That's the thing, Sean. The passage of time is often like the gauzy camera lens Barbara Walters uses. People think something that is currently remembered with affection must have always been held in high regard.
At its worst, when the fond remembrances stay strong and steady, people are then given a remake with previews laced with all the code phrases ("They're all gonna LAUGH at you!!!") that looks pretty pointless. How on EARTH did they have the restraint not to include references to dirty pillows in that trailer?
Richard Eder's New York Times review, published at the time of the film's release, basically trashed it. He said it "is sometimes funny in a puzzling kind of way, it is generally overwrought in an irritating kind of way, and once in a while it is inappropriately touching. It isn’t frightening at all until the very end and then it is briefly and extremely frightening."
I recall the most of the people who liked it at the time liked it the way they liked a particularly well pulled off practical joke. If you look at it as one long set-up for one big shock, you can appreciate all the effort to make you vulnerable to a pretty cheap trick. In that way it was genius.
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Updated On: 4/5/13 at 04:30 PM
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