see him give a little more range before I’ll crown him a a “Great Actor” since his characters in both film essentially acted the exact same way).
It’s not the studios fault really. They produced a great product… and the marketed the hell out of it (I thought the ad campaign for Slither was wonderful).
The blame doesn’t lay with Ice Age 2 (Garbage movie). Yes it took almost all the box office money that weekend with over $70 million… but that was 99% parents with kids who couldn’t get in to see Slither anyway. Not to mention Slither came in 8th place… not second.
The good folks over at Cinematical sum up why Slither failed at the box office (even though they also loved the film). I think they’re bang on the money.
The movie has a handful of familiar faces, but none you can bank on at the box office. The premise sounds silly when it rolls out of your mouth, which makes it hard for you to answer “what’s it about?” when you say “Hey, let’s see Slither!” The hardcore horror fans want less comedy. Those looking for a funny flick generally avoid movies characterized as “gory.” Plus, and this is something that really hurt the flick, it’s not about teenagers. The only reason that Stay Alive made money and Slither did not is because one is PG-13, banal, and laden with teenagers, while the other is R-rated, actively bizarre, and filled with very good actors who share the collective misfortune of being older than, say, 17.
The sad thing is, because we (the movie going public) don’t suport fantastic films like this one, we run the risk that the studios won’t takes risks on them anymore, and instead give us more crap like “Stay Alive” and “Ice Age 2”. Non-R-rated films with less gore, and less fun.
Here on The Movie Blog, commenters often yell out (and I do too) “Oh they better make “such and such” movie rated R or else it will suck!” Ok, fair enough… but why should the studios listen when we fail to reward them for obeying us? Slither is a perfect example of this.
Slither is the kind of movie a lot of us keep asking for… and how do we reward the studio for listening to us and giving us what we want? We stay away. And fans wonder why studios don’t listen to us more often. Its a sad day.
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I saw previews for this movie at least a month in advance. I live in the U.S. Michigan to be exact…But I remember someone, John? Bringing Slither up here on the blog even before that. And I remember him telling of Fillions involvement. That cinched it for me. I wanted to see this film. I know that’s pathetic, but in a cinema where the ‘A’ list actors are continuosly putting out crap films, I’m beginning to perk up at the sound of lesser, better actors I know.
So, time passed from reading Johns post, and I completely forgot about Slither. Then finally the previews on T.V….and while the name sounded familiar, and I though, maybe, there was some reason I had wanted to see this movie. The previews were jsut horrible. They told us almost nothing about the film, and made it look like a horritlbe attempt at humor, stupid humor, than than horror/comedy crossover….
The Reason I never saw this film?…..
Tell me, where in the trailer, do we actually see Nathan Fillion?
If it weren’t for this blog I wouldn’t know anything about Slither! Here in the Philippines no mention has been made of it.
Makes you wonder if Snakes on a Plane will suffer the same fate?
FYI: Serenity did not show in my city. I had to watch it on DVD.
People got confused by the previews. Especially with Scary Movie on the way.
I think they should have hyped it up months ago. Sort of like how they hyped V for Vendetta
I think it’s just the demographics and maketing.
1. The demographic is probably, what? 15-25?
2. You don’t take your kids or your fianc√© to that genre of films?
3. Maybe the maketing made it out to be cheesier and more B than it actually was (I wouldn’t know).
1. Ice Age 2 appeals to all ages, or intends to.
2. It’s a sequel to a hugely popular film (that I for one loved).
3. Marketing made it out to be, and this is of course generally the case, a better film than it was.
Just my two cents.
/Joel
my home theater didn’t get it, i was pissed.
Well, like Adam said, i think Slither is going to be at hit on DVD. They will reach a bigger audience with it. I haven’t seen any info that its hitting the cinemas here in sweden. So i’ll probably buy the import-dvd.
Perhaps Slither will have the same fate as Serenity. The DVD will make the movie a success.
I went to see slither today and it was better than I expected to be.
Okay now, I still think Shaun of the dead is crap! simply because horror and comedy doesn’t go together except for Scary movies, but only because it can’t be considered a horror movie, anyway everybody is free to think whatever they want.
