Sabrina the Teenage Witch Directed a Lifetime Remake of THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS?
Huh. It was just a few days ago now that I received a press release from Lionsgate saying that they were about to be putting director Melissa Joan Hart’s remake of The Watcher in the Woods starring Angelica Huston out on DVD. And just like many of the rest of you out there, this news had me thinking: “Sabrina the Teenage Witch directed a Lifetime remake of The Watcher in the Woods?!”
Yes, it would appear so.
For those of you who might not know, The Watcher in the Woods was originally a novel by Florence Engel Randall and was initially published under the title A Watcher in the Woods in 1976. Scholastic Book Services re-released it under a slightly new title, The Watcher in the Woods in 1980. This new edition, and title, were a means of tie-ing the book in with the 1980 Disney adaptation of the novel starring Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, and David McCallum.
I love Disney’s 1980 version of the film. It’s spooky as all hell, not (really) for kids, and is strange as all fuck. But as much as I dig the original movie, it had it’s share of controversy when it was in production. Producer Tom Leetch pitched the project to Disney stating that “This could be our Exorcist.” Yes, you read that right. Disney gave the film the green light on the promise that it would be Disney’s The Exorcist. That couldn’t go wrong.
The powers that be then hired the director of The Legend of Hell House, John Hough to helm the film and Brian Clemens was hired to adapt the novel into a screenplay. However, after his first draft was deemed too dark, Clemens was replaced by Disney, and Rosemary Anne Sisson revised it. It was all downhill for that adaptation from there.
In fact, after the film’s limited theatrical run in New York on April 17, 1980, the critical backlash was so severe that Disney pulled the movie from theaters and reshot its ending without Hough. In total supposedly over 152 conclusions were written before the filmmakers shot and used one. In the end, the film had a total of three different endings, which are featured on the 2002 Anchor Bay DVD release. Jesus, please us.
And I guess that’s why Lifetime and Melissa Joan Hart thought it was time for a remake. For those who might not be aware, yes, the remake is heading to DVD this Tuesday via Lionsgate, but the film has been available to the public for a while now. It premiered on Lifetime last Halloween, October 21, 2017, to be exact and has run frequently on the channel since then. So some of you out there may have already seen this new version, multiple times possibly.
Again, I have a special place in my horror heart for the original 1980’s adaptation. It sure as hell doesn’t live up to the above-mentioned Disney’s The Exorcist title, but it is way creepier, freakier, and scarier than anything else Disney has ever put out – other than Jack Clayton’s 1983 adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes starring Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, and Pam Grier. That movie is pretty fucking freaky too.
Now, of course, I can’t speak to the quality of the Lifetime-Melissa Joan Hart version, but I’m here today to let you know that you need to check out the original 1980 version. Hell, share it with your kiddos. They might have a few nightmares (and no doubt tons of questions afterward), but I think it will make for a fun family night at the movies.
The fact that the new adaptation stars Angelica Huston (Morticia from Barry Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family and Addams Family Values) is a good sign. The fact that Meissa Joan Hart’s mother executive produced and financed this new Lifetime film isn’t such a good thing. Sure nepotism runs rapid in the movie industry and sometimes it results in some solid quality entertainment – but how often is that the case when a mother pays for her daughter’s film.
That said, it’s not as if the young Hart is a first-time filmmaker, she’s directed episodes of The Goldbergs, Taina, So Weird, six episodes of Melissa & Joey, and nine episodes of her famous series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, along with the short Mute and the Lifetime Christmas movie Santa Con co-starring Jaleel “Steve Urkel” White (true story for all you TGIF fans out there).
I’ve also read that, in an attempt to “ensure their story was more cohesive,” Joan Hart’s version of The Watcher in the Woods “nixed the sci-fi component” and made this version of the source novel a “more straightforward supernatural story.” That sounds all well and good – and might work in the film’s favor like gangbusters – but the sci-fi elements are what I believe makes the book, the 1980’s movie, and the story in general special. It goes places that typical “straightforward supernatural” stories don’t. And I say God bless it for that.
For better or worse, Melissa Joan Hart’s remake of The Watcher in the Woods starring Anjelica Huston as Mrs. Aylwood, Tallulah Evans as Jan Carstairs, Nicholas Galitzine as Mark Fleming, Dixie Egerickx as Ellie Carstairs, Rufus Wright as Paul Casrtairs, Melanie Gutteridge as Kate Carstairs, and Benedict Taylor as John Keller will be hitting DVD via Lionsgate on September 11th.
Will you be snagging a copy? Make sure to hit us up and let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
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