Tentpole Trauma

Horror remakes were all the rage at the turn of the previous decade, as were vampires, so an updated version of the 1985 hit Fright Night was all but inevitable. Armed with a strong cast that featured Anton Yelchin, Toni Collette, David Tennant and sexy vamp Colin Farrell, Craig Gillespie's 2011 version had all the markings of a winner, so why did it fail to find blood at the box office? Join...

George Lucas adapting a Marvel comics property should be a license to print money, right? Directed by Lucas collaborator Willard Huyck, the 1986 adaptation of Steve Gerber's beloved comics character was given a huge budget that would feature top shelf animatronics and special effects, but audiences found it off-putting and ridiculous enough to flock far away. Still, is there enjoyment to...

In a post-Matrix Hollywood, the prospect of adapting Peter Chung's cult anime hit seemed like the opportunity to kick-start another FX heavy sci fi franchise. Get Girlfight director Karyn Kusama to direct combined with white-hot star Charlize Theron in the action heroine lead...how could it fail? That's the mind-bending conundrum Chris, Rodney and Sebastian wrestle with as they dissect&n...

In honor of Black History Month we're covering the obvious choice...Men in Black: International! Directed by filmmaker F. Gary Gray this  continuation of the Will Smith fronted franchise was sure to be a smash, except it didn't star Will Smith. But can its box office failure be blamed on charming replacements Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson? Join Jennifer and Sebastian as they don the...

Hold on a second... is this really fair? Christopher Nolan's mega-budget time travel spy thriller came out at the height of the pandemic, can its relative box office failure accurately be blamed on the film? Well no, but it was certainly a misguided effort to save cinemas and many were baffled by the muddy sound mix... look, we just wanted to talk Tenet, OK? Join Sebastian, Troy and...

M. Night Shyamalan was on a four blockbuster winning streak in 2006 when he left the nurturing bosom of Disney to make his next film, a fairy tale epic starring Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard. Surely the movie would be a critical and financial hit and prove the naysayers wrong... but in a shocking twist worthy of his own filmography it was neither. Join Rodney, Jennifer and Sebastian as the...

Coming off the 90s you'd be hard-pressed to find a cooler pair of directors than Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and when they decided to bring their love of Grindhouse cinema to the mainstream in 2007 with a joint effort that also featured hot filmmakers Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie, film geeks everywhere rejoiced. Sadly, mainstream audiences did not, and the film was the first m...

Take the director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the writer of Alien, and you've got yourself an 80s sci fi horror hit, right? Well, not so much. Tobe Hooper's 1985 schlockfest Lifeforce delivered in terms of gratuitous nudity and gonzo spectacle, but in terms of box office and critical reception it was an apocalyptic disaster. Join Sebastian, Chris and Troy as they try to unravel the ho...

Teaming Girlfight director Karyn Kusama with Oscar winning screenwriter Diablo Cody for a female-driven horror film seemed a tantalizing prospect in 2009; add to that the presence of then white-hot sex symbol Megan Fox to the mix and Jennifer's Body should have been a sure-fire winner. Sadly the film fizzled at the box office and fan reaction was tepid – did this horror comedy deserve better, or w...

20 years after dazzling audiences with The Fifth Element, auteur Luc Besson returned to epic sci fi to adapt the beloved French comic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The trailers promised a dazzling, effects-heavy extravaganza that spared no expense and featured hot up-and-comers Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne, so how did it crash so resoundingly to earth with both critics and moviego...

A Stephen King adaptation helmed by Hollywood legend Lawrence Kasdan with a cast that features Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Lee and Damian Lewis would seem a solid recipe for success, right? This 2003 sci fi/horror film proves that even a stable of A-list talent and gobs of studio money can still result in a cinematic trainwreck and a box office flop – but is it entert...

Trapped in development hell for close to 100 years, Edgar Rice Burroughs' pulp science fiction superhero John Carter of Mars finally got his big shot to become a blockbuster film franchise in 2012 with Pixar director Andrew Stanton's highly anticipated adaptation. But despite being a clear influence of cultural touchstones like Star Wars, Superman and Avatar, the only honor bestowed upon John Cart...

Following up one of the greatest horror tales of all time was always going to be a dicey proposition, but after Stephen King penned his own long awaited sequel to The Shining novel, it was inevitable some filmmaker would be tasked with doing the same for Kubrick’s groundbreaking version. Hot horror director Mike Flanagan was the man for the job — so why did so few fans flock back to the Overlook i...

Despite years of dormancy, a hand-off to Disney and troubled productions, the Star Wars brand wielded unlimited power at the box office — at least until the lackluster performance of 2018’s ill-fated Han Solo prequel. So what happened to this once teflon franchise? Join Troy, Chris and Sebastian as they delve into the dark side to get to the bottom of the disastrous financial flop that is Solo: A...

The Platinum Dunes 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street boasted a new Freddy Krueger in Jackie Earle Haley, a big budget and top shelf  visual effects...so why did it seemingly kill the franchise deader than a dozing teen? Dream a little dream with Sebastian, Jen and Rodney as we get to the bottom of this blood soaked snoozer just in time for Halloween! https://www.patreon.com/tentpoletra...

Hoping to bring the Universal monsters back in a big way, Joe Johnston’s big budget Wolfman remake featured a top shelf writer, a strong cast and high production values. So what went wrong? That’s the question Sebastian, Chris and Jennifer ask themselves under the light of the full moon as they delve into 2010’s The Wolfman. https://www.patreon.com/tentpoletrauma https://www.facebook.com/tentpolet...

Bringing Frank Herbert’s seminal sci fi masterpiece to big screens for the first time was a task as epic as the film itself, one fraught with perils not even brilliant cinematic minds could overcome. In this, the inaugural episode of Tentpole Trauma, hosts Sebastian, Chris and Troy parse over the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of David Lynch’s 1984 box office bomb, Dune. https://www.patreon.co...