I’ve got thoughts about today’s news that HALLOWEEN KILLS will be released day-and-date. Of course, I do.
Long story short - after delaying the film for a full year last year due to the producers’ desire to have HALLOWEEN KILLS play theatrically only, news was announced today that the new horror sequel will be released in both theaters and on Peacock Premium Friday, October 15.
For some, this is good news. There are a lot of folks who believe it is not safe to go to movie theaters right now. Nothing I say is going to change their mind - especially considering my personal vested interest in getting people to go to a movie theater. The news that HALLOWEEN KILLS will be released day-and-date is being met with celebration by this contingent of folks. I’ve seen people say that this is the right decision for right now - that things aren’t back to normal in the world and that we must accept that studios need to pivot their release plans due to the ongoing pandemic.
And I get all of this. I do. I even agree with some of it.
We’re not back to normal - and we will probably never be completely back to whatever normal looked like in 2019. The world of theatrical exhibition has changed dramatically in the last eighteen months. Exclusive theatrical windows are forever shortened and there’s no going back. That’s OK! Theatrical windows were too long anyway. The sheer amount of entertainment being made and released nowadays, combined with people’s short attention span, means that we are forever removed from the time when movies could sustain months of box office success during an exclusive theatrical window.
Films need to jump quickly from theaters to streaming to home video to being memed while sitting on the toilet if they are to have any chance of finding an audience in today’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-the-cultural-moment world. I’ve made peace with the idea that theatrical windows are 45 days if you’re lucky and 14 days at a minimum.
My bone to pick is with the idea of day and date “free” SVOD releases.
Releasing a movie like HALLOWEEN KILLS as part of a streaming platform’s standard programming not only robs a film of any kind of theatrical window, it cheapens it. Here’s a secret - if you get a room full of people in the film industry together for any prolonged period of time, you’re going to hear the word “content” a lot. People in suits who work for studios and streaming platforms don’t typically think of movies as individual works of artistic expressions - they think of them as the next hit of content - squeezed out a tube for audiences to watch and then forget about in favor of the next puff of the content pipe.
There’s a reason why so many of Netflix’s (very good!) original and exclusive films are almost completely forgotten about a year after their release. When you dump out a movie into the crowded either of the streaming world, it’s just another small fish in a big ocean. It will get its brief moment of cultural zeitgeist - with people live-Tweeting their first time watching it, screencaping images of it to share on social media and writing think pieces on their blogs about whatever aspect of the movie resonated with them the most - but then the world will turn its attention on the next piece of “content” being shoved down our throats by the streaming platforms. What’s the last direct to SVOD film that has achieved any prolonged kind of cultural impact?
A window - theatrical to PVOD to SVOD to home video and television and whatever comes next - is important for slowing the half-life decay of a movie’s time in the spotlight. It prolongs the chance for audiences to absorb and soak in a film - it prolongs the chance for audiences to bond with a film, for that film to make an impact in the world of art. And all films are art - I don’t care if we’re talking about HALLOWEEN KILLS, DUNE, THE FRENCH DISPATCH, or JACKASS FOREVER. Every movie is a small miracle of creation and it deserves a fair shot of creating its own unique legacy.
More importantly, films should have a value. By including a movie like HALLOWEEN KILLS as part of a monthly subscription, it is being robbed of its individual value. I fear the habits being formed over the last year - when 90 percent of the art and entertainment people are enjoying has been streamed - is putting a disconnect between people and the individual value of art. People aren’t thinking about the specific money they paid to watch a movie on a streaming platform and, to them, it might as well be free. This will make it harder for folks to cough up money to pay for things in the future. Don’t believe me? When’s the last time you’ve paid for an individual music album? By removing the individual cost of art, we’re furthering the march of art becoming content - indistinguishable in experience and value from all the other content we enjoy.
In the end, that’s what I demand: Individual respect for every single movie that is made. That respect doesn’t need to be equal, but it needs to exist. A lot of people spend a lot of time and a lot of money making the things we enjoy - I want that sacrifice to be recognized and I fear that in a world where films are being released straight to SVOD without a window, we’re not recognizing that sacrifice because we’re not making a sacrifice of our own - whether it’s time or money - on an individual basis.
People will say this is all temporary - that we’re in a unique time that calls for unique strategies for how to handle the release of films. And yes, this is true - but it ignores the fact that you can’t put genies back in bottles. When something changes as monumentally as we’re seeing happen in the world of the film right now - these changes leave scars. We are introducing habits and behaviors and ways of thinking that will never, ever go away. We are literally changing the way we interact with art and I don’t think it’s for the better.
Look, I get it - some people don’t want to go to the movies right now. Maybe they would, if they had their druthers, never step foot in a theater again. Everybody’s different and has different priorities in their life. But that doesn’t remove the need for patience. Not everything is owed to us immediately. If we want to see something, we need to sacrifice for it, and - for some - that sacrifice should be patience.
It all goes back to the need to sacrifice for art - things cost money, time, resources to make. Things should also cost money, time, resources to enjoy.