On May 19th, the much anticipated australian horror film, THE TUNNEL made its somewhat revolutionary debut. Revolutionary, you say? Well, the film was financed by selling individual frames of the movie at $1 a frame, and in an attempt to use illegal downloading to its advantage. It has debuted FREE after being picked up by the BitTorrent Artist Spotlight Program. The film is being released simultaneously on bitTorrent and on DVD. It has been also been aired on Showtime.
THE TUNNEL fits neatly into the Mockumentary sub-genre and chronicles an investigation into a government cover-up which lead the investigative team into a network of abandoned train tunnels underneath the city of Sydney, where something unimaginable awaits the crew...
Word has it, the film is pretty damn great. Its slowly finding its way across the net through word of mouth and a smattering of positive reviews including one to be found on popular film site, Aint It Cool News.
I'm sure all genre fans will agree, if a film is good enough, no amount of illegal downloading can stop the fans from purchasing the film on DVD. I believe its a very clever move; using torrent dloading as a means to spread word and sell the product. Not to mention an ingenious way to raise the money for the production itself. I'm sure many workprints have been leaked before for this very reason, as a method of advertising to the true fans. and for independent filmmakers this could be a very positive step forward for the genre. Lets see how this plays out. If its as good as it looks, the cast and crew can add one more to the list of DVD buyers. Well done, guys, for a brilliant idea. Good luck with the project. I'm rooting for ya! Check it out, folks
(Note: I've personally caught a snippit of the movie and it looks like the real deal. Very creepy. Expect a full review soon.)
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