The little indie that could is starting to make waves, and we can only hope word of mouth continues to build.
According to Variety, David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows (read my review), easily one of the scariest movies in a long, long while, is on pace to be the top-grossing film in Radius-TWC’s history after the low-budget horror film pulled in $4 million in its first weekend of wide release!
The Weinstein Company’s boutique label is releasing the picture along with its sister company, Dimension. It apparently knew what it had, opting to delay a video-on-demand debut in favor of expanding its theatrical footprint from 32 locations to 1,218.
I saw a lot of readers complaining that it was still a 4-hour drive to catch it in a theater. Good news is that Radius-TWC will continue to push It Follows into more venues next week, although it did not provide a specific theater count as of this writing.
Something even more rare is that the film is getting strong vocal support from execs at TWC, which is a rarity when it comes to the genre.
“It’s not only the best-reviewed film of the year, but also one of the best horror films in over a decade,” said co-president Tom Quinn.
I LOVE seeing a fearless executive sticking his head out and showing confidence in one of their company’s films. They know they have something unique and special on their hands.
Even though the finale is leaving some confused (this is a good thing), It Follows is the hottest genre film since the 2007 Paranormal Activity.
Have you been able to catch It Follows at a theater near you? What did you think?
“It’s the stupidest plan ever! [Laughs.] It’s a kid-movie plan, it’s something that Scooby-Doo and the gang might think of, and that was sort of the point. What would you do if you were confronted by a monster and found yourself trapped within a nightmare? Ultimately, you have to resort to some way of fighting it that’s accessible to you in the physical world, and that’s not really going to cut it. We kind of avoid any kind of traditional setup for that sequence, because in more traditional horror films, there might be a clue that would lead them to figure out a way to destroy this monster. I intentionally avoided placing those. Instead, they do their best to accomplish something, and we witness its failure. It’s probably a very non-conventional way of approaching the third-act confrontation, but we thought it was a fun way to deal with it.