The guys behind “Snakes on a Plane” and “Sharktopus” are poised to bite back with a vengeance in 2011.
A few weeks ago Bill Maher made a very astute point in describing the way America has become more and more conservative over the last thirty-odd years: “Republicans keep staking out a position that is further and further right, and then demand Democrats meet them in the middle, which is now not the middle anymore.”
And it’s true: the healthcare reform bill that’s being characterized by the right as “socialist” this year was once proposed—almost in identical form—by Bob Dole.
Thankfully for us, our tastes for campy horror movies seem to be following a similar trajectory, but in inverse proportion: as time goes on, they keep getting more and more out-there. And they’re not showing any sign of coming back soon.
New York Mag’s Vulture blog has a pretty amazing revelation today: the guy who made David Ellis who made 2006′s “Snakes on a Plane” has a yet-untitled 3D shark thriller due out this year. And he’s trying to call it “Untitled 3D Shark Thriller.”
“The title says everything you need to know: ‘We’ve got sharks.’ ‘It’s in 3D.’ and, ‘It’s a thriller,’” says Ellis.
It’s all part of a deliciously campy horror meme that started sometime in the glorious 70s and seems to be enjoying a particularly golden moment these days.
Case in point: Roger Corman, legendary producer of such 70s gems as “The Undead” and the original “Piranha,” is a producer on Untitled 3D Shark Thriller” and has been producing films for Syfy network for a while. Vulture has an amazing conversation with him, which is worth quoting in full:
“In the last couple years, I’ve done a couple of pictures for the SyFy Channel: Dinocroc and Dinoshark. They both got very high ratings. Then SyFy Channel called me and said, ‘You’ve come with these titles, and they’ve done well. We’ve come up with one, and wanted to know if you wanted to make it.’”
“So I said, ‘Let me hear it.’”
“They said, ‘Sharktopus.’”
“I said, ‘No way. Not interested. My theory is this: You can go up to a certain level of insanity with your titles. Dinocroc and Dinoshark are within those limits. Go over it, and the audience turns on you.’ But [SyFy] wore me down, and I agreed to make it. What happens? Sharktopus got the highest rating of any original movie on the channel in five years. Which shows that the level of insanity is higher than I thought it was, and that even at my age — and I’m 84 — you can learn something.
As the rest of American culture gets stuffier, it’s nice to know something out there is going to keep getting weirder. I don’t know about you, but with this year’s midterm elections behind us, and what’s sure to be a self-serious (albeit entertaining) 2012 presidential election season, I take comfort knowing that we’ll have “Untitled 3D Shark Thriller” to look forward to—say nothing of the sequel to last year’s “Piranha 3D,” “Piranha 3DD.”
