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!
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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