From “The Man Who Laughed” to the Joker to “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” the uniquely frightening nature of circus clowns — whose supposedly laugh-inducing and harmless nature makes them all the more frightening to children of all ages — has been fodder for scares. If I’d known some of the talented amateurs involved in making this fake trailer, it’s possible I’d have tried to discourage them from attaching any famous names, but it obviously worked re: Eli Roth, and not for no reason. Take a look. This “Clown” wasn’t made by bozos.
I admit that as a bit of a cinema chicken with my famously mixed feelings about horror, particularly of the slasher variety, I’ve only actually seen the original “Scream” — and only made it past the brilliantly terrifying opening with the help of the fast forward button. Still, and I hate to keep bagging on Wes Craven, who I respect, this teaser trailer for the long-awaited-by-someone-I’m-sure “Scream 4” really feels warmed over. How far can you keep building up this kind of self-awareness before you lose all human feeling? Or, maybe I’ve got it wrong. Or maybe it’s just a hastily rushed out, poorly put-together trailer to try to make everyone forget about Craven’s fiscally and critically disastrous “My Soul to Take.” See for yourself.
H/t Merrick of AICN, who informs us that this is a slightly expanded version of the trailer featured on this year’s Scream awards.
It has yet to spawn a full on blogosphere geek tantrum though that may be just a matter of time, but the news is out tonight via Mike Fleming that “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy is “eying” a remake of, you guessed it, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Now, it’s anyone’s guess how much this story may be a cannily opportunistic exaggeration to pump up the ratings of the upcoming 10/26 “Glee” episode paying homage to Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien’s odd little musical. Russ Fischer is certain an actual film would be a “fool’s errand.” I don’t want to reiterate my standard defense of remakes in theory (though not always in practice, lord knows) for the millionth time, but I will say there’s absolutely nothing holy or perfect about this particular original. I actually think that “Rocky Horror” in a funny way became enormous not so much because it was partly great, but because it was also badly flawed. The first 30-45 minutes of the film are a complete hoot and really did touch a huge socio-political-sexual nerve, but the second half becomes increasingly morose and dull. Hence, the need to dress up, yell funny stuff back at the screen, throw stuff, etc. I certainly wouldn’t mind a version that actually worked without audience participation — like an actual movie.
On the other hand, there is one thing that any remake by anyone will find impossible to top, and that’s Mr. Tim Curry.
What a performance. Not that Barry Bostwick or especially Susan Sarandon were exactly chopped liver — I’m also a pretty big fan of the late Charles Gray, who played the narrator about as perfectly as you could imagine. Meat Loaf wasn’t bad either, and I had a bit of a crush on Nell “Little Nell” Campbell’s tap-dancing Ruby Keeler homage, Columbia. (On the topic of redheads — I’m for them.) Where was I? Ah, never mind.
I’ve been pretty negative about the prospect of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” in the past — and it’s still not a movie I’m particularly excited about seeing, even with a supposedly amazing performance by Javiar Bardem — but this official trailer is extremely well done.
No doubt we’ll be hearing a bit about this movie at Oscar time at least in regards to Bardem, whether I like it or not. I just wish I could type “Iñárritu” without copying and pasting it from somewhere else.
Back on Thursday night, we were talking about a possible $30 million or more for the latest from the usual gang of self-declared prankster-daredevil idiots, “Jackass 3D.” Well, one quick look at the Box Office Mojo’s chart will show you that it turned out to be an estimated $50 million. Considering the film only cost $20 million, that’s a pretty great start, even with a rather large possible second week attendance crash.
No doubt a lot of “Jackass”-generated cash for Paramount — a new record for this time period, though with constant inflation of movie tickets, even in a stagnant economy, I’m never too impressed by these constantly broken records — comes directly from the 3D bump. It seems clear that the format can still make a big difference for the right movie, and this is obviously a special case. Regular readers know I was born without the gene that makes people enjoy the feeling of being grossed out, but even I get that if seeing something, or someone, squirt out of an orifice in 2D is hilarious, then watching it/him practically fly into your lap in 3D must be completely hysterical. The only fly in the stinky ointment here is that inevitable R-rating. I can only imagine how many younger, mostly male, teenagers and tweens are trying to figure out how they can scam their way into a theater (and the correct glasses) or begging older relatives and/or paying neighborhood winos to take them.
