Ah, there’s this week’s MSN DVD column, in which I confront my Nancy Meyers problem head-on. I’ve been going to see her movies for a decade, you understand, and we still have nothing to say to one another.
I will admit to enjoying her remake of “The Parent Trap”, but that was more to do with Lindsay Lohan’s performance(s) and the fact that the movie wasn’t about the usual Nancy Meyers stuff. I mean, I don’t even remember what the kitchens looked like in “The Parent Trap” …
So someone made an adaptation of the Clive Barker short story “Dread,” huh? Fun fact: My film school senior project was a (totally unauthorized) adaptation of the same story. I had trouble making it work at 20 minutes. I can’t imagine stretching it to feature length. But then, I cut out the stuff about evil clowns. Is that still in this movie?
Nope, no clowns. And the best thing about the original story — the thing with the suspension bed — isn’t in there, either. Really, the only thing they kept was the basic idea of the fear study turning on its proctors.
Oh, wait; the axe is in there, too, but it’s used very differently.
I had a sudden flash of what Nancy Meyers”Hellraiser’ would look like. It involves Bette Midler and dignifies nobody. But, ironically, it is genuinely horrific…