"'Exorcism' is a 100% successful independent film from start to finish, a new style of pseudo-documentary, a sensual story that makes people cry, and an extremely frightening weekend experience. —5/5, Kevin Custer, Los Angeles Times

"Intense and suspenseful, shockingly terrifying, unbearable and painful, with a masterpiece rarely seen in horror movies, everyone can have their own frightening and interpretation. There is no better exorcism movie after The Exorcist. —4/4, Christopher Orr, LA Weekly

"Yunik Küller's genius debut awakens the fear in our hearts, the heart pain, the brain fainting that horror lovers will love, and the astonishing damage it does to the audience will last a lifetime. —4/4, Frank Sherke, The Hollywood Reporter

"If this is a movie you made because of the pickles, I want you to keep making coolers, the more the better. —Gia Coppola, text message to Culler

Who the hell is Cooler? The three full-score movie reviews all praised this young genius, but they couldn't be said clearly, IMDB didn't have detailed information, Wikipedia didn't have it, there was nothing...... The latest fans of the movie are known only that it's not a slang handsome girl, he's a man who has been identified, and it's not a "cooler" in a casino, and it's not a cold cocktail like Collins or Cooler.

Kuhler is Kuller!

Another genius!

"I can't remember how many times I screamed, but when I saw the end I cried, I couldn't help it, it was so uncomfortable. Debbie H wrote.

"I didn't think it would scare me before, but I was wrong, it has become my most memorable horror experience, nothing bloody, but the atmosphere makes you want to escape the screening room, and the tension and excitement keep you in your seat. Maggie's actors have fantastic performances, and the whole movie is brilliant and effective. Cassandra M wrote.

"Probably my favorite horror film by far, good story and a lot of really moving moments, and its director knows how to break your heart. I love it, but I really don't dare to look at it a second time, and I'm still shaking as I write these words. KJ-P wrote.

Lionsgate never thought that "Exorcism Video" was released for two days, with 100% Rotten Tomatoes freshness (10/10 points, 3 articles), 89% audience favorite, and was hit 8 by a few users on IMDB. 3 points, "Blair the Witch" is 6. 4 points, "Saw Horror" is 7. 7 points.

At the same time, it has been loved by the film critics and the audience!

The distribution department, led by Tom Odenberg, was collectively stunned, and it is not uncommon for a horror film to become a cult film with a group of fans, but it is not common for a horror film to receive praise from the film critics! 5/10, 146), another big surprise last year, "Trembling Ocean" 72% (6. 6/10 points, 185 articles).

Film reviews don't determine a single qiē, but it is an important indicator. Oldenberg had long felt that TET was in line with the aesthetics of film critics, but he didn't expect it to be so consistent.

This is a pseudo-documentary!, except for the groundbreaking "Blair the Witch", which is as high as 87% (7. 7/10, 110 articles, Roger Albert gave a full score), none of them were greatly praised, and the best was probably 61% of "The Dangerous House Under the Hawk's Eye" (5. 0/10 points, 18 articles), just passing.

And now, although TET only has 3 film reviews, they are all mainstream film reviews, and they have received full marks and praise, and among the three film critics, it has the strength to create a new era. And this is agreed by the vast majority of the audience, what does it mean to be a film critic + audience?

Lionsgate immediately took it seriously! Odenberg and the others didn't want to be stupid, they were already very upset -- those three critics had been invited by Cliff Films. There are many things to do, one of which is to contact "Doctor Who......

As the weekend of the 22nd and 24th passed, Monday, April 25th, Lionsgate was mixed with joy.

Happily, the prodigy Ye Wei was finally invited to write a film review of "Crash"! On this day, the "Los Angeles Times" movie version of "VIY Said" was published, and he praised "Crash" with an official film review, calling it "a classic that hits the heart." Odenberg is happy about this, Jon is happy, and Lionsgate is building a friendship with VIY.

Kueller gave them a headache, they still couldn't get in touch, it was still Grande and Potko, so even if they had to spend money on publicity, what a Terrence Malick?

Even more headache and heart-wrenching is that two of Lionsgate's three films in April have already ended......

The highly anticipated "Once Upon a Heartbreak" was released on the 15th, and the box office was really good in the first week, receiving 43,793 in 2 theaters (21,897 in a single theater), but the joy was only for a week, and it turned out that it was only David Duchouni's fan consumption, which was pitiful, and it was -79 in the second weekend. 5% only received 7,449 (3,724 for individual museums). Not to mention its film critics' reputation, 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the film critics' screening that costs money is self-inflicted. And that's it.

The more highly anticipated "State-owned Property 2" has been released on the 13th, 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a total of 1.28 million box office in the first two weeks, which is good? That is 202 theaters! Now there are only 192 left in the third week, and the momentum has fallen inexorably to the center of the earth.

On the contrary, it was the "Exorcism Video", which was the least valued before, and the distribution fee was almost zero......

The opening weekend took home 10,768 (5,384 for a single museum), which is not too much, not too little, but it is firmly enough to have a second week of screenings.

And let's not forget what kind of distribution it has achieved under what kind of distribution, what if it had been released under a high-profile release? Will it have an opening weekend of 23,424 in a single theater like "Trembling Ocean"?

