I have to say, this Apollo 18 film doesn’t really interest me too much, primarily because Dimension has been jerking the film all over the release schedule, running from films and trying to find a slot where it just might be able to cash in for a week-and-a-half, but also because of the cheesy attempts at trying to muster up interest. Nothing is more annoying than viral film marketing. Okay, sure, it can be fun at times, but when that becomes a film’s primary source of marketing it begins to feel like the film’s only reason to exist is to spur on that viral marketing and Apollo 18 has been pushing it from the start.
The email I received promoting this latest “payoff” poster (yeah, an upside down screaming astronaut sure is quite the payoff) also included the following copy:
Additionally, we’ve released new documents at http://www.apollo18movie.net/cosmonauts….
A steady flow of evidence has been building at http://www.apollo18movie.net/cosmonauts (password: surveillance). Many of the never-before-seen documents found within this remote terminal are heavily redacted, but upon closer inspection they reveal a plethora of details that clearly suggest an Apollo 18 mission actually happened. The top-secret Cold War materials also expose some astonishing “Black-Op” agendas of the United States and U.S.S.R. rival space programs. Two newly added classified documents appear to be actual pages from the Apollo 18 Lunar Module voice recorder transcripts.
In order to sell the moon conspiracy Dimension is pushing, people have to be interested in the conspiracy and actually believe it’s a conspiracy. Back when this film was supposed to hit theaters on March 4 of this year I wrote an article headlined “‘Apollo 18’ Aims to Open Up an Alien Conspiracy… Is It Real or is It Fake?” having a bit of fun with the idea and that article continues to get reads, but at this point the film has missed its window. It’s too late. If you want to start a viral/conspiracy campaign for a film leading up to its release, you need to stick to the release schedule. Now it’s old, tired and boring and this new poster isn’t helping any.
As for when the film will hit theaters, now it’s set for September 2 where it will compete with Shark Night 3D for the horror audience. Thing is, both are PG-13 films, so neither has a competitive edge in that department. Shark Night is asking for the Piranha 3D audience and Apollo 18 wants the Paranormal Activity audience. I can’t tell if that’s the same audience or if both will come up losers. My assumption is it doesn’t really matter as both will take a back seat to Contagion and Warrior the following week and will be entirely forgotten by the time Drive and Straw Dogs hit theaters two weeks later.
All that said, here’s the poster, enjoy.
