8 Cheap Tricks Hollywood Uses to Get Your Money

3. Pale Imitations

I want to believe that only the most idiotic filmgoer would enter into a €˜Mockbuster€™ willingly, but I unfortunately know that€™s not the case. After all, for them to have been released at all must indicate at least some modicum of demand for them, however slight. Mockbusters are an awful, cynical concept that serves only to win a few bites from tiny, unthinking audiences before they€™re lost in the annals of movie obscurity. But usually, that€™s enough for the €˜Studio€™ to have made its money back and more, meaning there€™ll be more of these things stinking up our second-hand DVD stores before you can say €˜rip off€™. Basically, any time a big movie comes out, you€™ll get a Mockbuster version coming out around the same time to hopefully catch some of the overspill audience figures. Transformers? Transmorphers! Paranormal Activity? Paranormal Entity! Schindler€™s List? Shandler€™s Lisp! (Ok, maybe not that last one). Just check out the trailer for 2009€™s straight to video Paranormal Entity, written, directed by and starring Shane Van Dyke (who€™s also guilty of Transmorphers by the way): http://youtu.be/MGL-rr6nouM If you thought this was in some way connected to Paranormal Activity, then you€™ve only got yourself to blame for wasting your money. And I guess Shane Van Dyke has you to thank for buying him a condo.
 
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Stuart believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, but still he insists on using a keyboard.