As the new year begins. It’s time to plan the release of the Exorcism of Fleete Marish, a horror feature that has been touring the festival circuit of the last sixth months or so. The film has picked up five wins and over a dozen official selections. For example wins at Horror Bowl, Swedish Film Awards, Independent Horror Movie Awards, nominations at Horror Island as well. Also Composer/Producer Tim Kulig managed to pick up two wins for the original score.
I had to do some thinking about how to release this film. Should I create physical media, should I self-distribute or find a distributor? In regard to filmmaking, having a distributor is very similar to having a book publisher. Do you need one to have success? No, but for some of us, there is a division between the professional realm and the hobbyist and some of us have fought hard to keep the progress we’ve made in our career. Troma Entertainment has been very important to me over the last decade, I now have three documentaries (VHS Massacre docs) and one TV Show (Monster Kill) distributed through them. Troma is known for low-budget horror and so some people look down upon it.
Some people are just never going to get it but working with Troma for the last decade has been an honor. Hanging out with Lloyd and the Last Drive-in gang has been a lot of fun. In the Independent filmmaking game, pioneers like Roger Corman and Lloyd Corman are really most know for “discovering” talented filmmakers. James Gunn (the new head of DC) and other folks like Matt Stone Tray Parker and Eli Roth all started at Troma. Roger Corman on the other-hand gave people like Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Coppola and Scorsese, their first breaks. In the future if I create another documentary or film that’s on brand for Troma I will go with them for sure but MVD Group for Exorcism seem to make sense. Who is MVD Group you ask? They are an independent film/music distributor. I’ve been working with them for about 15 years and they’ve put out several of my titles on digital and physical media as well. The good thing is that they do a revenue split with you so even if you are not making much money, it’s at least transparent. I find them to be very trustworthy and they are one of the largest remaining independent film distributor in the US. There is no firm date for a release but it may be mid-2023. Thanks for reading, more news to come!
Tom Seymour Films 