#251  
Old 11-11-2011, 09:51 AM
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Originally Posted by ChronoGrl View Post
Thanks - I'm being a baby about it - Lying around and just eating Gingerale and saltines definitely helped - Taking it easy today, which is nice.
Taking it easy is exactly what you should be doing!
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  #252  
Old 11-11-2011, 09:52 AM
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ANNOUNCEMENT

The deadline has passed, and keeping some unforeseen circumstances in mind, it stands extended by 48 more hours starting from now.

You all have 48 more hours at your disposal. Start typing your entries!
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  #253  
Old 11-11-2011, 11:20 AM
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Thanks, Mr. V - I'll write it up tomorrow as long as I continue to feel better.

Hope everything's well on your end.
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  #254  
Old 11-11-2011, 10:44 PM
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Originally Posted by ChronoGrl View Post
Thanks, Mr. V - I'll write it up tomorrow as long as I continue to feel better.

Hope everything's well on your end.
Good. Get well soon, love.

All the best.
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  #255  
Old 11-12-2011, 11:08 AM
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Okee. Mine's in. :cool:
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  #256  
Old 11-13-2011, 12:36 AM
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Sent mine too last night. It was a crazy shit!%$#$!#:D But enjoyed a lot while framing the story for a remake.:D
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  #257  
Old 11-14-2011, 10:13 PM
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UPDATE


Received 2 entries at the end of the extended deadline and promptly forwarded it to our 3 Judges. I have received verdicts from 2 Judges, and waiting for the 3rd.

As soon as I get it, the entries will be posted.
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  #258  
Old 11-15-2011, 10:13 PM
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THE FOURTH TEST OF HDC IDOL II - ROUND 2


Choose a suitable horror film from the past to be remade into a contemporary horror film, interjected with your own unique changes in the storyline, complete with a script outline, casting, a chosen director and a suitable Hollywood studio. Also, give the reason why you chose that particular film.


Roshiq's entry -

Quote:
First of all, I wouldn't like to go for a remake of an old/classic film. Cause we all know, remake sucks! and specially in American way. At the moment, I've actually no film in mind that I can say is suitable for a remake. But again for the sake of this particular challenge I have to choose a film. Now, on this regard I was quickly looking through any sort of old/classic horror film that supposed to be good or say has an good beginning or premise but didn't deliver the promised entertainment as well as a good finale at the end.
Anyway, after the "search" I've finally chose to butcher Richard Fleischer’s 1971 film SEE NO EVIL for the sake of this challenge. IMO, it's got a fantastic premise at the beginning & middle but a bad & disappointing ending. So let's see how wild I can run my imagination to remake Richard Fleischer’s SEE NO EVIL in today's or contemporary context.

Let the show begins..

Blind Terror

(Don’t want to use the other alternate popular/known title SEE NO EVIL, as there’s an unrelated slasher film released in 2006 with that title)

Plot Summary of the original film from wikipedia:

After being blinded in a horseback-riding accident, Sarah visits her uncle's home. Out on a date with her boyfriend Steve, she escapes the fate of her relatives, who are murdered at their home by a psychotic killer. Sarah returns from her date and spends the night in the house, unaware that three of her family members' corpses are strewn about the house.

She eventually discovers the bodies, as well as a bracelet containing the engraved name of the killer. The killer returns, searching for the lost bracelet and discovers Sarah, who manages to flee on horseback. Sarah encounters a family of gypsies and shows them the bracelet with the name "Jacko" inscribed. One of the gypsies concludes that his brother Jack must be responsible. In an effort to save Jack, the brother pretends to take Sarah to the police but, instead, locks her in a secluded shed.

Sarah eventually escapes from the shed and reunites with Steve. Steve and his grooms leave Sarah at his house and begin a search for the killer. They come across the two gypsy brothers and are about to kill them, when Jack reveals that he wears a bracelet with the name "Jack", and not "Jacko," inscribed. The boyfriend, upon learning that the real killer's name is "Jacko", doubles back to his house, where it is revealed that one of the grooms, Jacko, had been left behind to tend to Sarah. Back at the house, Jacko attempts to drown Sarah in a bathtub, but Steve returns just in time to rescue her.


