Uwe Boll wants to get something off his chest. In an interview with IGN Film Force, Boll laid into the negative Internet chatter that some early screenings of ALONE IN THE DARK (Christian Slater, Tara Reid, John Fallon) received.
“[The movie] will go out in February, but we did a test screening and then two or three Internet freaks sitting in the test screening [started] writing shit about the movie. The thing actually is, everybody who saw it really likes the movie, but it is a complicated movie. I didn’t want to do another flat movie like House of the Dead, where it’s only fun but no story… I’m really pissed right now about a few Web pages.”
“The main point for me is, the same people writing that shit on the Internet, these are the people that should be happy that someone is doing it, because the studio [doesn’t] give a shit, they would do only ERIN BROCKOVICH movies mixed with VAN HELSING.”
“But what I really want, because other directors are not doing it this way, but what I really want is, really before they write bullshit, they should think a little about it, they should look out in the theater. There were 280 people in the test screening and only these five idiots think it’s a bad movie…”
OK, deep breath. First, let me encourage you to read the complete interview , since it’s got a lot of interesting info and clearly demonstrates Boll’s passion and love for the genre.
Now we all know that the Internet can be a brutal quagmire of crap criticisms and folks hiding behind pseudonyms in order to do, or say, things that they wouldn’t have the balls to address in real life. That said, it’s a fact of life that anticipated movies are going to get Internet focus. And since HOUSE OF THE DEAD fell short of expectations, people are going to be hard on Boll until he knocks one out of the park. Is this fair? Nope. At the same time, he IS getting to make genre pics for a living with studio backing, so things aren’t THAT bad are they.
In one way or the other, just about every filmmaker has gotten burned by the internet (hell Kevin Smith made a whole movie about it), but here’s hoping Uwe can grab a beer, settle down, and remember that delivering a kick ass film is the world’s best F*ck You to ankle biting hacks.