Why this film is so big

Rating: 4/10 (4 November 2009)

I wanted to mention why I think this film has been so profitable - and it's not because of the movie itself, which I didn't find to be that great or that scary. It's because of the marketing.
The extremely limited pre-Halloween release combined with the TV ads and internet trailers showing people watching the film and apparently having a jump-out-of-their seat fright-after-fright sort of time, created a demand that will probably go unchallenged in the future as moviegoers are unlikely to fall for the tactic a second time. But it was sheer brilliance to play on that human desire to want what we can't have, and their PR team deserves a few medals.
So that's why I saw it in spite of bad reviews. I wanted to judge for myself and at first I COULD NOT because it wasn't playing nearby, and so I spent a few weeks anxiously checking new releases hoping it would arrive in my area. Like many others - I got played.
Regarding reports of people running from the theater - they had motion sickness and were about to throw up. I initially thought reports of vomiting in the theater were from fear, because it's "that intense" but seriously people, it made me very queasy and I have never experienced motion sickness in a movie before. And yes, I saw Quarantine, Blair Witch, and Cloverfield. No sickness at all.
In a nutshell - brilliant marketing and the ability to make people puke doesn't make a movie great.