Remake This – Watcher in the Woods!

Let’s face it; remakes are hot right now.  This summer has been like a sizzling showcase of the 1980′s, with The A-Team, The Karate Kid, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Last summer was Transformers and GI Joe.  This Christmas is Tron.  Hollywood is selling us on our past and we’re eating it up like it’s Pop Rocks.  Whether or not we like the current trend is of no matter to Hollywood.  Rather than fight against the studios and beg for the return of creativity, embrace the craze!  It may just be the only way to tolerate it.

There was a period during the 1980′s when Walt Disney studios released some very dark, disturbing, thriller and horror oriented movies.  It was a darker time for Walt Disney Studios, and as a result audiences were treated to movies that weren’t as family friendly as they had been used to.

Movies like Something Wicked This Way Comes and Nightcrossing serve as perfect examples.  Even their animated movies were affected, with The Black Cauldron being one of the darkest animated movies Disney has ever produced.

The plot of the Watcher in the Woods is very bizarre.  The story follows that of Jan Curtis and her family moving to a large mansion.  The owner of the mansion, Mrs. Aylwood, allows the family to stay there while she lives nearby.  Mrs. Aylwood’s daughter, Karen, disappeared thirty years ago in disturbing circumstances.

It doesn’t take long for the family to become ‘haunted’ by something in the woods, and Jan quickly decides that this ‘watcher in the woods’ is the ghost (or something to that effect) of the missing girl.  Jan spends the rest of the movie trying to unravel what exactly happened to Karen, which leads to scenes of witchcraft, seances, and potential alien abduction.

Since the movie’s release it has been haunted (pun intended) by release issues.  The original ending to the movie had a strong hint of alien abduction and ended somewhat abruptly — too abruptly for audiences.  This made Walt Disney Studios pull the film from theaters after just a week of release to re-edit the ending into something less confusing.

Years later and during the height of DVD sales, the movie again hit release problems when Anchor Bay wanted to release the film with multiple endings and content from director John Hough.

As you can see, none of this sounds like the Walt Disney Studios that made The Lion King or Aladdin.

Why It Should Be Remade

Horror movies today are nothing like they used to be.  The idea of suspense seems lost on current filmmakers.  Special effects dominate the genre and ruin crucial moments of intense thrills.  Remember when a scary movie used to make you afraid to walk alone at night?  The reason people are afraid of the dark isn’t because of what they see, but because of what they don’t (can’t) see.  Audiences don’t need a CGI-filled horror film to be terrified.  The perfect amount of subtlety goes a long, long way.

And that is exactly what The Watcher in the Woods did so well.  You spend the entire movie being afraid of something lurking in the woods.  Something watching the family from afar.  Something unknown, not seen.  And it feels real.  That’s key.  Making an audience scared during a film requires work, hard work, but the payoff is far superior to just showing them something you created via a computer.

Sure, audiences may jump at those spooky moments of intense CGI blood, ghouls, and death.  But their fear is as artificial as the image itself.  And just as temporary.  Moments later the scare is forgotten, the creepiness has passed, and the realization that you were tricked by a computer trick sets in.  You chuckle.  Maybe even smirk.  And the moment is forgotten.  Truly scary movies have lasting appeal because they actually scare and intimidate the viewer.  The scares feels real and makes a much stronger impression.  And how better to accomplish this than with a script about a family being stalked by an unseen ‘watcher’ from the woods outside their house?

And something should be said for movies which have haunted houses as a focus.  The last few movies about them have all been terrible (The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill).  There’s something perfectly suspenseful about a bunch of people staying inside of a mansion that is haunted by an angry spirit.  That suspense and intrigue goes away when the spirit doing the haunting is more computer sprite than angry spirit.  Audiences are long overdue for another take at the haunted mansion device.

Why It Won’t Get Remade

Unfortunately, Disney just isn’t into making dark and horrifying movies any more.  Their adventurous National Treasures and swashbuckling Pirates of the Caribbean series are about as deep into that territory that they go (though arguably their live adaptation of The Country Bears was beyond terrifying).   The success of Walt Disney Studios during the 1990′s sent the company in a completely different direction and while they’ve been known to take a risk or two over the last several years, it would be surprising if they stepped anywhere near their cult classics.

The movie is loosely based off of the novel by the same name, written by Florence Engel Randell and was much darker and more disturbing than Disney’s film.  Trying to convince Disney executives to purchase the rights to the novel, producer Tom Leetch stated, ‘This could be our Exorcist!’  It’s hard to imagine anyone involved with Disney studios trying to pitch a film idea with that mentality these days.

While the movie may be a bit dated by today’s standards, it still serves as an entertaining entry into Disney’s previous attempts at creating some truly disturbing movies.  Remaking it would be a fantastic way to introduce audiences to a CGI-less way of horror, but sadly Disney just isn’t in the market for this type of material anymore.

Article written by Matt Wehner on GotchaMovies.com. Reposted with permission.