“Midnight Meat Train” Release Derailed
Bloody-Disgusting.com is reporting that Clive Barker’s highly anticipated Midnight Meat Train, after having its release date continually pushed back, has now been unceremoniously dumped by Lionsgate into second-run theaters…yup, folks, that means Midnight Meat Train opened in a limited release in DOLLAR theaters across the United States. For a horror film that fans have been anticipating since day one, this is an absolute outrage.
Though Lionsgate has claimed to Bloody-Disgusting.com that the studio wants Midnight Meat Train to succeed, things seem mighty fishy on their end. There has been no big marketing campaign for Midnight Meat Train, though the majority that have seen it enthusiastically consider it one of the best horror films of the year. Also, Lionsgate has shuffled the film’s release date around an awful lot…and now it has seen its opening night in dollar theaters of all places. Personally, I’ve never heard of a film that was dumped by its studio into the second run circuit…have you? Also, it’s been very hard to track down exactly where Midnight Meat Train is actually playing, especially with no big announcement of an official release and definitely no big advertisements for it!
It really appears that Lionsgate is doing nothing to help horror fans see this terrific film, and it really is a shame. When a studio goes out of its way to ensure one of its films doesn’t make any money for its filmmakers and creative talent behind the film and robs horror fans of one of the few good horror films of the summer its time for fans to take a stand.
You can read the original post over at Bloody-Disgusting.com and their follow up post that tells you what to do to help Midnight Meat Train succeed!
As a counterpoint, go read The Rotten Truth over at ShockTilYouDrop.com, where there are some very salient points made about the whole debacle. Basically they say that Lionsgate is just trying to turn a buck, though it is at the expense of fans and the creative team behind the film, but that’s business as usual for a big studio. They also go on to speak of other films that have long faced theatrical release delays and how just buying massive amount of tickets for Midnight Meat Train in a faraway city won’t really help the cause.
Either way, both articles agree that Lionsgate definitely dropped the ball on this one. Whoever you side with, try and catch Midnight Meat Train in its very limited release and hope for a very cool DVD release in a few months.
Oh, and if you really want to punish Lionsgate, don’t go see Saw V in October…
Watch the Midnight Meat Train trailer to see what you’re missing:
Popularity: 19% [?]
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