The Magic of Manipulation
About a year ago to the day a home video company sent me a screener link to a movie asking if I wanted to provide a quote. Because seeing my name on a box (or more likely on a Flash ad) isn't why I do this, I said "no thank you" after watching and disliking the movie. Obviously, if I'd loved it I'd have bothered everyone with earshot. Let's not pretend I'm the lord of morals.
A year later that film somehow got a theatrical release and earned a sizable return on investment for the involved parties.
That film is 47 Meters Down. It has grossed over TWENTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. It's a coup for the blandly-named Entertainment Studios (from 80's superbland Byron Allen) and the biggest hit Mandy Moore's had in a decade.
Hell, it's one of the biggest hits sharks have had in a decade.
It's very clever sleight of hand. Summertime is when everyone's hitting the beach. There's the whole 'Shark Week" thing. Plus, horror movies are all about deft manipulation. Not even awful Photoshop could derail 47 Meters Down. Just like marketing could create a narrative that It Comes at Night is a horror movie and that The Witch is some hammering experience.
Manipulation never comes to the fore as much as it does in horror. And it helps that us horror fans are the biggest marks on the planet. We bought Eli Roth as the next "Master of Horror". We bought Rob Zombie as a "Filmmaker". So it really is telling that a castoff like 47 Meters Down went from a property willing to solicit ME for a pull-quote to a gigantic cash machine in less than a year.
Never underestimate the willingness of a sucker to keep a mediocre film down.
