Studio Crushes Friday the 13th Buzz
The Friday The 13th Remake has not by any means gotten alot of good buzz from die hard genre fans who have asked the common and obvious question ‘why?’. Where none genre fans especially younger ones might be drawn to see a remake of a classic horror movie to experience the terror we all enjoyed as youngsters most of us die hard fans think that remakes are nothing more then cashing in on our dreams. Younger audiences dont seem to appreciate the older genre films since the production values are not all glossy and you wont see your favorite tween actor running around screaming and spitting out mindless lines.
So when Friday the 13th started getting some serious buzz late last week about some new Jason photos that were doing the rounds it was a big shock for us here. Goon and I were talking about how cool the pics were. Some seriously ‘bad ass’ photos popped onto the web and were very quickly removed at the request of the studio. A studio rep, not a lawyer.. which was a nice change, contacted us to ask us really nicely to remove them explaining they were stolen and never supposed to be released.
The non-spoiler photos showed Jason in all his glory and little more but they did show that there was alot of effort put into his look and staying true to the character.
Although I understand where the studio was coming from in having the photos removed and we of course complied it does invite the question. Should a studio be its own buzz kill? Or would it have been better to let them continue to spread across the web like wildfire and generate a ton of free buzz and publicity. Obviously if a picture comes out that complete ruins a plot point or destroys the mystery of a film or the look of a character then it makes perfect sense to get them pulled down. Case and point is when the first photos of Two Face hit the web for Dark Knight. That leak hurt the film and ruined a great moment for film fans. At least it did for me. It did however generate mass buzz and free advertising for the film that no studio could afford to buy.
The flip side of couse to the Friday the 13th images is they have now have tongues wagging asking ‘did you see those awesome pics’ and no doubt web traffic for the serach term is up as fans clammer to get a sneak peak at the pics. So I suppose I may have answered the question myself in that having them pulled down or leaving them up.. the studio wins.
So the question is, if its a generic still, and not ruining the film should the studios be their own buzz kill or let it go and rake in the benefits of the fans going wild over it and plastering it all over the web. What do you think?
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