Well unless you operate within the film making community, ofcourse the better marketed films are going to get more hype and attention, and there's no problem with that. The thing is, a lot of the films that have big marketing campaigns are usually due to a distributor buying the film and marketing it AFTER it's had very good reviews, hence why they decide to market it to wider audiences than if it had received negative reviews.MrsBBC wrote:Across the board, I feel the opposite.dundermifflin wrote:Mentioned it in another thread but just wanted to say how much lower across the board the quality of films were this year compared to the last few years. There weren't any standout films for me, and no surprises either. Usually there are one or two smaller films that really impress but none of the films I saw were memorable. Last few years Frightfest managed to secure the "big" anticipated films for that year (e.g. 2014 we got THE BABADOOK, THE GUEST and THE GREEN INFERNO and the year before we got YOU'RE NEXT).
Big and anticipated is just another way of saying, well marketed, and has no bearing on whether or not anyone will enjoy the film. Personally, I'm not drawn in by big name films, and am more intrigued from reading my way through the individual film descriptions. Most big draws over the last few years have disappointed me, and then this year I loved Cell.
Different strokes eh?
Looking at the top 5 thread so far, my top 5 seems way off.
THE BABADOOK, YOU'RE NEXT, THE GUEST etc were all fairly low budget films, but received excellent reviews when they premiered and due to that were then heavily promoted - I don't see any issue with that.
On the flip side, the vast majority of films that weren't marketed very widely and were shown at Frightfest this year and in previous years, weren't particularly great and didn't receive a lot of attention. There are ofcourse exceptions, with films like HONEYMOON and SPRING, but generally, films that receive a lot of attention and marketing following a festival debut are due to receiving critical acclaim when they premiere, or at least controversy.
We need more big films Frightfest! Please! Less "Downhill" and more "YOU'RE NEXT" please.