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THE THIRD TEST OF HDC IDOL II - THE GOBLINS

Choose a horror film from the 2000s and turn it into a universal (in both senses of the word) horror classic of the 1940s, complete with casting and a selected director. BUT, bear in mind that it should NOT be a Dracula, Frankenstein or Wolf man film.

The Return's entry -

For this assignment, I’ve chosen to adapt 2001’s Jeepers Creepers. Despite it’s flaws I consider Jeepers Creepers to be one of the most stylish, entertaining horror movies of the decade, and I think I could adapt perfectly well to the style of Universal horror.

For starters, the cast and crew:

Director: Karl Freund

- My first choice would actually be Jacques Tourneur, but due to the “Universal” theme of the challenge I decided to stick with someone from their stables.

Stop-Motion Creature Animation: Willis O’Brien

Cast:

Glenn Strange as The Creeper

Evelyn Ankers as Patricia Jenner

David Manners as Darrell Jenner

Maria Ouspenskaya as Ms. Hartmonov

Dwight Frye as Mr. Felinier (Our version of The Cat Lady)


These are the only characters that would be essential, the rest of the roles could be filled by any of Universal’s stock actors.


A few of the changes that would have to be made:

Rather than returning from college, the siblings would merely be out for an afternoon drive in the country to catch up on each others lives.

While the plot would remain largely the same, I’d like to keep everything very simple, and largely imply the horrors on display. The Creepers lair in particular would mostly feature lab equipment and preserved heads in jars and such, rather than bodies lining the walls.

The Creeper would still remain cloaked for the most part, but when revealed I see a wonderful stop-motion monster.

Jeepers Creepers already has hallmarks of classic horror. Simply adapting the time and removing the gore in favour of horrible implications would not only relocate it perfectly to the time period, but also make things much more terrifying.

Judge #1's verdict -

Good choice of film, good cast and crew. Not sure about the choice of stop-motion for the monster. I guess it could work.

GRADE C

Judge #2's verdict -

I give The Return a B-.

While I enjoy his choice of movie and cast, I feel like I'm missing something, just can't put my finger on what.

Judge #3's verdict -

My grade - D

"I understand you can do better. You understand you can do better, so there's that. Do better next time. Willis O' Brien stop motion for the monster would have been a great genre innovation, but by the same token, nobody in the forties would have thought to have a stop motion monster in a B unit horror film."

OVERALL GRADE - C