Hart reimagines ‘The Watcher in the Woods’
Melissa Joan Hart says there are two types of people when it comes to the 1980 horror flick “The Watcher in the Woods:” Those who love it and those who have never heard of it.
Count the actress among the former. That’s why she has produced and directed a remake of the chiller that will air on Lifetime for Halloween season. Her mom, Paula Hart, serves as co-executive producer.
“I watched it over and over growing up,” says the “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” star. “It was one of my favorite movies. That and ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’ were kind of my introduction to the thriller genre.”
That helps sum up part of the appeal of “The Watcher in the Woods.” In the original, Jan (Lynn-Holly Johnson) moves with her family to a secluded home in England owned by the mysterious Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis). Thirty years earlier, Mrs. Aylwood’s daughter mysteriously vanished, and soon Jan is haunted by visions of the girl.
The atmospheric movie was one of the first PG-rated films made by Disney, so it boasts a weird mix of tension, jump-out-of-your-seat scares and applepie wholesomeness. People magazine panned it as “The Disneyville Horror,” but it soon became a slumber party favorite on home video. Throw in a young Kyle Richards from “The Real Housewives” walking through the woods muttering “Nerak,” and you’ve got a movie that walks a fine line between camp and cult.
Career plans
While she was appearing on “Sabrina,” Hart’s mother pursued the rights to
remake the film for Hart to star as Jan.
“Disney wouldn’t tell us who they belonged to or if they were available,” Hart says. “Finally, four years ago I was working for ABC Disney, and a friend who works there did us a special favor and sent someone out to find the rights for us.”
The downside?
“I was too old to play Jan and too young to play Mrs. Aylwood,” Hart comically grumbles. “So, I directed!”
Hart, who is 41 (!) with three kids, showed the original to two of her children immediately before filming started. Her son was intrigued by the movie’s use of point-of-view camerawork to depict what the Watcher sees, a technique Hart also uses.
“My 10-year-old was just enthralled,” she recalls. “He was so curious about the Watcher. ‘Who are we? Why are we watching them?’ Watching these people from a distance really makes an impression.”
It also served to reinforce her vision for the remake.
“It’s not a splatter film,” she says. “There’s an eeriness to the movie, but you’re not going to turn it off and have nightmares. (Movies) have kept my 11year-old in my bed and it’s a tough thing — it’s a delicate hormonal age for a kid to be sleeping with you, you know? This needs to be a family thriller, and it’s tricky making something adults will like that is still scary.”
Casting ‘Watcher’
Newcomer Tallulah Evans plays Jan. Filling the role of Mrs. Aylwood is Oscar winner Anjelica Huston, not exactly the first name you think of when the subject is Lifetime TV horror movies.
“She was taken with the material,” Hart says. “Sometimes I’ve been lucky when I direct, because some really talented friends that seem kind of way above projects will come to work with me. I directed a short movie called ‘Mute’ and said to Garry Marshall, ‘Hey, you want to be in this?’ And he did it and it was incredible. Sometimes, you just gotta ask.”
Cameo appearances by Johnson and Richards were discussed but didn’t work out due to budget and logistics (the new film was shot in Wales). On the other hand, Benedict Taylor, who plays Jan’s boyfriend in the original, returns as a man who plays a key role in the mystery.
“He just came in and auditioned,” Hart says, sounding amazed at her good fortune. “His agent got the call and he wanted to be a part of it. He was just amazing, and it was so much fun to have this person with such a personal connection to the original.”
Scared of ‘scared’
Taylor is British, as are most of the cast, even those playing Americans. That created a minor dilemma for Hart.
“You’ll hear the word ‘scared’ a lot in the movie, and they say ‘scahd.’ My mother would be telling them ‘Scared! Scared!’ throughout filming. I just saw a preview of the movie and before Jan spoke, I still thought ‘Is she going to say it right?’ I have a little PTSD from that. And, it’s like, why didn’t we just change it to ‘frightened?’”
Hart’s version sticks to the basic formula but changes the identity of the mysterious Watcher, who (spoiler alert!) is revealed to be a being from another world in the original.
“The original has these sci-fi elements and I always felt that was a little confusing,” Hart says. “We took out the sci-fi and made it more of a ghost story. I tried to stay true to the elements that really mattered, the stuff that people remembered: We left in the girl in the mirror, we left in the funhouse, we left in the pond, but we made it our own.”
Remaking beloved flicks is always an iffy proposition, and she’s ready for the naysayers.
“I mean, I get it, because you just know there will be people hot and cold on it, but my hope is that we made a new favorite and that people who love the old one will be able to appreciate our reimagining.”