Why???: God, I don’t know. Hollywood can’t leave anything alone?
No, Really, Why?: Seriously. I have no idea.
The Original?: I watched the original at many a slumber party (I’m that old) and we loved it. Each character had a well-defined thing that haunted them, and something specific they had to own up to in order to be released from the terror. The new one kind of does that, but it is ill-defined.
Go, Diego, Go!: I like Diego Luna, mostly because of Rogue One. He’s kind of a wee man, though, and sometimes Nina Dobrev seemed bigger than him. And she’s by no means a normally-sized woman. She’s dinky. So that was weird. Maybe an optical illusion?
Ellen and the Priest: For some reason I found it shocking the Ellen Page and James Norton got it on. I’m so used to her playing asexual/lesbian, etc., that I just wasn’t expecting it. And James Norton as a playboy…I bet he took this because he was afraid of being typecast. For those that don’t know, he stars as a priest/clergyman/pastor character on the popular PBS show Grantchester.
Kiefer!: The only one of the original cast to make an appearance in this is Kiefer Sutherland. So, if you’re playing the Kevin Bacon Game this is a useful link!
Not a Remake: More of a sequel. No, more like a completely different movie with the same basic premise and the same title. I liken this to when two suspiciously similar movies come out in quick succession. Think The Illusionist and the Prestige, First Daughter and Chasing Liberty, Armageddon and Deep Impact, Volcano and Dante’s Peak, Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman…you get it.
The Verdict?: I’m not going to tell you not to watch this one…it’s not awful. It’s just not great. While it is dated, go watch the original. Because it was original.
image credit: IndieWire
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