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‘Saw’ Producer to Remake ‘Pumpkinhead’

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The 1988 horror slasher Pumpkinhead is the latest horror film to land on the “remake” table, although the man behind the updated version is trying his best to prove that his intentions are nothing short of honorable.

Peter Block, known as one of the executive producers of the Saw franchise, has obtained the rights to the Pumpkinhead franchise, according to EW, and he wants to bring the creature back from the cinema graveyard. He enlisted a young scribe by the name of Nate Atkins to write the script.

‘Pumpkinhead’ is one of my favorite horror films of the late ’80s, early ’90s. Stan Winston sits on that Mount Rushmore of iconic filmmakers because of his creature designs, and that was his first directing effort. The creature’s great but the emotional story is wonderful as well,” Block explains.

The updated version is going to pay homage to the original film but only those who know the first well will catch on. “There’s a lot of Easter eggs for people who know the original — iconic shots and iconic lines that we’re going to use.” However, Block assures everyone that there is a purpose to this remake, stating, “…we’ve enhanced the setting, and we’ve expanded the characters somewhat, to give it a different kind of experience.

Perhaps the biggest point that Block makes is that he recognizes the respect the horror community has for Stan Winston and practical FX, saying, “I am a big proponent of practical effects. That was the great thing about the original. A lot of the films I still respond to most today, it’s because of the practical effects. We think that it’s going to be a nice slow reveal, lots of scares and lots of action in the beginning, and a great creature in the end, which everybody should be able to look at and say, ‘Oh, that’s Pumpkinhead!’ It’s not like you’re all of a sudden going to find that it’s some amorphous, nebulous, CGI wispy thing. You’re going to know it came from the Pumpkinhead family lineage.

In the original film, which starred Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Alien3), a store owner is overcome with grief after the accidental death of his son. Seeking out vengeance, he teams with a local witch to raise the entity known as “Pumpkinhead” so that those who cause him so much grief can suffer their own horrific fates.

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‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts

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In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.

The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.

But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).

Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.

That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.

Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.

Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.

In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”

Abigail Melissa Barrera movie

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