Many of you out there wont have heard of The City Of The Dead, or Horror Hotel as it’s known to our friends across the pond.
Let me assure you that The City Of The Dead is a classic. A superb 1960 British horror, directed by John Moxey (The Night Stalker) and which features an appearance from Sir Christopher Lee. The story revolves around the Massachusetts town of Whitewood, a town famed for it’s history of witchcraft and a town beset by the reincarnation of a witch burnt at the stake in the 17th century who demands the annual sacrifice of two virgins in order to remain immortal.
Metal-heads among you may have been exposed to it without even realising as scenes from the film can be glimpsed in the video for Iron Maiden’s “Bring Your Daughter…To The Slaughter” and Sir Christopher himself can be heard uttering his opening line at the start of Rob Zombie’s “Dragula”.
Well, a new version is on the way as Pillay-Evans Productions has announced that it has teamed up with Adam Stephen Kelly, producer and UK correspondent for AintItCoolNews, to develop a remake of The City Of The Dead.
The man charged with writing the script and set to handle directorial duties is none other than SJ Evans, director of the upcoming Dead Of The Nite, New Year’s Evil and friend to us here at AndyErupts.
Of the project, Evans said, “The remake of The City Of The Dead will stay true to the original and concentrate on atmosphere and good old fashioned storytelling, instead of relying on gore or CGI to move the plot along. I grew up watching the classic Universal horrors and was inspired by how the likes of James Whale created this sense of dread and unease with just a look. I want to bring that style of filmmaking back to the big screen instead of another music video, quick-cut horror film. We are all very excited by the prospect of bringing one of the greatest witchcraft films ever made to a new audience and know that fans of the original will be satisfied with the effort we are making to honour this classic.”
While Kelly had the following to say, “It’s our intention to take British horror back to its roots. With our film, we’re going back to what made the genre we love great. Over the last year or so, we’ve seen attitudes towards the genre changing and audiences are growing tired of being grossed out. They’re after the next big scare. With The City Of The Dead, we aim to make a film that evokes emotion from the audience because of its characters, atmosphere and tension, rather than how much blood is spilled. We’re going to combine classic genre tropes with a classic story to create something that will take a 21st century audience for a ride.”
Evans has a busy schedule at present with Dead Of The Nite, New Year’s Evil, Shadows Within, producing Ruggero Deodato’s The House On The Edge Of The Park 2 and now this. Full details on all these projects, straight from the mouth of the man himself, can be found here.
Personally, I am looking forward to seeing what he and Kelly do with The City Of The Dead and will be watching its development closely.
Naturally, we will bring you more on this project as it comes but in the meantime, Kelly has sent along some promotional art for you to feast your eyes upon.
Oh and any kids reading this might want to hide your screens from your parents or leave immediately as the below image features full frontal nudity and is definitely NSFW. Enjoy.
