Subversive to the nth degree, Troma Entertainment has made a name for itself by gleefully exposing filmgoers to all manner of gory, lewd and, above all, silly merriment since 1974, and the company has carried on with reckless – some would even say tasteless – abandon throughout the subsequent decades to cement its status as the forerunner in shlocktastic offerings that shock the masses and delight the company’s loyal followers.
Then why did it take so long to release after announcing it just a few months ago?
They couldn’t find anyone who wanted to release it. This article from 2024 quotes a producer who says it’s “unreleasable” because of how violent it is, and it would probably go straight to VOD.
Obviously it wasn’t unreleasable, but it seems clear they couldn’t find a distributor for a while.
Incredibly violent schlock, distributors called it too risky
Yeah, and with the consolidation that was happening at the time only middle of the road stuff or sequels to recent stuff was getting picked up.
It’s less violent than Terrifier but they had already gotten picked up. But adding schlock (which is how much of Troma is billed) was a bridge too far. Cineverse (who distributed Terrifier 3) is out there taking chances a lot of folks won’t take anymore. They’ve got some garbage streaming TV, some fun (to me) streaming stuff, a couple of movies no one else wanted to touch, and a couple of upcoming movies that would be difficult to touch through the big distributors.
I’m still confused about why Troma didn’t choose to distribute it but my gut feeling is they would have to go straight to VOD and either there was some contract stuff about that or they really wanted to try to get it in theaters.
It kinda makes sense. It’s got Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, and Elijah Wood, and it’s got a health-care theme. So they probably figured it had a chance at making some money in theaters, or at least getting a better deal in streaming even if the theater run isn’t that long.