The answer is pretty simple, I think. As an adult, I don’t want to go to the movies anymore, and I think there are plenty of others who agree with me.
The food is terrible crap (and overpriced even if I did want to abuse my innards with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil), there are too many ads, the people who staff the theaters are generally unhappy to be there and unpleasant, and it’s too expensive compared to waiting a few months and getting it on DVD, where the experience will be much better overall.
Therefore, quality movies aimed at adults are doomed to failure. This is a vicious cycle – because as more movies for adults fail, more money is put into the “less risky” movies, which makes intelligent adults even less inclined to make the trip.
I can’t wait to go see this movie today! I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. I also feel that maybe the marketing may have hurt this film a bit. I don’t feel a lot of people “got” what it was supposed to be about. But I feel that in the long run, Slither will have the last laugh. In ten to twenty years, this film will be a cult classic. People will quote it and have showings of it at dorms. I’m sure that it will more than break even in DVD sales. Nobody is going to give a piss about Ice Age 2 and Stay Alive or any other shit out now. Just wait and see.
I enjoyed shawn of the dead also. It is one of the funniest films. The main reason I didn’t go see slither is the preview. My first thought was what the fuck is this suppose to be. It just didn’t grab my attention at all. I just brush it off as stupid creature movie.
There once was a time when horror and comedy mixed well, whether it was American Werewolf In London, Fright Night or Return Of The Living Dead, or came out to be ‘discovered’ cult hits (such as ‘Night Of The Creeps’, “Killer Clowns From Outer Space’) but most of these were in the 80’s, and with the exception of Shaun Of The Dead, the horror-comedy never truly worked.That does not mean there is a horror film with a bit of dark comedy in them, far from it.
Consider this: in the film Halloween, there is a dark humored joke when someone is killed while calling for help. Her friend, Laurie Strode, on the other line, thinks it is a Halloween prank. Come up to the previous Halloween film, where you have Busta Rhymes lay down one liners and making light of the threat of Myers. Take a look at ‘Alien Ressurection’ or ‘Blade Trinity’. After the franchises started out with a raw edge, here come the jokes, the zingers and the self awareness that is out of place with the tone of the film intended.
The audience cannot take the threat seriously; yes, we might laugh, but we are supposed to be on the edge of our seats when the monster is behind the door. Take note of films like Hostel, 28 Days Later, Final Destination 2, Jeeepers Creepers or Saw: when the film turns the corner into horror and suspense, are you laughing? I don’t mean nervous laughter, or a small bit where an audience can take a breath. I mean laughing because you aren’t jumping out of your chair. The films I just mentioned, once they hit the rollercoaster of suspense they don’t get off the track with a cheap joke.
Also I note that some horror films today set rules in that world and then break those rules with impunity (‘Darkness Falls’ from a few years ago, for example, or last year’s “Cave’) so indirectly, you laugh at the film’s goofiness.
And yes, when a film says “Scarier than Alien, Jaws, Excorist..whatever..they are sissies’ well, that’s the first strike. The film could be a horror-comedy but it is advertised like it is a SPOOF. We can take so many Scary Movies (and another on the way- take note, now it isn’t just horror films getting spoofed, it’s everything else)…Some horror fans recall the camp 80’s cult film ‘Night Of The Creeps’. Love it or hate that film- strike two.
Finally, I’m going to agree with some of the above commenters. Timing of when the film was released may have been the key factor. Did peoople know when was coming out? Did it come out around spring break where most of the demographic would party and not go to the movies? The end of March Madness/NCAA tourneys? That’s three strikes. You’re out.
When ‘Slither’ comes out on DVD, watch the reaction “When was THAT released in theatres?’
-Sealer
“Dammit, who said that Land of the Dead, and Shaun of the Dead are crap? Get a grip” – Pluto Nick
I’m with ya buddy….Loved both of them, but Shaun EXPONENTIALLY more….Anybody who didn’t like Shaun didn’t belong there in the first place….That movie was made BY zombie fans FOR zombie fans…
One of the best tongue-in-cheek films of the past decade. Number 1 on my list.