The remake:


Without any opening title, the film will open in the nice country side 2 storage Rexton Residence. Mr. & Mrs. Rexton (George & Betty) & their young daughter Sandy are having a dinner. They are talking about their niece Sarah, who has been blinded (in a car accident) for last 6 months & have been moved from New York & started to living with them since the accident. Sarah isn’t home at that moment; she went to the town with her friend Emily to attend a Get2Gather party of their close school friends. Sarah already called & told her aunt Betty that she’ll be late as the girls planned to have the dinner in a restaurant. From the conversation between Mr. & Mrs. Rexton & their young daughter Sandy, it’ll also be clear that they all very much love & care about Sarah who lost her parents in a very early age and they’re very glad that Sarah has already started to nicely coping with everything after the terrible accident.

Suddenly they’ll hear a sound of knocking…the sound is coming from the drawing room. At first they thought someone’s knocking on the main door and they were bit surprised to realize that whoever is knocking, why he/she isn’t using the door bell?

At first Sandy & his dad wants to go & check but Mrs. Betty Rexton stops both of them & goes by herself to check it out & as soon as she get close to the main door she then understands that the unexpected visitor isn’t actually knocking on the door…he/she’s knocking on the glass of the window beside the door from the outside veranda.

Mrs. Rexton asks who is it but nobody answers. She tries to switch on the light at the veranda but strangely that isn’t working. She then tries to take a gaze on the window. From the background, the voices of George & Sandy are coming…they’re anxiously asking her about the visitor at this odd hour. It’s snowing outside. As soon Mrs. Rexton put her face into the window glass she sees somebody is attempting to hit the window with a big heavy sledgehammer that is coming fast towards the window/her face but it was too late for her to take her face away from the window glass. **BANG!** It hits the window & results some gore-e-fying moments. There are broken glasses all over Betty Rexton’s face that cuts it in places pretty badly along with injures of a smashed nose, eye & forehead.

The camera is now totally focused on Mrs. Rexton’s bloody face. She is groaning in pain. We can now see her bloody injures in detail. The rest 2 murders (killing of George & Sandy Rexton) are happening off-screen. From the background we’ll hear the visitor/invader/psychotic killer enters into the house by breaking the main door. George & Sandy are screaming & yelling in shock & terror. The killer knocks down George dead with the hammer. Sandy tried to runs into the kitchen to save herself but the killer captures her and grabs her hair, cut her throat with a kitchen knife & snatches her on the floor & takes her body to the upstairs. After some moments the killer returns & we see the hands (wearing gloves) of the killer grabs Mrs. Betty Rexton & takes her away. The camera doesn’t move from the spot where there’s now Betty Rexton’s blood on the carpet. The camera fades into the black & the opening title starts to appear on the screen.


Now, from the above beginning we can find some differences from the original Richard Fleischer’s film.
  • 1. First of all, the killing of Rexton family wasn’t shown in the original film. The original film opens with the murderer walks past shops selling toy guns, violent comics, television sets (showing violent programs), and who has just been to the cinema to watch an exploitation sort of film (Rapist Cult!). And all we see of him is his cowboy boots. In the remake the psychotic killer’s reasons or background will be shown in the later part of the film.
    2. In the original film, the central character Sarah has a boyfriend with whom she was out on a date at the night of the killing of Rexton /her uncle’s family. From the above details we can see that has changed. Sarah has no boyfriend; she was out with her friend Emily to attend the school friend’s Get2gather party.

Back to the film:

Sarah returned home from the party. Emily dropped her by car. As Emily was on hurry to meet her boyfriend & talking over her cell phone, she didn’t notice the broken window or slightly closed broken door from the gate. Meanwhile through the conversation between Sarah & Emily, we come to know that as it’s already pretty late & probably everybody is sleeping now, Sarah is not going to use the front door to enter, she will use the back door at the kitchen. And she does that pretty convincingly. As Sarah is living here for the last 6 months she knows her way around quite well.

She goes to bed not realizing that the entire family has been murdered while she was out. Very much like the original film, Sarah unknowingly sleeps overnight, among a houseful of corpses, arising the next morning to quietly creep out of bed, in order not to awaken the other members of the household. Now there’s a difference from the original film & that is we’ll see the killer never left actually, he was sleeping in some other room. So after, arising the next morning Sarah decides to relax and take a bath, only to discover just then in the bathtub that Sandy has been slaughtered. Sarah discovers the other 2 bodies of Mr. & Mrs. Rexton, one by one, murdered in her absence. Much like in Fleischer’s way, the camera will portray the awful progression of such a discovery in Sarah’s sightless world & the killer’s shadow lurking throughout the house while following her with a close & careful distance.

