Perhaps it is our fallible sense of curiosity, or even our penchant for surprises, but for some reason, Secret Screenings always seem to be the center of attention at any Film Festival. It’s like the one Christmas present that you get to open the night before. You try your best to choose wisely, all the while knowing that many times, the game is rigged against you, and instead of opening that new Playstation 3, more times than not, you will accidentally choose the box containing a few new pairs of socks.
Now I had tried to get into the first Secret Screening earlier in the festival, but a faulty queue system mixed with high demand, made that venture near impossible. So initially when I found out that I had once again missed the bus and would not be able to make it to the 2nd Secret Screening, I had taken it pretty hard. I remember walking past the Screening queue shooting glares to all those lucky bastards that all got to go to this seemingly awesome party, that I had not been invited to. I felt as if I was missing truly great, a once in a lifetime film that all my friends would chide me for missing!
As I walked passed the front end of the line, I noticed a curious scene taking place. Apparently, whichever studio had “allowed” this screening to take place, was extremely wary about leaks, and so they immediately set about instituting a strict electronics ban. This meant, no phones, no laptops, no Kindles… nothing! In order to enforce this ridiculous ban, they posted a few sharp dressed guys in suits, who methodically patted down the audience before sending them straight on through a metal detector. All these guys were missing were little earpieces and limo tint on their vehicles.
So what was all this fuss about anyway and do you really want to know? There were rumors that perhaps this was going to be a preview of Tin Tin, or the remake of The Thing, but it was nothing quite so glorious. It appears that Paramount Pictures had gone through all this trouble, so that people wouldn’t dare leak any footage from their next Hollywood blockbuster… Paranormal Activity 3!!
REALLY!? This is the big surprise you had in store for people? The Secret Screening is supposed to be a film for the ages! One that puts the Fantastic in Fantastic Fest, not some slapped together home-movie looking drivel. This is not to take anything away from the Directors of PA3, as no doubt they have already scared legions of fans, but come on! This is hardly the type of film that should be helping to close out the festivities. I couldn’t even sit through the PA series at home for free, and yet they were forcing some people to wait over 3 hours for such nonsense. Thankfully, I chose to spend my night across the way at another movie called Urban Explorer.
If you do so happen to be a fan of the Paranormal Activity series, I won’t leave ya hanging! It may not be the thing for me but what kind of guy would that make me if I tried to institute a coverage embargo on it? I’ve already heard from people in attendance that although the new PA movie doesn’t necessarily progress the mythology of the last two films as much, it is supposedly far superior, and far scarier than the previous two! It is also apparently.. a prequel! So if you happened to like the first two… it appears that you may be in luck! The films two Directors Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and star Katie Featherston were all in attendance for the film’s screening as well as Q&A. Hopefully Paramount will allow release of Q&A footage later today or tomorrow, but if not, it appears you’ll just have to wait until Oct. 21st when the film open to the US market to find out what’s in store!
Thanks to Jack Plunkett for the Photo!
