Cloverfield.

[Anurubius]

does anything ever really live up to the hype?

[Kyrex]

It's times like this that I think that movie producers, TV execs, and folk like that do check these boards, and sites like them. I mean, like EchoWing above me said, what happened to standard monster/horror films and shit?

I have no idea what's going on in the posted pic, but I get the feeling that it's been tacked on to bump on viewer-ship because sites like PAWG exist and they go batshit crazy over anything remotely involved with WG or expansion.

The likelihood that they're trying to market to a tiny fetish community is so small, it's not even worth commenting on. They're going to get a lot more mileage out of basic 'WTF' from the general public (or at least as general as sites like unfiction get, with their own Alternate Reality Game obsession) than spending tens of thousands of dollars on prosthetics merely to cater to a small audience with a hard-on for girls getting bigger.

It is a traditional horror movie-- if the trailers suggest anything, it's that the movie is in the Lovecraftian tradition to be precise, and we won't see shit of the monsters save for their passage. That's probably why they're hyping it in this manner. They pay a PR firm to come up with some weird teasers (the ARG attached to Cloverfield isn't as elaborate as others, but it's still effective) and the crowd makes its own hype. Look at the Blair Witch Project as a classic example: the public went in already scared because the commercials and teasers were engineered to pique curiosity and make people feel uncomfortable.

And remember, while people like us get off on transformation and mutation and inflation and -ion, the general public has a deep seated fear of these things. That's what they're going to be playing on, if they have any idea what they're doing. If something is happening to the girl in the looping clip that people keep theorizing on, chances are it's going to leave her in bits all over the walls (a la the 'inflation' scene from Slither) or in a form that only the most hard-core isopodiphile would be aroused by. The point isn't to titillate weight-gain enthusiasts, it's to terrify a culture that's already scared shitless of ideas like 'cancer' and 'tumor' and has a whole panoply of unhealthy body image issues. They don't know what's happening to the girl, and they want to rubberneck. While they know on an intellectual level that it can't happen to them, they still want some kind of reassurance or catharsis.

The real question is, whether the movie is going to deliver on anything that the public assumes it's actually offering. Cloverfield is going to do amazingly on opening weekend, but if there's nothing of substance there, it's going to submarine like the thing leaving a wake in the poster.

[Clickme]

I agree. It's gaining so much hype, that it may very well flop once people realize it's jsut another monster movie, if that's the case.

As for meeting hype: I psyched myself up for almost a year over the Advent Children movie (no comments need, I'm a FFVII fan, and I'm just using this as a real world example). It got to the point where I was afraid the movie would suck because I had made it out to be so awesome in my head. However, it rocked as hard as I thought it would and everything turned out ok, but that's only because it was handled right. Otherwise we could of had another X-2 on our hands!

Like I said, I'm not opening the AC can-o-worms here, I'm just using it as a real life example. I don't mean to infer anything other than my personal opinion of said movie, just to use the experience in a contrast/comparison to the Cloverfield issue. Think of this as an official disclaimer, because I don't want people to start flaming this tread too.

A less contentious example might be Snakes on a Plane. Huge surge of popular interest, especially on-line, for a movie that turned out to be an absolute flop.

I'm hoping that Cloverfield turns out to be a good movie, which is one of the reasons I've avoided getting in on the arguments about what's happening in the trailers and why, and the detective work people are doing on the tie-in websites. I don't want to risk being disappointed by an okay movie that's a cross between Godzilla and The Stuff after having my hopes raised by clever teases.

[bustybrown]

Originally Posted by Bieeanda

The likelihood that they're trying to market to a tiny fetish community is so small, it's not even worth commenting on. They're going to get a lot more mileage out of basic 'WTF' from the general public (or at least as general as sites like unfiction get, with their own Alternate Reality Game obsession) than spending tens of thousands of dollars on prosthetics merely to cater to a small audience with a hard-on for girls getting bigger.

It is a traditional horror movie-- if the trailers suggest anything, it's that the movie is in the Lovecraftian tradition to be precise, and we won't see shit of the monsters save for their passage. That's probably why they're hyping it in this manner. They pay a PR firm to come up with some weird teasers (the ARG attached to Cloverfield isn't as elaborate as others, but it's still effective) and the crowd makes its own hype. Look at the Blair Witch Project as a classic example: the public went in already scared because the commercials and teasers were engineered to pique curiosity and make people feel uncomfortable.

And remember, while people like us get off on transformation and mutation and inflation and -ion, the general public has a deep seated fear of these things. That's what they're going to be playing on, if they have any idea what they're doing. If something is happening to the girl in the looping clip that people keep theorizing on, chances are it's going to leave her in bits all over the walls (a la the 'inflation' scene from Slither) or in a form that only the most hard-core isopodiphile would be aroused by. The point isn't to titillate weight-gain enthusiasts, it's to terrify a culture that's already scared shitless of ideas like 'cancer' and 'tumor' and has a whole panoply of unhealthy body image issues. They don't know what's happening to the girl, and they want to rubberneck. While they know on an intellectual level that it can't happen to them, they still want some kind of reassurance or catharsis.

The real question is, whether the movie is going to deliver on anything that the public assumes it's actually offering. Cloverfield is going to do amazingly on opening weekend, but if there's nothing of substance there, it's going to submarine like the thing leaving a wake in the poster.

This is one of the single, if not "the", most well thought out and intelligent pieces of introspective insight into American culture, and just damn good writing in general, that I have ever seen, never mind the awe-inspiring fact that it came from the internet off some random obscure fetish board.

Bieeanda, feel proud today, because your writing was so articulate that it actually made a person de-lurk, and not only that, but to give you a compliment of all things. You should feel proud. :P

[Anurubius]

Originally Posted by bustybrown

This is one of the single, if not "the", most well thought out and intelligent pieces of introspective insight into American culture, and just damn good writing in general, that I have ever seen, never mind the awe-inspiring fact that it came from the internet off some random obscure fetish board.

Bieeanda, feel proud today, because your writing was so articulate that it actually made a person de-lurk, and not only that, but to give you a compliment of all things. You should feel proud. :P

*Scruffy* second.

[Mr_DNA]

Some of you may see inflation, but all I see is a woman's torso being ripped in half.

[GLKnight83]

She's not ripped in half.

In the professional teaser (which I just saw on TV), a Med team member screams "Bite! Bite!" as she is bulging. Which leads to the most likely conclusion of mutation, if not reproduction.

[Sucht17]

Originally Posted by GLKnight83

In the professional teaser (which I just saw on TV), a Med team member screams "Bite! Bite!" as she is bulging. Which leads to the most likely conclusion of mutation, if not reproduction.

That reminds me of the torso bite scene from The Thing.

[Test-0]

Originally Posted by Sucht17

That reminds me of the torso bite scene from The Thing.

...you only have yourself to blame for this inspiration.

[GLKnight83]

More details.

It's one of the friends. As the med teammate screams "Bite!", the friend's skin is pale, and a black ichor is coming from her nose and eyes. Then she is taken away, and the whole silhouette scene.