This week it’s a two-fer! We talk Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011). What a difference 38 years make! Then, at the 1:16:00 mark, this week’s 3×3 is a discussion of our favorite sidekicks not named Chewbacca. Listen here.
Won’t listen until I’ve seen it, but I have to wonder if the
horrifying memory
dog stabbed to death with a knitting needle!
is still present in the remake? That shit stuck with me.
Shane Black worked on the screenplays of both Last Boy Scout and Last Action Hero.
Wing of Ilium, not only did that scene of a dog being stabbed with knitting needles not make it into the remake, it didn’t even made it into the original. I think you must be thinking of a different movie. :)
Jason, so it turns out that sometimes being right and being thoroughly confused aren’t mutually exclusive!
-TomThat being said, it totally held up.
Now I want to know what movie has a dog being stabbed with a knitting needle.
-TomA kid feeds a dog a pin in Brothers Karamazov, which since it took me almost 3 months to read I’m always eager to lob in even the most tenuous connection.
Also, IIRC, the shaggy D.A. eats cat-shit during his inaugural address.
Hope this post was helpful.
I went on a quest to find out! Turns out its not from Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, like I always thought, but rather [I]Afraid of the Dark[/I]. Having goblins in your bookshelf looks terrifying though, so I’ll have to watch the film you guys were seeing as well.
I think I forgot to mention this, but the greeter at the Arclight marched up to the front of the theater to tell us to turn off our phones and not put our feet on the seat, as they do before every show at the Arclight. Before telling us that, though, he confidently announced, “You are about to see Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, directed by Guillermo del Toro!”
It was so hard to keep myself from standing up and saying, “No.” I felt like Roger Rabbit during the shave-and-a-haircut trick.
Come on, dude. You work at a movie theater!
Also, the scale on that bookshelf picture cracks me up every time I see it.
-xtien
“Mr. Harris, I don’t want to get in another beef with you.”
When I told one of those droogs once that the answer to a quiz question he’d just asked my audience to “entertain them” was Latin and that “Roman” was not itself a language spoken by the Romans, he replied cheerily, “See, folks? You learn something every day” like he’d said it.
I think the movie was Bride Wars.
I completely agree with the house being unrelatable. For me, seeing the original back when I was a kid, those creatures could have been in my house, that’s what I thought. In this movie they essentially move into one of those houses that when you see it you might think “That could be a haunted house”.
The other thing that I don’t like about the remake is switching it to a kid. Kids lie about stuff, they imagine stuff, they get scared of the dark. All these things make it completely rational for adults to disregard the kid’s complaints. And that’s not even adding in the medicated state of the kid.
When it is an adult saying these things it’s more disturbing because it means she’s become mentally unstable or the stuff she’s saying has merit- either way uh oh. Also the little girl personally ‘killed’ two of the little bastards, how scary could they be? If fighting back was going to be a viable action it should be an adult character.
I’m not sure why they bothered to make the kid and creatures friendly at first since that was pretty obviously not going to last long before their true nature was revealed. That was a change that really led nowhere.
Ultimately I think Del Toro did for this movie what Peter Jackson did for his King Kong remake. They took lean, mean effective movies and turned them into bloated, neutered but more technically advanced retreads.
By the way, Satan’s Triangle was the helicopter pilot movie. That movie still creeps the hell out of me. Kim Novak was the cougar from hell before anyone knew what a cougar was. Alejandro Rey I only knew from The Flying Nun, imagine how seeing him in this movie turned my world upside down. Those early 70s movies of the week were awesome. The Norliss Tapes creeped out back then but now it’s one of the ones that didn’t age so well. Bad Ronald and Trilogy of Terror are a couple of other good ones.
Good points all around, Mr. Overman. Also, ha ha, you saw the remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark!
Yes, exactly! Unfortunately, I tracked down a copy of Satan’s Triangle a while ago and it doesn’t hold up as well as Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. It’s pretty awful, actually. One of those movies I should have left in my memory.
I certainly remember Trilogy of Terror, but I don’t know the first thing about Norliss Tapes and Bad Ronald. Should I track those down?
-Tom
I usually drop in to praise Kelly Wand’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Opsis–which was great, again–but I wanted to say I enjoy the whole podcast. You guys are lots of fun and full of great film knowledge and ideas. Thanks. I hope you’ll still be around to do a podcast about Paranormal Activity 5.
For what it’s worth, Tom, I also thought it was a weird and bad choice to cast a child actor that looks identical to the woman she’s not supposed to be related to.
If you think Satan’s Triangle doesn’t hold up, I’d pass on Norliss Tapes cause it’s a step down from there.
Bad Ronald, which is nonsupernatural by the way, is still worth a look although it’s hard to find(depending where you’re willing to look).
Pardon me if movie requests are too forward, but if you are looking for an alternative to the Lion King 3D in a few weeks, Meek’s Cutoff is getting released on DVD Sep. 13.
Thanks for the suggestion, MikeP, but Kellywand doesn’t see movies with apostrophes in them.
-xtien
“They have to be tough too, Sally.”
That’s kind of you, thanks. Although if those Catfish metros remain involved, it’ll be more like…Normal Inactivity…3. Huh guys.
-Kellywand, level 80 Compliment Ruiner/Mageweave Tailor