Platinum Dunes became known exclusively for their entirely unnecessary but mostly money-spinning horror remakes including 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was followed by The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Quality ranged from ok to fucking terrible which, given the company was co-founded by Michael Bay, is not really below par. After turning some heads with The Purge franchise and making a real critical mark with A Quiet Place however, the company is moving on, and it seems now that their days of remaking horror classics are behind them.
Talking to CinePOP, Bay’s Platinum Dunes co-founders Brad Fuller and Andrew Form did not mince their words in announcing the change of direction.
“We’ve rebooted enough,” Fuller told the site. “We’ve done all of our [rebooted] horror movies. We’re not going to be doing that anymore.”
With A Quiet Place having had a soaring opening weekend, original horror films are very much now the focus, as Form adds:
“For us, as a company, we’re always looking for original material. And the idea of finding something original was important for us. We made a film where there’s two to three minutes of talking in the movie, where sound is a full character, and it feels like audiences are really responding to those ingredients.”
With mature horror films scaring up big money, critical acclaim and even major awards of late and a company as big as Platinum Dunes now promising more original genre fare, it looks as though it may be horror that pulls Hollywood from the rut of remakes, sequels and expanded universes it has fallen into in recent years.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)