(TBC...)
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Old 11-15-2011, 10:32 PM
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(Continued...)

Quote:

Petrified in her darkness, Sarah stumbles towards the kitchen, to get out for help... She opens the wrong door and falls down the cellar steps...Recovering consciousness, she hears someone's footsteps overhead. (The tensed/thrilling background scores will totally stop at this point. For the next couple of scenes there will be no background score.) She warily makes it to the hall, feels her way towards the front door-but just then the killer suddenly grabs her from behind, takes her into the stairs, forces her from the back, rips off her pajamas and finally made a successful attempt to rape her. All the time Sarah was screaming & crying badly and the killer was cursing her with abusing words & slang. There was at one point when Sarah tried to remove the killer's hand from her mouth she was only able to breaks his bracelet that falls into Sarah's shirt pocket without any notice from either parties. The camera focuses on Sarah's tearful blind eyes. Some moments later the camera starts to move backwards & in a POV format we follow the camera on the dinning room/kitchen where we'll see totally devastated Sarah was seating on a chair (hands are tied down on the back of the chair) in front of the killer in the dinning table. The killer is eating some food that he found in the fridge. After finishing eating, the killer offers some pieces of a cake to Sarah. Sarah doesn't respond. Then he takes a big piece & stands up from his chair, comes towards Sarah, grabs her head back down, put the cake-piece on her mouth & says "Eat it!" Sarah shivers for a moment but doesn't respond positively. The killer then takes a fork from a plate & starts to poke the cake-piece which ultimate falls apart but poking with the fork now continues on Sarah's lips. And again some moments later the camera starts to move backwards & in a POV format we follow the camera on the drawing room where we'll see in front of the TV set, injured & devastated Sarah is seating down on the carpet. Both of her hands are still tied down on her back. The killer is seating on the couch behind her & watching some programs on TV.

(Though from the above mentioned direction of camera the scenes may be seemed like happening simultaneously but they are actually followed one after another.)

Some moments later the killer leaves the drawing room, goes to the upstairs at George & Betty's room. Takes a large pillow cover from the bed and then make a quick search on everything on the room. He discovers a baseball bat, a crossbow & a riffle in different parts (closet, drawer, and wardrobe) in the room. He left the crossbow & riffle on the bed & took the baseball bat & pillow cover with him & returns to downstairs in the drawing room. But the there is no sign of Sarah.

(The dramatic & tensed background scores starts over again at this point.)

Gripped by panic, Sarah makes her way cautiously to the outside. The whole Rexton residence is surrounded by woods. In the woods Sarah walks with uncertain, uneven steps but finally able to make her way to the nearby gas station. There she meets some members of a biker gang (instead of gypsies in the original)... Wendy, Billy & Matt, and utters breathlessly to them her story. Unsuspectingly, she hands over her one piece of vital evidence-a broken bracelet inscribed 'Jacko'. They can see, but she cannot.

They suspects it belongs to one of their old foes Mad Jacob. Wendy takes Sarah inside convenience store of the station to give her some first aid but the rest (Billy & Matt) calls their rest of the gang members & decides to go & closing down their long waited unfinished business with Mad Jacob.

In a thrilling scenario when there is in one side Sarah is getting some treatments inside the convenience store of the gas station, on the other side we'll see the armed biker gang members merge & move towards the Rexton residence to deal with Mad Jacob. They are using the road from the highway that goes straight into the Rexton house that actually situated in somewhat middle of the woods.

But they met with the killer in the halfway who skillfully able to kill them one by one by using the riffles, crossbow & a hatchet that he collected before from the Rexton house. And then he takes a bike from the dead gang members & rides it. Meanwhile now he also finds a shotgun & its rounds of shells in a bag that carried one of the gang members.


The Final showdown: The Gas station. 2 police cars are outside; one police officer is talking over a radio. Inside the station-convenience store two officers are talking with Sarah & Wendy. Suddenly Wendy gets a phone call from her friend who tells her that the guy they are after isn't Mad Jacob. The real Mad Jacob already died in an attempted bank robbery in Huston last summer.

