You see strange patterns in interlibrary loan

[thewayne]

Case in point, late April I mailed out a double DVD, The Curse and The Curse 2, a flippy DVD. I doubt it's a very good movie, but whatever. If someone wants it and I have it, it gets mailed.

Now, we initially cataloged this movie in 2013, so that's when we acquired it. Since then, and I don't know exactly when, we changed cataloging systems and lending history prior to that change was lost. It was, I'd guess, a decade ago. Since that 'decade'-ago conversion, it has had one in-house use plus me mailing it out once.

Very high-traffic item. :-)

Since I sent it out three weeks ago or so?

I've received two or three requests for it! I'm guessing it was featured/mentioned in a podcast or something.

Unfortunately I can't pull up cancelled requests in WorldShare. I could in our previous ILL program, ILLiad, but that cost a fair chunk of money annually whereas WorldShare is free because we already pay a goodly amount of change to OCLC for other programs that we need.

It'll be interesting to see if there's still demand for it once it's returned from the borrowing library.

After digging into IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB gives it a 5.1 out of a 1-10 scale and RT gives it a 27% score. I also found out that it's based on a HP Lovecraft story. So definitely sounds like a very bad movie. I didn't bother looking up Curse 2.

And IMDB had a footnote comment that Wil Wheaton, teen star of the film, noted that he and his sister were horribly abused during the production of this film and he talked about it on his blog in 2022(?).

Comments

[ranunculus]

Really bad movies used to just die, thrown away in the dustbin. Who knows if that was better or not.

[thewayne]

I can understand one person wanting to see it.  "I saw this really terrible movie - you've GOT TO see it!" and they go and request it.  But three requests in as many weeks?  I see this kind of thing happen with books, and on one or two occasions we'll buy a second copy.  But an old, bad movie like this?  Kinda odd.  And I don't think it's a "good bad" movie.

[ranunculus]

Research material? Where did that prop/set/costume end up? Legal wrangling? What did they really make Will do? Request by the same person from several places in an attempt to find the movie?

[thewayne]

Unfortunately I can't pull up the cancelled requests.  Or can I....  Just had a thought that I can check into tomorrow, if I remember.  I can't see who the patron is at the requesting library, but I can definitely see who the requesting library is.

[disneydream06]

I don't think I will be rushing out to find that one. :o

[thewayne]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it.  According to either IMDB or RT, it is steaming on either Amazon or Netflix.  I'm not going to bother.  While I love good bad movies, this sounds more bad bad.

[disneydream06]

Oh Darn, I don't have either service. :p

[moonhare]

Maybe Oprah recommended it…

[thewayne]

ROFL!  Yeah, I tend to doubt it.

[darkoshi]

I remember reading about that on Wil's blog:
https://wilwheaton.net/2022/08/when-you-watch-the-curse-you-are-watching-two-children-who-were-abused-and-exploited-daily-during-production-no-adults-protected-us/

[thewayne]

Yep, I read that, too, back in the day.

[murakozi]

I hadn't heard of the movie, but reading the post on Wil Wheaton's blog that was mentioned left me with zero interest in ever seeing it. I've heard and read about how bad Wheaton's life was for a long time, but dang, the stuff he and his sister were exposed to on that set has to be criminal.

I read the plot of the film on wikipedia. Even if I didn't know about the bad stuff that happened to Wheaton, it doesn't sound like a movie that I'd be interested in watching, even if it was good.

[thewayne]

For me, if the name HP Lovecraft is tied with a project, my interest in it drops by at least 75%.