This
is definitely the kind of cool shit that studios should do more
often and PROMOTE more often. How else do you want to go
about spreading the word of mouth about your film (other than all of
your basic advertising routes) than by taking it directly to the
genre lovers’ themselves. In this case, Universal Studios asked
JoBlo.com and 15 other Internet portals to run a contest via
which 1 winner would be chosen to premiere the horror film DEAD
SILENCE in their hometown, along with 100 of their friends
and…the director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, in
attendance!
These
kinds of things didn’t happen too often in the days before the Net,
but nowadays, these are the sorts of things that help films pick up
buzz and certainly, good vibes from the fanbase. Last Thursday,
March 15th, one lucky film student named Bryan Cubin was chosen as
the big winner among 16,000 total entries, and invited 100 friends
to check out the film in his hometown of Boston. The Arrow
and I were lucky enough to be invited to the premiere as well (along
with a couple of other websites — shout-out to Johnny Butane!!),
and noticed that it also happened to be St-Patrick’s Day
weekend in friggin’ Boston to boot, and decided to stay a couple of
extra days in order to…well, alright, you got me….DRINK!!!
Seriously
though, this was my first time in Beantown, and let me tell you, the
place kicked ass and even reminded me of my hometown of Montreal —
particularly on day 2 when it snowed 2 feet! The bars in Boston were
pretty damn cool though (although I’m still not exactly sure what
chanting “Yankees suck!!” over and over again has to do
with the Day of St-Patrick’s but hey, whatever floats your green
beer, I guess) and it was nice to share some good times with
everyone who joined us over the weekend, seriously ya’ll…was a
blast hanging out with you guys.
The
premiere also included some good times, like the Wan and Whannell
signing posters, T-shirts and even breasts!! (sorry man, I was
already drunk by that point, and Wan’s damn cute) Seriously though,
check out some of the pics from the event below, and if you look
closely enough, you might notice one photo in which our very own
John Fallon (aka the Arrow) is attempting to play tonsil-hockey with
the dummy from the movie. PS: On our first day in town, during our
first hour in the hotel, we went down to the lobby to
buy…”cigarettes”, and just happened to see Mark Walhberg
walk by us and into the hotel restaurant. Seriously folks…what’s
up with that? Good times.
And you don’t wanna know where his right hand is at!
Whannell, Winner, Wan