Just after that phone call, we see the Killer of Rexton family & the biker gang fearlessly appears in the gas station riding a 2003 Harley-Davidson Sportster. It takes some moments for him to understand that Sarah is here & just probably for her the cops are here. He kills the officer outside by severely hitting him with a long claw-hammer. Then he comes towards the convenience store, one officer with a gun made a failed attempt to shot him as the killer quickly uses the shotgun & kills that officer. As soon as he enters inside the store a cat & mouse like game of shoot out begins between the killer vs. the store clerk & the remaining police officer. Wendy & Sarah try to hide in a store room/toilet. The store clerk gets shot & dies within a minute. The officer takes shelters in the counter while killer was running around from one row to another. Finally the killer gets a shot in a leg & officer got the same on his shoulder. The killer crawls towards the room/toilet where Sarah & Wendy were hiding. They were just about to jumps from the window but the killer takes down Wendy from her back & stabs into her breast. Then the killer move towards Sarah who is screaming & crying on the floor as she couldn't jump out from the window. Meantime, the sirens of an ambulance & some other police cars come outside the stores. "Why you didn't die in that accident, bitch?" as the killer says it he got several shots from behind. The wounded officer (who got shot earlier in the shoulder) appears in the door & sees Sarah is crying loud in fear and the flooding bloods of Wendy are all over in her hands & legs.


In the final scene we see Sarah lying on a hospital bed and that police officer is standing beside her bed & telling the background of the Killer. His name was Arnold Jacob... an ex marine officer of US army who got fired from the army in 2003 for his various questionable conducts & alarmingly growing disturbing behavior. After the court martial he slowly descends into madness & kills 4 of his relatives of his ex-wife in an attempt to "rescue" his only 12 year old son Martin. He got apprehended & got lifetime of imprisonment. But he escapes. But meantime Martin died on the same road accident where Sarah lost her eyesight. Martin was walking on the sideways when Sarah's car hit him from the back & instantly kills him on the spot. In a quick flashback we see it wasn't Sarah's fault as her car got hit too by another car of a criminal that was coming from the wrong side of the road which was chasing down by a police car. Arnold Jacob killed every person who somehow lived through in that accident. As being turned into a psychotic killer he didn't hesitate to kill their family too along in the way of revenge.

In last shot, the officer leaves Sarah's room. The camera focuses on Sarah's eye. She closes her eyes with tears.


Cast & Crew:

Blind Terror (2013) is a Lionsgate film

Director: Patrick Lussier

Executive producer: Alexandre Aja


Sarah played by Yvonne Strahovski

George Rexton played by Christopher Lloyd

Betty Rexton played by Lin Shaye

Sandy Rexton played by Johanna Braddy

The Killer aka Arnold Jacob played by Peter Greene

Wendy played by Bobbi Sue Luther

The police officer played by Kyle Chandler

(TBC...)
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Old 11-15-2011, 10:33 PM
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Judge #1's verdict -

Quote:
I give him a C+.

I was uncomfortable reading the things being done to Sarah. Not my kind of movie. And my OCD had a problem with the spelling and grammar.

Judge #2's verdict -

Quote:
Pretty good choice for a remake, and you adapted it well. There are some holes, however, that would need to be addressed in a rewrite:
The killer smashes the window, and then goes around to smash open the door. Why? Why not just come in through the window?
In the rape scene you say the killer rips off Sarah's pajamas, and then immediately afterwards you say the bracelet falls in her shirt pocket. Did he rip off her clothes or not?
You take pains to mention she knows the layout of the house very well, and then she falls down the basement stairs. This one is not so bad as she could be in a state of panic at that point.

The revelation of the killer's backstory is a bit much. I'd like to see some forshadowing here. Perhaps Sarah is haunted by images of the boy that she inadvertantly killed. That way it's not completely out of the blue who the killer is.

You do have several terrifying set pieces that would be very effective- the murders, the discovery of the bodies, the shootout at the gas station. The story just needs to be tightened up.

GRADE: B

Judge #3's verdict -

Quote:
B-.

Seems like it's riffed on well enough. I don't know how interesting or how much room to move around the original had as I have not seen it, but it was an okay choice and it certainly feels like the sort of thing Aja would be involved in. The perspiration's here but I'm not sure about the inspiration.

Overall Grade - B-
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