Movies
Dee Snider Will Return As Captain Howdy In a ‘StrangeLand’ Remake!
After years and years in development hell, Dee Snider is finally returning as the psychotic Captain Howdy.
Emaji, Inc.’s Emaji Entertainment tell Bloody Disgusting that they have acquired the rights to remake Snider’s StrangeLand, the 1998 horror film written by and starring Snider, the frontman of heavy metal giant Twisted Sister.
Dee Snider’s portrayal of Carlton Hendricks aka Captain Howdy in the original film created a character that has become a cult horror legend. Bloody has also learned that Emaji will accompany the singer-songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality and actor back into the dark underground world of ritualistic body modification where victims are lured via an ever pervasive world of social media.
StrangeLand: Disciple is being called a “reboot” but also sounds as if it’s a continuation. My guess is that the film will reference the 1998 film while bringing the terror of Captain Howdy to modern audience. StrangeLand is primed for a modern adaptation as the original was a first-of-its-kind techno thriller where teenage girls are victimized by a psycho (Snider) who lures them using the Internet.
The 1998 soundtrack included an incredible array of bands-System Of A Down, Sevendust, Soulfly, Slipknot, Kid Rock, Coal Chamber, Twisted Sister, Megadeth, Marilyn Manson and Pantera-handpicked by Snider. “Music was intrinsic to me in the first one. We really tried to create the ultimate heavy soundtrack. Music will be important to me again for this film,” adds Snider.
The movie will be set in the “underworld of body modification fetishists, amid the secret sado-masochistic freak societies of perverted pleasures that lurk just underneath the veneer of respectable society,” said Snider back in 2009.
Back in 2010 we learned that Robert Englund was also returning as Jackson Roth, and came across the following synopsis on a casting website:
“One year after Carleton Hendricks aka Captain Howdy’s (Dee Snider) sadistic rampage, much more than the physical scars the schizophrenic, sexual sadist gave his victims are left behind. Their lives, destroyed by emotional torment and the media frenzy surrounding the crimes, Detective Mike Gage, his daughter Geneveve and vigilante Jackson Roth (Robert Englund) each have their crosses to bear. But when the badly burned and mentally broken Carlton Hendricks is taken from a state run mental hospital and off his medication by billionaire, media mogul, Morgan LaForce, leader of the body modification/fetish haven called “The Torture Garden”, the door swings wide open for each of Captain Howdy’s victims to find closure… and retribution.”
It’s unclear how much has changed in the years of development, but I personally love Snider’s Strangeland and consider it a cult classic. You?
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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