Well they are at it again. Shock Till You Drop have learned that the 80’s classic horror movie Fright Night is up for a remake, this time it’s Screen Gems who should be named and shamed as the studio who don’t have the balls to take a risk on a new and original project. Oh wait, we know that already don’t we because they are the studio behind the remakes to When a Stranger Calls and Prom Night.
The word is, this will be a ‘name only’ remake and will have a different plot to the original Tom Holland movie. So then it’s not a remake right, they are just using the name like Tarantino is using the Inglorious Bastards name?
I’m confused. When is a remake not a remake?
The original Fright Night which was actually the second highest grossing horror flick of 1985 (behind Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and it centered around a teenager who finds out his neighbour is a vampire but of course no-one believes him. So desperate for someone to believe him, he turns to a veteran vampire movie star and t.v. host Peter Vincent (an obvious blending of Peter Cushing and Vincet Price, played by Roddy McDowall) for help.
Scott Strauss who is executive producing the movie wants to set the movie in a Amusement Park. Weird and not quite Fright Night but I’ve always been a fan of Amusement horrors, so it could work.
Still, they will never be able to make a movie as fun as this one. Fright Night was a great homage to horror’s past and now ironically it’s getting it’s own re-treatment…
2 Comments
the trailer still shows how well crafted the movie was back in 85… a remake will require careful thought…
the structure of the original was very smart… classic set pieces interesting character development of dandridge…
recently played time crisis 2 Namco in the arcades could a similar approach be deployed to the direction and structural dimensions of a movie set within a ghoulishly lit themepark…
with an errie secluded lakeside residence for a few of the early victims demise…part of the appeal of the original is the premise that some of the movie does appear staged??
thus amplifying the tension when the scary stuff does happen…
unlike other examples of the gentre there is stong story and characters and we often feel alone ourselves when we watch the film becasue of its careful and traditional direction…
could the remake involve some new use of detection if dandridge appears part cgi- could they bring back the original cast member…
the poster should show a simialr theme to the original but with a greenish tint of ghouls above a theme park overlooking a large cliff?
should dandrige have special coffin in the sequal which doubles up as magic door to other rooms in the park making him more difficult to capture raising the prospect of a ghostbusters style final but obviously with more serious overtones…
* magic coffin could be a special prop which is part CGI?
an alternative venue could be an ancient theatre which uses ancient puppets to entertain its guests: like a special audiotium…
(apparently ancient puppets existed before actors and theatre… )
this could make for a more unusual reimaging of the original whereby the actors are partially controlled in a puppet way within the movie(ref labyrinth 1986…)scenes have more dimension things move in a unpredictable way.. locations vary from lush hotels to desert regions of the ancient world? ref (last temptation of christ 1988)
a more ambitious project to show character vunrablity / to show super hero agilities coupled with more adult unknown aspects to the picture?
hence magic is involved to hide or project character vunrabilities add depth to dream sequences sub plot what makes a vampire ?…
does the vampire know how to contain his lust for Amy? is his behaviour controlled in a particular way? which suggests he is under control by an alternative source outside the traditional sphere of human behavour is there a conspiracy (behind the scenes) to get the vampire to behave in a specific way?
i.e shakespearean or is there some kind of invisible thread which is running the show like a demonic vapire puppet master?
possible title could be simply: fright night theatre? fright night prequal… more intellectual? yet with an entertaining dimension?