Once upon a time not long ago, the folks at Anchor Bay were dedicated to giving neglected, forgotten, and mistreated films the proper DVD treatment they deserved. When you dropped your hard-earned dollars to bring home one of their snazzy products, you knew you were getting something worthwhile, something you could add to your collection without being ridiculed by your elitist friends. Those days, it seems, are long gone. Feel free to cry into your favorite handkerchief and whine to anyone within earshot. It always helps me feel better.
Anyway, this once-dependable company has joined the greedy ranks of Lionsgate and Asylum, dumping countless subpar horror pictures into a market already saturated with half-assed backyard productions and cheap turn-a-buck motion pictures. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, any local yokel with a digital video camera and a few friends can lens a movie in a matter of days. Hollywood is just a small investment away.
And when they've returned from their slipshod journey into the dodgy world of micro-budget filmmaking, those money-hungry distributors are quick to toss these wonky epics onto cluttered video store shelves across the nation, where they ultimately fall into the unsuspecting hands of die-hard genre fanatics. We live in an age of the amateur — just look at this review.
Why I decided to waste my time and money on Christopher M. Downs' pathetically low-budget horror disaster The Shunned is truly beyond me. Maybe I was hoping for a solid "western" horror picture, something along the lines of Dead Birds or even Ghost Town. Unfortunately, I wound up with the type of listless production that usually finds its way onto those budget-line Brentwood DVD horror collections you see in the cut-out bins every Halloween.
This never should have been picked up by Anchor Bay or any self-respecting distributor who wants to continue making money off a very loyal fan base. It takes a lot to turn my cinematic stomach these days, so imagine my pained surprise when The Shunned managed to create a bloody tidal wave of acidic fury in an otherwise ironclad gut.
Article comments
1 - Foywonder
I heard from the filmmaker after I reviewed it myself. According to him, it was made just to see if they could do it and was never intended to be released, but then Anchor Bay offered them money for the rights. That should tell you a lot about the mindset behind many of these companies will to snatch up and release damn near anything horror related to DVD and why the bubble on the horror DVD market is about to burst.
2 - T. Rigney
That's really pathetic. REALLY pathetic. Taking a chance on any straight-to-video horror release is risky business these days, which may explain why I find myself turning my nose up at most of the stuff I see at the video store. Anchor Bay should be ashamed. I know the name of the game is to make a buck, but dumping this kind of nonsense into the market is embarrassing for all involved.
Then again, some of the blame has to fall on Christopher Downs. If I had made something this subpar, I wouldn't want the damned thing ruining my reputation before I had a chance to create something that was a true reflection of my talent.
I wonder how much integrity goes for these days, anyway?