CHUD.com Community › Forums › CREATURE CORNER › Creature Corner Main › Dark Castle to do another Non-Castle
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Dark Castle to do another Non-Castle

post #1 of 12
6/3/02 at 10:01pm
Thread Starter 
From SciFi Wire:

Quote:
Dark Castle Gets Gothika

Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle company will produce Gothika, a ghost-story film based on a pitch by writer-director Sebastian Gutierrez, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dark Castle will produce the film for Warner Brothers.

Gutierrez will write and direct the movie, about a female psychiatrist who wakes up as a patient at the asylum where she works, the trade paper reported. Gutierrez previously wrote and directed the Cinemax supernatural telefilm She Creature. Dark Castle recently wrapped production on Ghost Ship, a supernatural horror movie starring Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies and Isaiah Washington, the trade paper reported.
Hey, it could be all right. I'm just disappointed that they're not staying true to the "Let's remake William Castle movies" mission statement they started out with.
Reply
post #2 of 12
6/4/02 at 1:31am
I like that premise, and I was impressed with the director's "She Creature". Back to an asylum. Cool.
Reply
post #3 of 12
6/4/02 at 1:48am
Well jeez, don't be upset by this. By all means we should be happy that there is FINALLY a company that's dedicated to producing genre product unlike a certain Miramax sister company who strayed from their mission statement years ago.

Dark Castle's latest announcement sounds pretty interesting. Keep in mind, too, that a 'Macabre' remake is on the way sometime.
Reply
post #4 of 12
6/4/02 at 4:36pm
Quote:
Michael A. Hoffman:
Hey - if ANYONE at Dark Castle is reading this, remake Homicidal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And don't forget the exclamation marks.
Reply
post #5 of 12
6/5/02 at 12:42am
i'd like to see the Tingler remade with a less cheesey "tingler" and more shots of what Vincent Price was experiencing when he did the drugs.
Reply
post #6 of 12
6/5/02 at 1:14am
Thread Starter 
Right on. As cheesy as the centipede-looking tingler bugs were, I still found them scary. Attack of the Clones featured some CG bugs that totally reminded me of the Tingler. Freaked me out.
Reply
post #7 of 12
6/6/02 at 11:34pm
The Dark Castle movies have sucked so far. What the hell was "House on Haunted Hill?" and "13 Ghosts"? The originals were so much better. Want to see a better Zemickis-produced horror film, check out "The Frighteners." It was scarier, funnier, and more inventive than any of the Dark Castle films. I might talk a lot of crap about Dark Castle, but I'm hoping they get it right someday. I hope "Ghost Ship" will be good. I also agree, they should redo "Homicidal."
Reply
post #8 of 12
6/6/02 at 11:47pm
Ooooo, you ragged on House on Haunted Hill... ooooo... must... find... shotgun...
Reply
post #9 of 12
6/7/02 at 12:38am
i personally loved the re-makes.people might rag on them for being so special FX reliant but,if Will Castle was making movies today,you can bet he'd wanna use as much special FX as he could afford.he was a master showman and i think the re-makes stayed true to his idea of film-making.
Reply
post #10 of 12
6/7/02 at 6:29am
Quote:
Guy Woodhaus:
i personally loved the re-makes.people might rag on them for being so special FX reliant but,if Will Castle was making movies today,you can bet he'd wanna use as much special FX as he could afford.he was a master showman and i think the re-makes stayed true to his idea of film-making.
I think my main reservation about the Dark Castle stuff so far is that it's played it safe - they've made some OK horror movies that provide exactly what modern horror fans expect.

That's the exact opposite of what William Castle did. He innovated, he came up with gimmicks and stunts, anything to make his movies stand out from the crowd. By contrast, the Dark Castle films so far seem almost too eager to blend in with the crowd, to be solid but unspectacular modern horror. I certainly wouldn't call the remakes of House On Haunted Hill or 13 Ghosts the work of a "master showman". Dependable craftsmen, maybe, but definitely not showmen.

I want them to make these movies in 3D, arrange live-action stunts in the theaters, just do SOMETHING that reminds me of William Castle's gleeful genius, instead of just reusing his stories. And if they're not even using his stories anymore...

House On Haunted Hill is a great example. In the original, the ghosts aren't real - it's a ghoulish murder mystery. That was a twist on what people were led to expect. As soon as the remake was announced, I knew the ghosts would be real this time. Sure enough, they were. William Castle would never have done that - he'd come up with a fresh angle.

Dark Castle make fun but forgetable horror product. William Castle made fun and unforgettable movie experiences. Big difference.
Reply
post #11 of 12
6/7/02 at 4:16pm
point taken,but i still think Dark Castle have done a good job thus far.its hard to be as innovative nowadays as William CAstle was back then.either way,we'll see how the Dark Castle originals turn out and then we can pan em or accept em lovingly.
Reply
post #12 of 12
6/7/02 at 7:17pm
Thread Starter 
Castle's promotion ideas were corny, but fun. I'd love to see something new attempted today. Doing something at every theater isn't really manageable, though.

The new field for "ballyhoo" is the internet. Like it or not, Blair Witch pioneered this. A small independent film made a huge splash because of the promotion tactics. Most people knew it was a "fake" documentary, but they watched the TV special, pored over the "facts" on the website, and gobbled up the promotional tidbits presented as truth.

Some folks without imagination or who were unfamiliar with this form of promotion and were insulted. "It's not real, who do they think they're kidding?" Even weirder are the people who didn't get the joke at all, who thought the whole thing was real.

Anyway, my point is that these Blair Witch folks put together a new cross-platform sort of ballyhoo that Castle would have appreciated. I think the movie doesn't really hold up on its own (too many unanswered questions) but with the other materials, it's great.

Now big studios are trying to repeat the success of this unique internet promotion, with varying degrees of success. I was fascinated last year with the network of "A.I." sites pertaining to imaginary doctors and robots and a mystery to solve. Unfortunately, it had little to do with the movie.

Maybe the next step is to do a sort of movie with a mystery that is left open-ended. Then a prize could be awarded to those who go online and investigate the puzzle "A.I." style.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Creature Corner Main
CHUD.com Community › Forums › CREATURE CORNER › Creature Corner Main › Dark Castle to do another Non-Castle