As far as Land Of The Dead goes, I enjoyed it, but there’s PLENTY of folks over on Zombie-Nation who didn’t like it. All valid points to be made. Check out “The Nation” at http://zombie-nation.net/forums …Good stuff, good people, plenty of zombie-talk…
Shaun of the Dead was GREAT. My brother had to practically chain me to the floor to get me to watch it with him and his friends, and I’m glad that he did. Great movie.
Dammit, who said that Land of the Dead, and Shaun of the Dead are crap? Get a grip
I’m in high school. Today at school I overheard some people talking about how incredibly excited they were about “The Benchwarmers” because it starred ‘the guy from Napoleon Dynamite’ and ‘some other goofy guys’. If there is any reason to blame for the bad box office of a great movie such as this it is my fellow youth. They tend to see one singular thing and think it will make it great.
Examples:
“Oh! Napoleon Dynamite guy!”
“A video game that KILLS people? Scary!”
“That movie makes fun of Napoleon Dynamite and stuff! This is gonna be spectacle!”
They never tend to look at the writer or director, which 95% of the time can tell you whether it’ll even be worth watching or not. It’s always an incredibly small detail blown out to the extremes. Yet, if it’s even slightly offbeat from the norm (horror and comedy, or “Serenity” being sci-fi therefore ‘geeky’) then they want nothing to do with it.
I really don’t think they would have discovered “Napoleon Dynamite” if it weren’t for MTV’s ownership therefore marketing. It was an offbeat movie. They shouldn’t have even read the back of the cover.
“Horror-comedy? Gay.”
This really makes me upset because “Slither” is my favorite movie of the year so far.
As a side note on Fillion, I think the guy is great. “Firefly” the series is one of my all-time favourites. I just can’t get over the dynamics that the actors had together. I also found Fillion quite funny the slightly older “Two Guys and a Girl.” I don’t know who wouldn’t want to see the guy in every one of his appearances. Seriously.
Quality babystting is not an issue. My wife and I stopped going to the movies together when we had kids. I go late at night when everyone is asleep and she goes once a month on Sunday with friends.
My oldest turns 12 this year and that means free babysitting. Shiny!
What really frustrates me is that I would have gladly paid money to see it in the theatre, as would “The Wif”…
We have a 19 month old boy though, and quality babysitting is basically non-existent, so all our movie watching takes place on our wide screen tv….
I’m truly sad that the numbers were so low, because I was hoping it would be Number 1 and I wouldn’t feel so bad about not being able to watch it…
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I personally wasn’t interested in this movie because it just seemed stupid. The horror genre is the only genre that consistantly makes bad movies and never seems to lose steam. I LOVED dawn of the dead. I didn’t see that cause it was a remake, but slither is a horror/comedy and that theme just rings pure stupidy to me. I can’t be psycologicly into a horror movie thats going to “make me laugh” thats the modern equvilent to: laughing at aids patients, it just negates what you are suppose to feel.
theres a growing list of why this movie failed
-being a rated R movie
-being a horror/comedy
– the premise of the story ( looks like invasion of the body snatchers mixed with a zombie movie mixed with shawn of the dead)
-limited promotion
I personally think that most people aren’t willing to commit to 10 dollar movie tickets to go see a movie thats not going to give them a “movie going experince” people are stuck in their ways with movies. loads of people saw “inside man” and yes it had clive, denzel, but their was also a movie in which compelled people to think or “wonder whats next” slither (from just seeing the trailer) didn’t have that. I promise if you made that same movie more serious with the same cast and a darker trailer (like slient hill) you’ll get more money.
I think the reason stated in the post are right on the money. Serious horror fans have become jaded by crappy horror comedies and were scared of it and comedy fans were probably afraid of the gore.
One thing i will agree with is that although i agree the film was marketed heavily, i don’t think the marketing did the greatest job of selling the film.
One thing i’d like to point out is that there is a trend by marketers to try and force films down our throats and go out of their way to “tell” us how great the film is instead of telling us what the film is!
I want to know what the film is about in the marketing ads not hear for the entire 60 second ad how “fantastic” all the “supposed” critics think it is and which recent genre “hit” this film has now taken the place of.
I really think these kinds of ads turn people off!!! They turn me off!!!
If the film itself looks cool then i will think it will be cool. I dont NEED a constant voiceover telling me how cool it is!
or how JIM SMITH of the TUMBLEWEEDVILLE TIMES think is is the next great flick!!!
