Just a couple of remakes that might have gone below the radar: Wizard of Oz and Hellraiser. And Hellraiser‘s especially interesting, as it likely tangles up everybody’s knee-jerk dislike of remakes: Barker’s (re)writing it himself. Don’t know what to think, myself. I mean, man, the original, I loved it. That and Lord of Illusions were so different from everything else being offered at the time (‘time’ meaning, yeah, that clearly delineated eight-year stretch . . . ). Not meaning to discount Nightbreed (or especially Candyman1), of course. But Illusions and Hellraiser were just a whole nother class.
Too, that Footloose remake I mentioned whenever-ago, looks like it’s more than just terrifying, it’s even got it’s own IMDb page now. Again though, I’ll say it: while it might be somewhat possible to find another Ren in Zac Effrom, man, who could ever replace Singer and Lithgow and Wiest? And Chris Penn especially? He’s Willard forever, for me. To say nothing of recapturing that magic moment called 19842, when one person could still listen to music as diverse as Quiet Riot and Men at Work, while dancing to Kenny Loggins.
As for me and remakes, though, this weekend I’m all about Halloween. And writing a novel in seventy-two hours. Maybe drinking some Vanilla Dr. Pepper from Sonic, if I come up for air long enough.
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- 1 ( or, as the soon to get bee-stung say it, candyman, candyman, candyman, candyman . . . ) )
- 2 for more 1984 goodness, see Demon Theory footnote 164b, which goes something like this:
. . . Footloose and Sixteen Candles and Beverly Hills Cop and Karate Kid and Ghostbusters and This Is Spinal Tap and Splash and The Neverending Story and Gremlins and Romancing the Stone and Police Academy and The Last Starfighter and Purple Rain and Revenge of the Nerds and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and . . . A Nightmare on Elm Street.