When you think “Casper” you think friendly. You think animation. Maybe you even think of Devon Sawa and Christina Ricci. What you don’t think of is actually being scared, but maybe that’ll change after you watch this trailer.
Toronto-based filmmaker Jared Pelletier has created a proof-of-concept trailer that imagines Casper, the friendly ghost, as the being at the center of an A24-type horror movie. Talk to Me, Hereditary, Midsommar, imagine that kind of vibe, but with Casper. The idea is to take a familiar IP and give it a modern spin, one that Pelletier even hopes could become a feature at some point. Here’s the trailer.
We’ve seen weirder things, right? Daniel Kaluuya making a Barney movie? Eli Roth turning his joke trailer for Thanksgiving into a real feature? Or what about when a movie about a popular doll from the 1950s went on to become one of the most popular movies in recent memory? If all those are possible, why not a known property like Casper breaking out of its norms and becoming something more?
“The primary purpose here was to put together a ‘ripomatic’ of stock footage and publish as a general gauge of sentiment. Hoping that some social proof around this is a helpful piece when we’re pitching,” Pelletier told io9 via email. “Beyond that, I’m just a massive fan of the genre and this Halloween season we’re entering, so it’s really just something that was fun to put together and I’m hoping it gets other spooky-season enthusiasts in the mood.”
And, as it’s now officially that spooky season of October, we thought you all might enjoy it. For more on Pelletier visit his company’s site here or his Instagram.
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