Many even threatened to quit the institution if we played it. These were the same people who thought it was great to reenact Sleepy Hollow for the kids' Halloween program.I recieved the regular e-mail out from the museum and it is described as "The Controversial Haunted Castle 3D".
Does anybody know the info, does anybody know the controversy that this film is causing????
Then, when the film received a PG rating in the states, Imax Corp. jumped on the bandwagon crying about its brand image.
The film is mostly CGI, portraying a young musician visiting a castle owned by his dead mother. In the castle he finds "Mr. D" (the devil, voiced by Harry Shearer) and is offered fame and fortune in exchange for his soul. On his tour through the castle, he finds the souls of various musicians throughout time who have taken the offer and are now spending eternity in hell.
Ben Stassen did a fantastic job with the 3D graphics and the film is worth a see for that alone. If I were to complain about something, it would be the story was kinda lame and fact that Stassen can't seem to produce a film without a rollercoaster ride of some sort. (He got his start in large format producing ride films.)
We screened this at my former institution and several very vocal staff members complained that it was full of devil worship and satanism. Many even threatened to quit the institution if we played it. These were the same people who thought it was great to reenact Sleepy Hollow for the kids' Halloween program.
In my opinion, kudos to Mr. Stassen for pushing the (very tightly sealed) envelope of large format filmmaking and making a large format film that's not a school-group documentary.
Mark Lensenmayer also wrote a review in the FHMR forum. He didn't like the film.
It did have some 3-D "satan" demons coming out of the fireplace, but I can't imagine anyone confusing it with reality. The old "Devil and Daniel Webster" was more believable.