It’s not out here yet (the UK) and when I brought it up to my friends, none of them had heard of it, and we’re all pretty huge horror fans.
I certainly don’t recall seeing any posters or trailer for it over here, so maybe lack of marketing is to blame?
Either way, I’ll definitely drag them along to the cinema when it comes out.
It’s not out here yet (the UK) and when I brought it up to my friends, none of them had heard of it, and we’re all pretty huge horror fans.
I certainly don’t recall seeing any posters or trailer for it over here, so maybe lack of marketing is to blame?
Either way, I’ll definitely drag them along to the cinema when it comes out.
This was a hilarious movie! I have not laughed that much in a long long time! Nathan was fantastic!
Let’s not get too down and write off Slither yet! A film like this has great potential for lots of profit when it hits DVD–especially if a film fan (nut?) like James Gunn goes wild with extras and easter eggs (which I’m hoping he will).
It *is* a shame that the theatrical box office is paltry, but I get the feeling that many “niche” films are expected to do better when released in a home viewing format–and by then, everyone who’s seen it will have bent the ears of any other potential fans, and soon, Slither will be a hit!
I have no real insight. I just want to say it sucks that this movie didn’t do better. I loved it.
I bet it will pick up this weekend. Give it some time to get some word ‘o mouth. I haven’t seen it, but if its as geeky gory good as everyone seems to think, it will be a hit on DVD.
In reality, the promotions for this film only market through the film previews and not on tv. I didn’t see any ads for it on tv whatsoever in the past few weeks and bumped into it on accident going home and seeing it on the roster at the movie theater. The movie was very good and very funny. Well put together.
Plus the market promos were about these small slimy creatures that attack you, not the real basis of the story. The should’ve did another trailer with a different approach.
It failed because many people like me, are fucking bored of so many zombie/alien movies in the past years and most of them are crap!. take for instance: house of the dead, crap! land of the dead, crap! Resident evil 2, crap! Shaun of the dead, crap! etc. But since Doug give this movie a good review I might go see it tonight.
I really don’t think Slither failed because I don’t think it was ever intended to be a blockbuster movie for the mainstream audiences. It is a niche movie made for horror fans and the only reason it got as wide a release as it did is because of the current horror trend.
I personally enjoyed it a great deal, but I think the average person wants to see a serious horror movie that will scare them (or at least scare their dates). They don’t want a campy b-movie with over-the-top gore.
I was actually extremely surprised that critics in general liked it as much as they did. On the other hand, the two critics I respect most (Ebert and James Berardinelli) both gave it only 2.5 stars. Go figure.
– Sean
FilmJunk.com
The marketing confused me, too. Was it supposed to be a comedy, a horror movie, a creature feature, what?
Personally, I blame the marketing. I used to go to the movies at least once a week. Over the past couple years, however, I’ve been going less and less. Partly due to the fact that fewer movies are appealing to me, and partly because the ones that do sound interesting seem to fall through the cracks. I vaguely remember hearing about this movie. I think I saw a commercial once, and it left me very confused about the movie and, needless to say, not very interested. Had it not been for this blog, I never would have heard another word about it. It seems to be a trend of recent years to only push the big budget movies, and to give the lesser movies a half-assed attempt at a marketing campaign. Beyond that, they often try to mold a movie into a genre that it often doesn’t belong in. The impression I got of Slither from the one commercial I saw was a sort-of more serious Eight-Leggd Freaks – which didn’t sound too thrilling. So, as I’ve been saying to my colleagues, falling revenues aren’t from a lack of demand – rather a lack of quality products and quality marketing to push them.
No one went to see it because
1. No one aside from Internet fans really knew what it was about
2. No big “name” stars
3. Not a lot of marketing so not many people knew it was even coming out
Maybe a combo of these three led to its downfall.
I saw it and it was fucking great!!! Slither and the remake to Hills Have Eyes are the best times I’ve had at the movies in a longggg time.
It failed for me because I didn’t like the trailer. The trailer made me think it was cheesy, goofy and not all that funny or scary. I checked the Rotten Tomatoes rating last weekend and was shocked, and will probably see it now. But the trailer didn’t sell me.