Bridesmaids is arguably the biggest success story of the year, if you consider that its box office grosses not only turned a female R-rated comedy into a blockbuster, but gave new life (and industry confidence) to the entire subgenre of lady-fronted comedy. Looking back on the first half of 2011, though, not every surprise was a Bridesmaids; some hit the jackpot without making nary a splash in the public eye. Continue along our look back from the midpoint of the year and consider these five quiet hits that you probably didn't know were hits.
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It was with no small amount of eagerness that Movieline ventured to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles to meet with screen veteran Barbara Hershey and discuss her work in Insidious, her second horror film in the last four months, following December's Black Swan. There, ensconced in a room in the famed nightclub -- a place purposefully shrouded in mystery -- conversation turned from the James Wan-directed tale to the paranormal and beyond thanks to a series of eerie mystery noises that, fittingly enough, evoked the thrills and scares found in the haunted house chiller.
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Now that everyone's seen the opening six minute sequence, Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch is poised to empower its way to a box office comeback in its second week of release. Just kidding; April Fools came early this year! Oh, laughs. (Sadface, Sucker Punch.) There's plenty more where that came from as we head into this week's candy coated weekend forecast. Monday morning prediction: Cadbury eggs and jelly beans for everyone at Universal!
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SXSW is a fest that caters to alterna-sensibilities, so it's no surprise genre fare has done well thus far. Insidious scored high marks with the horror crowd, but The Kill List notched all-out raves from even mainstream press -- though the Conan O'Brien documentary Conan O'Brien Can't Stop contains enough rage and demon-exorcising to give both a run for their money. Meanwhile, Bellflower -- a Sundance entry in the Emerging Visions sidebar -- screens on Monday night, as does the Dance Dance Revolution thriller The FP. Yes, you read that right: a gang warfare film about Dance Dance Revolution. Don't you wish you were in Austin?
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