While most critics were negative towards "Dune", critic and science fiction writer Harlan Ellison had a different opinion. In his 1989 book of film criticism, "Harlan Ellison's Watching", he says that the $42 million production failed because critics were denied screenings at the last minute after several reschedules, a decision by Universal that, according to Ellison, made the film community feel nervous and negative towards "Dune" before its release. Ellison eventually became one of the film's few positive reviewers. Daniel Snyder also praised elements of the film in a 2014 article which called the movie "...a deeply flawed work that failed as a commercial enterprise, but still managed to capture and distill essential portions of one of science fiction's densest works." Snyder stated that Lynch's "surreal style" created "a world that felt utterly alien", full of "...bizarre dream sequences, rife with images of unborn fetuses and shimmering energies, and unsettling scenery like the industrial hell of the Harkonnen homeworld, the fil[m actually closer to Kubrick ("") than . It seeks to put the viewer somewhere unfamiliar while hinting at a greater, hidden story." Snyder praised the production and stated that Herbert had said he was pleased with Lynch's film.