Director: Richard Donner
Cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens
Have I Seen It Before: I wasn’t on Beyond the Cabin in the Woods when they did it, but there definitely was a moment where the remake was coming out in 2006 and I was resolute in my need to turn my nose up and only watch the original.
Did I Like It: I don’t get a sense that my opinion about the film has changed in those nearly twenty years, though. I’m never not delighted to see David Warner in anything, and the Whovian in me that developed since then was delighted to see Patrick Troughton.
Ultimately, though It’s a bit too arch to be too terribly frightening. I would imagine to audiences in the 1970s, digging in a grave and finding a jackal is frightening, but I’m reasonably sure I’ve laughed at that moment at least twice in the 21st century. Special effects are vivid and often in slow-motion to add dread of the carnage to come. But something tells me that wasn’t really David Warner’s head that got sliced off by that errant pane of glass.
Also, one feels that there are too many characters, most of whom don’t stick around long enough to either unnerve or engender sympathy. I’m consistently shocked—and have occasionally had to remind myself—that the film isn’t based on a novel or any other source material. It always feels as if they were protecting themselves from criticisms of abandoning this phantom source material, and had to give each element its due. Even then, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) abandoned all signs of Tom Bombadil, and The Godfather (1972) never checks in with Lucy Mancini until Part III runs around, at which point it completely ignores what we learned about her in the novel. Which, again, doesn’t absolve this film. It’s just overcrowded for the sake of being overcrowded.