Dylan O'Brien has admitted that he found the lack of promotion for his independent movie Twinless "super disappointing".
James Sweeney's dark comedy was one of the breakout hits of last year's Sundance Film Festival, with The Maze Runner star receiving high praise for his portrayal of twins.
Despite the glowing reviews, the movie struggled to find distribution, but was eventually acquired by Roadside Attractions, which did not market the film adequately, according to O'Brien.
Venting his frustrations about the perceived lack of promotion, he told The Hollywood Reporter, "It's hard to not look back and be like, 'Wow, what would it have been like if it was really put out there?' Such a massive piece of it is on the studios and distributors of really backing the films that they acquire, especially when they're smaller films and not something that someone's going to know outright."
He added, "There's many moments where it certainly, yeah, was super disappointing. It was all there. That's the piece where it's the disappointment."
The 34-year-old also addressed his explicit sex scenes in Twinless leaking on social media after the film's debut on Sundance's online platform. While he noted that "any awareness is awareness", he wondered if the furore perhaps "diminished our film".
Despite the rollout, Twinless is still up for Best Feature at the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards, while O'Brien is nominated for Best Lead Performance.
The former Teen Wolf star admitted that he hadn't heard of half of the titles up against Twinless for Best Feature.
"They're fantastic," O'Brien stated. "You look at this year: I don't know if I could name a single independent film that was really marketed, and that's scary."
On the flip side, the actor noted that he sees the trailer for his new survival thriller Send Help constantly, and he's "so psyched to see" the team at 20th Century Studios "getting behind it".
Twinless was released in the U.S. in September last year. Both Twinless and Send Help were released in U.K. cinemas this weekend.
