Movies
Would You See a Remake of ‘The Craft’?
I ask because the following story is basically click-bait, so I figured I may as well get a real conversation started.
Okay, so, our friends at DreadCentral had a reader write into them claiming that, while taking an online survey about recent theatrical releases, was asked about what they thought about a remake of The Craft. Now, it’s very possible that this is real – but there’s no way to verify this as I, too, could make an online survey and take a screenshot off of my computer. Furthermore, the reader’s name is “Mikey” – and oddly enough, I’ve been receiving a rash of phony tips from a “Mike” and “Miky”. Coincidence? Who knows.
But, a remake of The Craft has been rumored for years now (since 2006), and nothing has actually come into fruition. In fact, we reported it as dead back in 2008. Although, when you really think about it, The Craft is the perfect film to remake as it’s teen-centric and could be modernized quite a bit. I’d see it…
Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, and Neve Campbell starred in the 1996 film that follows a newcomer to a Catholic prep high school whom falls in with a trio of outcast teenage girls that practice witchcraft. They they all soon conjure up various spells and curses against those who even slightly anger them. Andrew Fleming directed the classic.
This scoop is light as a feather, stiff as a board…
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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