Editorials
[Remake vs. Remake] ‘Fright Night (2011)’ or Rob Zombie’s ‘Halloween’?
I know for many of you this will be a loaded question and you will quickly chime in with, “they both suck.” But let’s pretend for a moment that this isn’t an option. Let’s pretend that you have to choose. After all, even if neither film comes close to matching the classic film they’re attempting to riff on – they each have their own merits and weaknesses.
That’s right, I said “merits.” While I still can’t say I really love Craig Gillespie’s 2011 take on Fright Night (scripted by Marti Noxon), I don’t hate it with the fiery passion I did when I first saw it. The film actually makes a few interesting choices and, having seen a few of this summer’s upcoming blockbusters, I’m getting closer to admiring films that make any choice at all. I sort of applaud the decision to set the piece in an abandoned Las Vegas housing development, even though they don’t actually end up doing much with the idea. And while the film ends in a haze of video game pixelation (along with that stupid, stupid pebble throwing moment), the majority of the first two acts consititute something of a fun lark. It’s reasonably well shot, the actors are appealing and even though the script likely suffered at the hands of studio notes (I’m hoping that’s the reason), it’s far more coherent than your average Kurtzman and Orci joint. Again, nowhere near as good as the 1985 original, but not the total cinematic abortion I once considered it to be.
This “choices” paradigm carries over to Rob Zombie’s Halloween. I’m a bit stuck here, since I think the decision to spend the bulk of the film dealing with the nurture argument of evil (showing us Myers’ ret-conned childhood vs. Carpenter’s 1978 “evil just exists” nature argument) is pretty bold. I would actually say it’s an interesting choice, but it’s just so incredibly wrong. It’s ballsy to remake a movie from the ground up, especially if that means inverting its central thematic conceit (which is what Zombie is aiming for here). But when the original’s thematic conceit is so resolutely perfect, you have nowhere to go but down when you decide to reverse it. Also, in tacking a cliff-notes version of the first film onto the final act of the remake, Zombie essentially backpedals on his reimagining. His new theme is intact, but any declarations of singularity go out the window. It’s something new, until it isn’t. Zombie delivers a satisfying amount of violence, with a lot of bone-crushing wall-smashing force. But that’s also the antithesis of the largely bloodless 1978 original. Again, I applaud the impulse to go in a new direction – I just think it’s the wrong one. It also doesn’t help that many of the performances (Dr. Loomis in particular) feel sort of misguided.
So I guess I’ll have to come down on the lesser of two evils and declare Fright Night (2011) my favorite out of this round.
But what about you? Which film wins out? Let us know!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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