It’s doubtful many remember Na Hong-jin‘s mysterious and engaging The Wailing that came out… last year. Or rather, that’s what Scott Free and Fox International Production (FIP) seem to think. According to ScreenDaily, the two companies are in early talks for an American remake of the horror drama we said was, “Designed and choreographed with stupendous pizzazz, it’s an explosion of colors, noises, and murderous zest that floods the senses, reminding you in a (skipped) heartbeat how frightfully entertaining these supposedly artless horror flicks can be.” As a skeptic myself on American remakes of foreign material — where the mantra always seems to be, ‘take the style, leave the substance’ — the central question is: how can it be effectively adapted? Adaptation should not be focused on the idea that, ‘hey we can take the subtitles out!’ to satiate a supposedly ‘stupid’ American audience. It should instead have a reason in its prospective culture to exist in a new light.
This in mind, it is comforting to hear head of FIP Hosung Kim speak on the idea: “[Scott Free executives] said The Wailing reminded them of films such as The Exorcist, The Ring and Seven. The locality and sensibility of The Wailing is so strong that I don’t think it would be easy to do a Western remake, and it will be important who directs it. So I told him I think the only director who could do the remake is Na Hong-jin. But we are still in early stages of talks.” This type of thought and care is important, keeping in mind the balancing act the adaptation must walk between enough difference to justify its existence, while at the same time carrying on the proverbial torch of the source material’s thematic substance.
Check out our podcast discussion of the film below.
Do you want to see an American remake of The Wailing? Who would you slot to direct?