So the distribution department and even Lionsgate have made a big mistake in the theatrical release of TET, if it can't be saved, what is missing?

A "Thrilling Ocean"?"Chainsaw?"Blair the Witch"!?

At this time, the conference room of the distribution department was holding the Monday distribution meeting, the atmosphere was solid, everyone's expressions were not very good, and the previous jokes and jokes about TET seemed to still ring in their ears......

With a calm face, Audenbergra looked at the statistics on the table, paying special attention to some of the questions and answers.

[Where did you hear about this movie?" (multiple choice)

1st place: poster in the theater hall, 2nd place: Internet promotion, 3rd place: information obtained from relatives and friends]

What a failed propaganda to be ranked first by the "ticket hall poster"! That is to say, most of them are random audiences, and there are many people who are interested in "pseudo-documentary + exorcism".

[When you come to the theater today, which one is the key choice to watch this movie?

1st place: pseudo-documentary horror theme, 2nd place: heroine, 3rd place: exorcism theme]

Directly verifying this, the default "audience dislikes pseudo-documentaries" in the entire film industry seems to be just a misconception.

【Your age?】

1st place: 18-24 years old (45. 2nd place: 25-34 years old (32. 7%), third place: 12-17 years old (11. 3%), fourth: over 35 years old (10. 9%）】

18-34 years old, the largest market!

[After watching this film, how do you evaluate it?"

1st place: very good-looking (38. 5%), and second place: perfect (36. 2%), and the third place: poor (9. 1%), 4th place: good (8. 7%), fifth: general (7. 5%）】

This is the one that shocked the company. First of all, the whole survey statistics are very beautiful, but there is a big problem that the sample is not much, only one-tenth of the thousands of viewers who have watched the movie are willing to do the survey, and the enthusiasm for cooperation is very low, usually this happens because they are dissatisfied with the film and scold it for not having enthusiasm.

But is TET a bad movie? The total percentage of applauds is as high as 83. 4%!, which coincides with the excellent response from the Internet. Whether it can be a blockbuster or not is another matter, at least most of the viewers who watched it were not disappointed.

[Does this movie meet your expectations?

1st place: better than I expected (72. 2%), 2nd place: worse than I expected (14. 3%), and the third place: about what I expected (13. 5%）】

This item made Oldenberg excited and confused when he first watched it, and this one shows that TET has broken through the audience impression created by the "Blair the Witch" and "The Exorcist" series, it is not cliché and mediocre, it makes people feel that they have picked up a treasure, so why is there no enthusiasm?

[After watching the film, what movie highlights would you tell your friends?

1st place: Ending, 2nd place: heroine's performance, 3rd place: storytelling

What's your biggest experience watching a movie?

The first is sad, the second is terrible, the third is terrible, and the fourth is nervous

Are you satisfied with the ending of the film?

First place: unclear (41. 6%), and 2nd place: dissatisfied (31. 1%), and third place: satisfied (27. 3%）】

The answer surfaced, obviously the audience was very fascinated by the ending, but the paradox is that most people are actually not satisfied with the ending, "can't tell" is actually unwilling to accept it, and those who are really satisfied can only account for a small part. And according to the investigation of "many viewers cried", the reason is not difficult to find.

Odenberg has long had this judgment, of course he knows how uncommercial the ending is now, death is not a problem, everyone in the barn can die, but dying Maggie in that way is so depressing and sad! Even if it is an independent film, the audience can hardly bear it.

So Lionsgate had long asked if the cliff movie could change the ending, and leave some room for a possible sequel?

Cliff Movie said strongly and directly, there is nothing negotiable in this regard, and not a single shot will be changed.

This leads to the weirdness of the present, and the audience is moved, but the mood is very complicated. This will have a bad impact on word-of-mouth marketing, think about it, an audience member talked about this movie with a friend and said, "The ending made me cry", there are two problems, one is that the audience's communication focus is sad, not horror, but the horror movie audience is most concerned about horror, and the interest cannot be maximized in the case of uncertainty;

To make small-cost films and distribute them with small investment, we must rely on word-of-mouth marketing, invest in publicity money to spread word-of-mouth, and ultimately rely on word-of-mouth to pull the audience into the theater, which can create a commercial success of "Trembling Ocean". Can TET do this?

Despite his rich distribution experience, Oldenberg really couldn't be sure, each release was different, and there were so many miscalculations on the TET that according to what they thought, it was not suitable for the big screen at all......

"The number of samples in all aspects is too small, and it has not yet reached the reference of scaling up, so we should observe first. ”

During the meeting, Jon gave his CEO attitude on the phone, and Oldenberg also agreed with this strategy, because the sample was small, the genre of TET was too special, and there was a "Doctor Who...... It is best to continue to observe the two theaters in the second week, and whether it can be expanded in the third week depends on its next table.

First, it is necessary to maintain the current box office momentum and fully prove its market potential; second, after the sample increases, it can maintain the reputation of evaluation, and it is good to be excellent without seeking perfection.

And in order to increase the sample, Lionsgate decided to quickly hold a critics' test screening for it!

If there are more than 100 reviews, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes can still be 70%, something can be certain.