What Makes Magic (1978) An Underrated Horror Movie Gem
Can Sam Raimi's Magic Remake Recapture The Original's Charms?
With all that in mind - and with the relatively dour prospects of the creepy puppet horror sub-genre in the current horror climate - you'd be forgiven for thinking a Magic remake would be a fool's errand. Maybe it is, even with the involvement of horror legend Sam Raimi as producer. Mark Swift and Damian Shannon - who collaborated with Raimi on the recent Send Help and who also wrote the scripts for Freddy vs. Jason and the 2009 Friday the 13th remake - have been tapped to write the project, which has reportedly been long in the running.
There's plenty of scope for a remake of Magic to go further than its predecessor, potentially ratcheting up the violence and peril to more typically modern sensibilities, but there's something almost unquantifiable about the original's appeal, conched, perhaps, in nostalgia and the grimy, grainy imagery of Fats on the cover of Goldman's novel, as well as the illusive marketing of the film adaptation.
At the same time, Magic still feels like a relatively underseen horror film and one of the more underrated entries in the creepy puppet movie canon. A remake could potentially draw more attention to Attenborough's original, but honestly? Without Raimi's involvement as a director, the impetus for a redo feels somewhat lacking. If there's a vision worth championing - and by all means there could be - then it'll be great to see Raimi throw his weight behind it, but there is some residual disappointment that he won't be the one to marshal it, given how easy it is to see his gonzo impulses reshaping Goldman's story into something darkly comic.
As for the original Magic itself, it's fair to say that Goldman and co. pulled off their own trick with its production, sidestepping genre conventions to deliver a disquieting and yet all too heartfelt depiction of psychosis and mental collapse. If nothing else, here's hoping that a return to Corky's story sparks renewed interest in this forgotten seventies banger.