Why does Syfy Channel put out such Crap movies?

I enjoy the channel but don't understand why they put out so many schlock garbage movies?

I mean couldn't they marshall their finances for 1 or 2 good movies a year but instead produce 7 or 8 total crap movies per year like:

Dino-shark
Frankenfish
Hammer of the gods
Monster shark vs monster alligator

I dunno what do you guys think?

It seems to me the bad movies are increasing in volume - maybe they are making more money off them - think NBC recently bought the channel but i dont get it?

reply to post by BABYBULL24


I totally agree with you. Everything they put out sucks. It's like they have an entire staff that's from the 1960's.

It's all garbage.

Originally posted by skepticconwatcher
reply to post by BABYBULL24

 

I totally agree with you. Everything they put out sucks. It's like they have an entire staff that's from the 1960's.

It's all garbage.

No, I reluctantly must disagree. It's 12-year-old-boy geeks. I've seen their concept drawings peeking out of their binders in school....

reply to post by Ex_CT2


Ed Wood - that you?

Originally posted by BABYBULL24
reply to post by Ex_CT2

 

Ed Wood - that you?

Heh. Very droll....

Bro its the syfy network.

Nuff said. *end troll*

I understand what you're saying. They do have some good shows but the movies suck. A lot.

It's so you'll rent a movie from a pay channel instead.

Originally posted by Ex_CT2

Originally posted by BABYBULL24
reply to post by Ex_CT2

 

Ed Wood - that you?

Heh. Very droll....

Divine would agree

Oh I hated those guys so much.. lol..

syfy is not a channel for people with a brain.. when it was scifi it might have been. How do you avoid the wrestling though, I have to ask?

oO

reply to post by BABYBULL24


because they are cheeper than good movies

History. That is the answer to your question.
As an old timer, I cut my teeth on reading sci-fi books starting about the time UFOs appeared in the US--yes, that long ago. In those days sci-fi had absolutely no legitmacy. Sci-fi was considered a bastard step-child of fantasy and not a creditable genre, While it has grown more and more popular with the masses, as the masses are drawn to think about other life out there and incidently, to witness and report UFOs, the subject has actually, usually, been treated with contempt by Hollywood. That contempt started at the first low-budget films and continues well into TV movies.

There are several reasons that reinforce the lack of respectibility given to sci-fi movies. We can blame lack of scientific credibility for many of the themes of such movies, lack of creativity, lack of money, lack of the religious folks to "like" such movies (as a rule) and lack of science and government to deem them OK and/or help much in the making of them.

On the other hand, given all of the reasons why sci-fi movies have suffered in coming of age, it is still refreshing to these old eyes to see that the genre has a terrific influence today on how most younger people look upon the universe. The whole field of Sci-fi has held make more acceptable considerations that those things called UFOs are just maybe something....

I don't know, I thought Sharktopus was kind of amusing lol...anyway, I watched part of Sasquatch Mountain yesterday and wondered why Lance Henrikson made that movie. Come on now, this was the guy that did Millenium (great series in my opinion). I don't know, maybe they can't afford to make quality movies. The movies and basic premises are pretty good, I suppose, but the acting is horrendous. Maybe they are trying to make us afraid of these movies not for the content, but for the actual movies themselves? lol..I don't know. It just seems like TV in general pretty much sucks these days.

Agree that most of their movies are crap. However, a couple months ago they aired one that wasn't too bad. I believe it was "American Warships" or something. It had Mario Van Peebles and Carl Weathers if it. Oddly, it aired the same weekend that "Battleship" came out...

They do (or at least did, don't watch much tv anymore) have some great shows... But I agree, their movies are just terrible. I actually started thinking they were meant more to be humorous. Perhaps that is the case? Does anyone actually enjoy their movies?

reply to post by BABYBULL24


For a few reasons:

Making good movies can cost a lot of money
Making crappy movies is faster and cheaper

See SyFy movies aren't released into theaters, which means that you don't pay admission, which means that in order to make their money back they have to produce cheap films. Now it is possible to make a decent B-movie with a small budget but I think there is an audience that actually likes schlock movies. Now me personally I love myself a good B-movie, but I prefer the old fashioned kind with rubber monsters, stop-motion and practical effects. These terrible CGI monster films are just, well, terrible, they don't even make for fun schlocky B-movies.

As an example one of the best B-movie monster films is Tremors with Kevin Bacon and Burt Ward, here's a movie that didn't have a huge budget, used puppeteering and other practical monster effects and doesn't take itself too seriously (it's a comedy more than a horror film). Gremlins is another great example. This stuff can be done right but Syfy chooses not to.

Personally I think the channel has gone down hill in a hurry in recent years, I haven't liked a Syfy television show, since, well, damn, probably since Mystery Science theater 3000 went off the air. I mean I used to like Ghost Hunters, back when I was a teenager and thought that stuff was real. Eureka was okay I guess. I'm not sure about Doctor Who, people keep telling me I'd like it but I'd have to start from the original British series to really get anything out of it. In general the whole channel just sucks.

Couldn't agree more, but if you ask them, they "don't make the movies". It's a crock.

There have been great shows they could have picked up when their original networks decided to tank them like, "Defying Gravity", "The Event", just to name a couple.

It was getting bad, and then USA Network got involved...now it's worse.

I agree .. they really make crappy movies

but this one was good
with Castiel from supernatural

I ask myself the same question everyday :/

After the watching Bigfoot (which was billed as Partridge Family vs The Brady Bunch), I promised myself I wouldn't watch any more of SyFy's movies.

Cheap effects and overacting can ruin even the best story lines.

J

The movies are incredibly cheesy and Syfy knows it. They know how terrible these films are. But there are people who like these cheesy movies. There's a market for them, that's why they aren't even pretending to be decent films anymore. Everybody knows what to expect from a film named "Sharktopus". They've embraced this, and it's not going to stop unless it's not making them money.

Now the other reason is that Sci-Fi movies are the most expensive films to make. They typically require vast amounts of special effects. It's a big gamble to attempt to produce a serious syfy film because of the cost and that the audience is really picky. We don't want to see CG if it doesn't look very realistic. We want to see fantasy or science fiction, but it still has to either fully immerse us or remain recognizable and realisticish to us. It's not an easy thing to do.

They do occasionally attempt and succeed with serious attempts, however. For instance, a new prequel film to the popular sci-fi remake of Battlestar Galactica is under development. In my opinion, the best Sci-Fi has ever produced is the "Taken" Tv miniseries and I'd love to see more like that.

I actually kind of enjoyed Arachnoquake. I watched it about a week ago. It had Edward Furlong in it. The guy who played John Conner in Terminator 2. I was shocked, that kid did not age well. He looked bloated & sick. Still got a kick out of the cheesy flick though.