Fangoria Entertainment is partnering with veteran producer Steve Stabler and Anchor Bay Films to produce a startling and humorous new version of director Bob Clark’s seminal 1972 zombie classic CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS. The remake, to be shot later this year, will be directed by horror hall of famer and zombie makeup master Tom Savini.
“CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS means something special in my life,” says Savini, who won acclaim last summer for his WET DREAMS segment of the festival hit THE THEATRE BIZARRE. “When I did my first movie, it was for Bob Clark and [original CHILDREN star/special makeup creator] Alan Ormsby. It was DEATHDREAM, the very next movie they did after CHILDREN. One of the scenes involved a drive-in movie theater, and we shot all night, and on the screen CHILDREN played over and over again! That was the first time I saw CHILDREN. I watched it repeatedly while I assisted Alan on DEATHDREAM’s special makeup effects.”
The new film will follow the basics of Clark’s original film, in which a group of low-budget filmmakers unwittingly awaken an army of the long-deceased during an occult ritual on a remote island. “We hope to pay homage to the original, and excite and stimulate the audience that liked it,” says Stabler, who has produced over 60 popular movies, including DUMB AND DUMBER, KINGPIN and BEHIND ENEMY LINES as well as the horror features BATS, PUMPKINHEAD II and GREY KNIGHT/GHOST BRIGADE. “We also hope to attract a new audience that will enjoy and appreciate the current take on it.”
Savini already has his marching order: to create the most ambitious and frightening ghouls ever. “I want to make something unique and interesting, and I also want to take zombies to a new level,” says Savini, currently acting for pal Quentin Tarantino in DJANGO UNCHAINED. “The best zombies of late have been what Greg Nicotero has created for THE WALKING DEAD. They’re fabulous…the best I’ve seen. But the zombies in CHILDREN are not your on-the-street they-just-died-and-now-they-are-zombies kind of living dead. They have already been dead for a while, sometimes a great while.
“So these are not just zombies, they are cadavers—walking cadavers—and that is what I want to show, what I want to make you afraid of. There’s only so much you can do to the face, hands, chests and clothing of zombies to make them scary, and that’s what Greg has done so magnificently—and that has always been the handicap of doing a zombie movie. With the new version of CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, we want to make zombies scary again.”
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