The Weekend At The Box Office, A Dead Harvey Weekend and Not Much Going On On DVD

So, here I am, my last few hours in LA... waiting for a shuttle bus to come pick me up and take me to LAX. If you're wondering why I haven't posted anything in a few days, that's why - been too busy down here. I came down for a wedding, but stayed at the Dead Harvey Compound while I was here and we managed to meet up with a few like-minded folks over the last few days and have been shooting a lot of shit about the indie horror scene. I have two things to report. (1.) After one particular meeting, we have renewed vigor for what we're trying to do here at Dead Harvey and, hopefully, we'll have something new to report on that soon. I'm not sure what that something new is, honestly, but let's just say there's some cool things going on and I hope we're a part of it... even if it's just a small part. (2.) Don't fret, folks, indie horror is alive and well, it's just a difficult scene to be in. After a lot of talk, the same conclusion comes up over and over again... This industry is just tough, but I think we all know that. However, there are beacons of hope... Technology is changing a lot... and it's changing things for the better. Social networking is allowing us to find and get in touch with each other easier, the web is making marketing and promoting more accessible and new distributions models will give power back to the filmmakers... It's happening and you need to be up on all of it. So, stay tuned!

Let's turn to the Box Office. So, in a somewhat shocking turn of events, Ben Affleck's "The Town" won the weekend. I say 'shocking' because I don't think anyone expected it to do as well as it did. I thought the marketing made it look like an unofficial sequel to "The Departed", the Scorsese film from four years ago, and it ended up pulling in almost $25Million, which puts it on pace with what "The Departed" did when it came out. Also, Affleck's last foray into writing and directing, "Gone Baby Gone", wasn't that great. In any case, the word on the street is that it's good and the Box Office numbers prove it. As for horror related films at the Box Office, "Devil" proved to be a bit of a let down. It came in third, barely edging out "Resident Evil: Afterlife", which came in first last weekend and fell over 60% this weekend. "Devil" was written and produced by M Night Shyamalan and directed by Drew Dowdle, who was also Executive Producer on the film. Dowdle is probably best known for writing and producing the US version of "Quarantine". I believe that "Devil" is supposed to be the first film in an unofficial trilogy from Shayamalan, but... his track record just sucks. Who knows if they'll move forward with the next one.

As for the week in horror, according to Amazon, there's absolutely no new horror films coming out this week. I think that Fangoria may be releasing their Frightfest films, but they're not available for purchase yet, maybe only for rent - there's "Hunger", "The Haunting", "Dark House" and "Fragile". I'll talk about them when they pop up on Amazon...

Now, I need to get a bite to eat before this shuttle bus gets here.