Knives Out is a great time. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d highly recommend going today. It’s funnier than expected. It’s got one of the year’s best casts, and it sends a message to Hollywood that we would love to have a handful of wonderful whodunits to go see every year. If they’re good, we’ll support them, and if the stars of Knives Out has their way, we won’t spoil them either.
To help support the movie, the cast recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly. During the conversation, the subject of spoilers came up and Daniel Craig implored viewers not to spoil the movie for everyone else. Here’s a portion of his quote…
“You could spoil this movie. I don’t think it would spoil this movie. But, if you can watch it and tell your friends to go see it… it’s worth it for them to then go and get a kick out of it. Because going to this movie cold would be the best thing on earth.”
Making a movie that involves a hidden secret comes with some inherent risk. Poorly adjusted trolls will attempt to spoil the movie. More well-adjusted people, without malice in their hearts but with a lack of self-awareness, will openly discuss what happened on Twitter as soon as they get out of the film. It’s why some in Hollywood are actually against making anything that can be spoiled. Not the cast of Knives Out. They powered through despite the risks and made one of the year’s most delightful movies.
Jamie Lee Curtis, who is always willing to speak her mind, was a bit more harsh in her comments about spoilers than co-star Daniel Craig was. She instead decided to focus on the psychology of the type of person who would spoil a movie, and she was not kind in her assessment, at least of those who do it on purpose. Check out a portion of her quote below…
“It’s a weird power trip. I know something you don’t know, and somehow it elevates you, but in fact it diminishes you greatly, if you really think about it. Because it makes you very small to ruin the delicious surprise… It’s like going up to someone and going, ‘You’re having a surprise party’ Well, fuck you!”
There’s a fear in Hollywood, whether warranted or not, that if people get spoiled on a movie, they’re less likely to pay to see it. Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s not. Either way, I firmly believe people will show up and support a good mystery. You can look at the success of numerous long running television mystery procedurals to see that, as well as true crime podcasts and the occasional big screen mystery we do get that gets good reviews like Gone Girl, Girl On A Train or now, Knives Out. Fingers crossed on the upcoming Death On The Nile too.
Also, if you haven’t heard yet, Knives Out is a great time, and you should consider spending your day at the movies watching it.
