B-movies return as 'mockbusters'

No, they‘re not spelling mistakes. There really are DVDs out there called ’Snakes on a Train‘ and ’Alien vs Hunter‘ – titles that read suspiciously like recent film hits. Tom Huddleston investigates

Those lamenting the death of the old fashioned B-movie should pay heed to the work of The Asylum, a Los Angeles film studio whose output is almost entirely confined to the production of ‘mockbusters’. These are low-rent genre flicks tailor-made to cash in on whatever mega-budget studio fare is currently packing ’em in at the multiplexes. With titles (‘Transmorphers’, ‘Street Racer’) and covers specifically designed to lure in the unsuspecting DVD browser, these low-budget but surprisingly ambitious Z-grade actioners have heralded the birth of the most unlikely new force in the international movie marketplace.

Asylum latched on to the idea of the ‘mockbuster’ when their version of HG Wells’s out-of-copyright ‘War of the Worlds’ happened to land at the same time as Spielberg’s. The orders flooded in, and soon the company had switched its entire production base to turning around cheap genre titles in as little as three months.

Asylum CEO David Michael Latt is refreshingly unapologetic about this mercenary outlook. ‘We’re a cashflow company, which means we survive on the success of the films we release. When we were doing horror we had a great following, but it gets kind of limiting. So when we started doing the studio tie-ins all of a sudden we get to do political thrillers, we get to do action-adventure, we get to do sci-fi, all these different genres, which is very liberating and very fun.’

There isn’t a genre Asylum won’t turn its hand to, from rampaging T-Rexes in ‘100 Million BC’ to whipcracking historical escapade ‘Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls’; from the post-apocalyptic zombie thrills of ‘I Am Omega’ to this week’s new title, intergalactic smackdown ‘Alien vs Hunter’. That last film is being released in the wake of its only slightly higher budget namesake ‘Alien vs Predator: Requiem’.

Advance online hype secured Asylum’s interest in making 2006’s ‘Snakes on a Train’, and for the first time a mockbuster managed to improve on its inspiration: despite falling prey to budgetary limitations, ludicrous plotting and a distinct dearth of acting ability, this is a decent little
B-picture, tightly structured and memorably scripted. The one thing the original, ‘Snakes on a Plane’, sorely lacked was a key character transforming into a giant snake and devouring the rest of the cast, as happens here. ‘With only four days left of shooting my partner called and said everyone is really excited about ‘Snakes on a Train’, but they’re more excited about the poster, which showed a snake swallowing a train. It was meant to be, you know, metaphorical. But the buyers wanted it, so I was given the mandate that the ending had to have the snake eat the train.’

I put it to him how many other filmmakers must envy this bizarre form of creative licence. ‘There’s a lot of freedom to it, there’s a lot of restriction to it; it’s just different challenges every time. For some strange reason we just keep jumping back into the challenge and doing it.’

It doesn’t always go according to plan: the lengthy post-production process endured by ill-starred Nicole Kidman vehicle ‘Invasion’ allowed Asylum ample time to produce their own version, but then the original sank without trace. ‘It does affect DVD sales. There’s a direct correlation; proportionally our movies will only do as well as the big screen tie-ins.’

It doesn’t help that ‘Invasion: The Beginning’ was shot almost entirely in two beige-painted interior locations, features alien plantlife that’s clearly pieces of root ginger stuck in pots and seems to equate alien bodysnatching with predatory lesbianism.

But things are changing inside The Asylum. Directed by its star, C Thomas Howell, ‘War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave’ handily serves as a catch-all sequel to both their own 2004 movie and the concurrently released Spielberg/Cruise version, throwing in a touch of religious symbolism and a gloriously wacky space-time travel plotline. For audiences weaned on Asylum’s early ‘Knightmare’-style computer effects, the movie might prove something of a shock because it actually looks pretty great: the clunky space bikes of ‘Transmorphers’ have been replaced with super high-tech jet fighters, the fuzzy robot monsters with sleek, prowling, death-ray toting alien tripods.

Next stop: legitimacy? ‘We’ve upped our game. We have a new team of filmmakers; we’re getting better at what we do. But legitimacy in this business is staying alive. Our business model changes every month. If we end up going theatrical, then great; if not, great. We’re still having fun making movies.’

And that’s what stands out about Asylum’s output: these films, in all their cardboard-and-sawdust, ZX Spectrum glory, have a genuine and infectious sense of fun in the planning, the making and the viewing. ‘We truly, truly love making films. We just happen to be very dictated to by the market. You know, even the major studios started off making B-movie content: horror films, gangster films. Who knows where we’re going to be ten, 15, 20 years from now? Probably bloated, drunk and off on some island somewhere – but that’s a whole other story.’

‘Alien vs Hunter’ is released this week through Pinnacle distribution. ‘War of the Worlds 2’ and other titles will follow throughout 2008.