Director Lars Klevberg’s PG-13 supernatural horror effort Polaroid sat on a shelf for several years, before finally being dumped to limited theaters. Polaroid is by no means the first horror film to end up in stasis for a long time following its completion, joining a long list that also includes titles like Trick ‘r Treat, Leatherface, House of 1000 Corpses, and Before I Wake. Sometimes these delayed movies still ending up being good, making one wonder why the delay ever happened. Other times they turn out terrible, and it’s clear why they were held back.
Polaroid seems like a clear case of the latter, at least from a critical standpoint. With five reviews counted, Polaroid sits at the rare, dreaded score of 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with not one positive appraisal to its name. To be fair, that might’ve changed if more reviews were available, but the film’s small release is likely to blame for the low turnout. As is often the case, actual horror fans don’t seem to hate Polaroid nearly as much as the professional critics do, considering it closer to average than abysmal.
While it’s easy to assume that concerns about quality were the primary holdup for Polaroid‘s release, there was actually another factor in play, studio upheaval at Dimension Films. Here’s what happened.
Why Polaroid Took So Long To Release
Polaroid is an adaptation and expansion of an acclaimed short film released in 2015, the same year the feature version was first greenlit. Lars Klevberg also directed the short, and wrote it as well, although future Hell Fest scribe Blair Butler was hired to write the feature’s script. Filming on Polaroid commenced and finished in early 2017, with an August 25 theatrical release date booked. That was later delayed to December 1, then moved back to November 22, then shuffled off to sometime in 2018. The main reason for this release turmoil was the downfall of former Hollywood power players Harvey and Bob Weinstein, owners of Polaroid producer Dimension Films. Harvey’s long history of sexual misconduct was finally brought to light in fall 2017, in one of the first big consequences of the #MeToo movement.
The Weinstein Company – parent of Dimension Films – would end up declaring bankruptcy in spring 2018, with most of its assets being scooped by Lantern Entertainment. Polaroid would finally see its first releases in 2019 through an international co-distribution deal with 13 Films, bowing in both Germany and the UK. Finally, Vertical Entertainment was able to make a deal to distribute Polaroid theatrically in the U.S., on September 17, 2019, albeit not as a wide release. Polaroid finally became available to a wide audience in February 2020, when it landed on Netflix. At one point, Polaroid had almost been acquired by the streaming service outright, but legal issues with a Weinstein Company creditor ended up preventing that. Polaroid‘s years-long saga is finally over, but one doubts a sequel will develop any time soon.
