I recently went to see ?Don?t Be Afraid of The Dark.? An apt title, since there?s nothing in the movie worth being scared of. It delivers maybe one or two mild jump scares, but?well I don?t want to spoil it if you decide to see it for yourself, but let?s say it makes the same mistake ?Darkness Falls? did and tries to make something that?s really not scary the subject of a horror movie. I really don?t see why they gave it an R rating, either.
But there is one thing worth being afraid of that I saw when I watched that movie. It was one of the trailers. Brace yourselves: they?re making a prequel to John Carpenter?s ?The Thing.? Oh sweet merciful God, this is fraught with peril. Prequels are probably the most difficult kind of movie to make, because certain things have to happen for them not to conflict with what you know will happen in the movie they?re preceding, story-wise. This means you?ve got an audience that will likely not be surprised by the ending.
What isn?t helping matters is this prequel ISN?T being directed by John Carpenter. Instead, its being directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Never heard of him? That?s because this is his first major film, according to IMDB. Previously he directed a video called ?Zein? in 2004 and a short film called ?Red Rain? in 1996. So, this could either be a young new director?s big break to greatness or proof that you need a little more experience under your belt before you try to follow up what is arguably on one of the most famous sci-fi horror movies of the last 25 years. I think a lot of it will depend on whether or not he uses real, physical set pieces and props like Carpenter did?or if he does too much CGI. Either way, I?m nervous about how this is going to turn out.