The Family That Preys
Aug 26th, 2008 by Alex
After a long wait the director, writer, and star of The Family That Preys informed us in person — after a lot of applause, as if he were a local boy — that we were the first group to see the film. Very unexpected, but cool.
“I like to start things on time,” he said, explaining his lateness away. “I would have been here sooner but my driver got lost.” Stardom must suck, there. He also informed us that they finished shooting four months ago. Just four months. That’s incredible.
Tyler Perry was born in New Orleans and lives in Atlanta and I’m not sure why he picked Muvico Arundel Mills in Hanover, Maryland to screen his latest film, but there he was in the flesh. I haven’t seen Diary of a Mad Black Woman or any of his other works, but according to the gentleman sitting to my right the movie wasn’t up to par or believable. “Perry’s really fallen off,” he said, repeatedly commenting “that ain’t real” and “just a movie.”
I can see why. Not that the performances weren’t good, they were. There’s a lot of emotional and unsettling moments in the film, that left the whole audience reacting and fired up at times. It’s just that the storyline feels contrived and everything is a little too neatly packaged in the end. As the lovely lady to my left commented, it was like a parable.
After the movie was over, everyone took out their cell phones. After the anti-piracy guys informed us that we’d have to take back to our cars, no less. I was shocked. I guess we all forgot that we had them, including myself. Imagine that. To be honest, I’m not sure why anyone would pirate this movie. It officially opens on September 12th. It’s worth the trip to Redbox, but it’s not a feature that I’d pay full price for.
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That does seem like an odd place to have a movie preview. I used to get free passes to previews all the time when I was in college, but now I’m just stuck buying tickets like everyone else.