If I told you about an odd moment or image in a Netflix Original Movie, you'd have no trouble verifying what I was talking about. After all, if a feature film premieres on digital home media platforms (whether it's on Netflix or premium video-on-demand), it can immediately be spliced up into gifs or memes. Screenshots and clips can be taken out of context instantaneously for the world to see. Just Google "A Family Affair weird grocery store scene" or any viral moment from 365 Days, it's there for you. This phenomenon was especially apparent back in 2021, when major legacy movie studios dropped several significant theatrical movies simultaneously on streaming. Two or three-minute snippets from Black Widow or The Matrix Resurrections spread like wildfire across Twitter as punchlines for tweets.
Now, let's compare this to if I told you about something strange in a theatrical movie, like, say, the recent surprise smash hit Longlegs. That movie has concealed in its marketing what Nicolas Cage as the serial killer Longlegs looks like. The Neon promotional team has kept a slew of additional key plot points and disturbing imagery hidden away from the ambiguous but striking marketing campaign for this Osgood Perkins motion picture. If I told you about something especially strange Cage did in Longlegs or a particularly eerie image from the movie, you couldn't just find it on Google. You'd have to take the time to buy a ticket, head out to the movie theater, and watch the entire motion picture. With that experience, you'd finally understand what I was talking about..but you'd also have to watch the whole movie.
Meanwhile, removing immediately available visual aids adds something extra fun and specific to the experience of Longlegs viewers trying to tell their friends about key images or acting flourishes from the feature. There is no officially released still of Cage as Longlegs I could point to in explaining to my friends "this is what he looks like." I'll have to describe it myself, which undoubtedly will be a vastly different description than how another viewer would describe this malicious figure's appearance. This makes talking about Longlegs extra idiosyncratic from person to person. It also adds a fun campfire story quality to discussing the production. You're reporting to another soul who's maybe never even heard of Longlegs all kinds of freaky materials and physical appearances contained within this one film. It's like some teenager regaling their friends around a fire about a beast they SWEAR they saw in the local forest. All you have to go on is the words of the narrator and the ominous reality that we truly never know what lies in wait in the darkness.
Eventually (probably by mid-August), Longlegs will come to PVOD. Then images from the feature, including 4K screengrabs of Cage as Longlegs, will populate social media. I can immediately think of at least two 10-second clips from Longlegs guaranteed to become go-to reaction memes. Ted Sarandos and other Netflix higher-ups may scoff at this reality in between licking the boots of transphobes and podcast hosts spreading misinformation about AIDS. "Why even put these things in theaters if they'll one day be available in your home?" they'll scorn after engaging in financial practices making it impossible for directors to make a living.
However, the specialness and experiences of theatrical exhibition live on long after a movie's big-screen run has concluded. Long after The Gray Man and The Tomorrow War have been forgotten, people still talk about The Blair Witch Project and its crafty marketing. The Barbenheimer phenomenon of last year will live on eternal as a testament to the joys of theatrical moviegoing and bonding with friends over cinema. Those lines of people that went for blocks and blocks for The Exorcist, that's still legendary. The countless stories attached to prime theatrical experiences help solidify as movies in the popular consciousness. They're not just another tile on your streaming platform's home screen. They're something you bonded with other people at or a motion picture that you had so much fun talking about with another person.
Longlegs would've vanished quickly into the streaming algorithm ether if it had debuted on streaming. High-quality yet obscure horror films like His House can attest to that reality. Not every movie that goes to the big screen becomes a smash hit. But if you want a movie that takes off like a surprising rocket like Longlegs...it has to go to theaters. Believe it or not, there are a few reasons why this mold for experiencing cinema has endured for over a century.
No comments:
Post a Comment