I have one burning question after watching this trailer: when does this story take place? If it’s a contemporary remake with a 2014 setting, then that’s not remotely clear. The teenage lead goes to the library to read microfiche and everyone drives classic muscle cars? And then there’s MAYBE a shot of someone holding a cell phone to their ear at the end of the trailer. Maybe. Is the advertising trying to muffle the period setting? Does that not play well with the target audience (who also won’t know this is a remake)?

Speaking of the original, I had the chance to see it on the big screen years ago at The New Beverly and it’s…a bit of a snooze. Aside from a wonderfully silly death via trombone and an ending that breaks the fourth wall (I won’t spoil how, other than to say that seeing this in a theater was worth it) it’s got the energy of a TV-movie form the era (the 70s). If that’s your speed, I’d recommend picking up the blu-ray that Scream Factory just released. If not, then I can’t see a lot of enthusiasm for the prospects of this remake either. The cast is stealthily good (Gary Cole, Dennis O’Hare, Veronica Cartwright, Ed Lauter and Joshua Leonard), but they’re going to play second fiddle to children with eerily smooth faces and dialect-free Texas accents. Meh.

I dunno, the stakes are low for this one, so maybe there’s room for it to impress. The best case scenario is something like Orphan, which  looked predictable and wound up flirting with incest and murdering nuns. This film is best known (to a certain audience) as an off-handed reference in Scream, so the sky is the limit!

One more burning question: Orion still exists?! ?!?!!?!