Tom Holland planning a remake of The Beast Within

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

FRIGHT NIGHT and CHILD'S PLAY director Tom Holland is preparing a remake of the 1982 cult classic THE BEAST WITHIN, according to Fangoria.

THE BEAST WITHIN was Holland's first produced feature screenplay, very loosely based on the novel by Edward Levy, and was helmed by Philippe Mora (HOWLING II). Holland wants to revisit the story with a fresh film version as some of what he wrote in the original screenplay couldn’t be filmed for the 1982 release. Holland shares…

Cicadas were a large part of the script I wrote; their 17-year transformation foreshadowed what was happening to Michael [the afflicted young hero played by Paul Clemens]. You couldn’t work with insects then, couldn’t capture what I wrote, but CGI now does make that possible.”

He points out, however, that he would not want Michael’s climactic shapeshift into a monster to be done digitally.

“Michael’s transformation should still be old-school, done in-camera. The lure of a remake is to finally be able to do what I originally wrote.”

In the original film…

18-year-old Michael MacCleary (the progeny of an unholy union between his mother and a swamp beast) is on the verge of becoming a man. And as the inherited evil in his blood gnaws at his soul, Michael must return to the swamp to uncover the terrifying identity of his father: before his nasty natural tendencies force him to feed on the locals!

Holland still has his adaptation of Stephen King's THE TEN O'CLOCK PEOPLE on his plate, so there's no telling when the remake of THE BEAST WITHIN will move forward. We'll keep you posted.