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Indifference is, perhaps, one of the most frustrating attitudes one can have towards a film. If you love a film, singing its praises is a natural by-product. Hating a film can often times be an even more cathartic experience than loving a film, as vitriol is always easily on tap. But not particularly caring one way or the other? That's oddly frustrating for me.

The Stepfather, the most recent collaboration between producer J.S. Cardone and director Nelson McCormick (the last being their remake of Prom Night, a project I feel safe calling the most annoying horror film of 2008, and even that's being diplomatic), is another entry to a new Hollywood tradition of finding vaguely recognizable films from the 1980s and remaking them on the cheap. Now, I'm not one to bemoan this business model; it's fine if the end result has enough originality to it that there is at least the illusion that the film is something more than a commodity to draw in a big opening weekend.

Fortunately The Stepfather does have enough airiness to it and enough interesting performers in it to convince even a hardened cynic that money wasn't the only motivation for all involved, that creatively the team behind it did want to deliver to new audiences a story of the reverse-black widow, of a man who lulls vulnerable single-mothers into thinking he wants to join their family, only to bite their heads off (figuratively, there's no actual cannibalism involved) when their back is turned.

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A few months back, Chris let you know that the remake of The Stepfather was most definitely moving forward with Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) in the title role, Nelson McCormick (Prom Night) in the director's chair, and J.S. Cardone (The Covenant) on adaptation duty. (Also previously announced was the involvement of actors Sela Ward, Penn Badgley and Adrienne Palicki.) And to those who might not remember the 1987 Joseph Ruben thriller, here's a recap: There's this crazy guy who likes to kill families, and ... oh, you should probably just rent it. It stars another currently-popular TV actor in a very entertaining performance.

So now comes word from Bloody-Disgusting.com that two more familiar faces have joined the fray. For your nine bucks you'll not only get Walsh and Ward, but also the ever-cool Christopher Meloni and the always-adorable Sherry Stringfield. (The actors are best known for a pair of TV series with two-letter titles. Can you name them?) Production on the Stepfather remake begins in late March ... which means the flick should arrive just in time to snag that early January horror spot that somehow seems to gush money every damn year.

Plus it's a Sony remake. And that means PG-13 all the way.

The original was Terry O'Quinn's shining moment before he became John Locke on Lost. Now, in the previously announced remake of The Stepfather, O'Quinn's role will be refilled by Dylan Walsh. According to Variety, the Nip/Tuck star will play the homicidal "daddy" who marries Sela Ward and provokes the suspicions of her kid. This time around, though, the kid is a boy rather than a girl, and cast in the role is Penn Badgley (John Tucker Must Die). Rounding out the cast may be Adrianne Palicki (TV's Friday Night Lights), who is in negotiations to play the son's girlfriend.

The original, which came out in 1987 and later spawned a sequel, was pretty cheap and cheesy, but it was a neat horror interpretation of the usual fears of step-children, that the guy who married mommy is a really terrible man. Of course, in the movie, the stepfather turns out to be a serial killer who has slashed his former families to bits due to a psychological issue stemming from his childhood. According to Variety, Screen Gems is hoping to make the redo a more-Hitchcockian thriller. Somehow I doubt it will be anywhere near as good as one of old Alfred's classics.

The Stepfather also now has a script, which was written by J.S. Cardone (The Covenant), and a director, Nelson McCormick, who previously worked with Walsh on four Nip/Tuck episodes. Cardone and McCormick were also both involved with Screen Gems' remake of Prom Night, which hits theaters in April. About the same time as that release, The Stepfather will probably be just starting filming.

On my Prom night, a mixup at the rental shop forced me to wear the tuxedo of a morbidly obese man. I spent the entire evening sweating profusely and praying my pants didn't fall to the ground. That was pretty scary. But I'm sure it has nothing on the upcoming remake of the slasher favorite Prom Night, starring Brittany Snow (John Tucker Must Die) and headed up by TV director Nelson McCormick. We mentioned the remake last month and now someone else has been added to the cast -- British actor Idris Elba. Fans of the mind-blowingly great HBO show The Wire (in a perfect world, this would include everyone), will recognize Elba as the beloved-by-fans Stringer Bell, the man who tried to apply economics classes to the Baltimore drug trade.

Elba's got a lot of projects lined up -- you'll soon be able to see him in the Hilary Swank thriller The Reaping, the horror sequel 28 Weeks Later, and the highly anticipated Denzel Washington/ Russell Crowe flick American Gangster. Elba will play a police detective in Prom Night. The original film was about a group of kids who accidentally kill a child and six years later are stalked by a masked killer at their high school dance. It starred scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and ... Leslie Nielsen! It's easy to forget that Nielsen was once a dramatic actor. In the summer of 1980, Prom Night was released just a few weeks after comedy classic Airplane!, which must have made it difficult for horror fans to take Nielsen seriously in the role. "A hospital? What is it?" "It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now."

All we have is a director and a leading lady, but it sure looks like we're due for another trip into Horror Remake Country. The actress is Brittany Snow, the director is Nelson McCormick, and the title is ... Prom Night. Yes, Prom Night, the horror flick that Jamie Lee Curtis did after Halloween and The Fog, but before Terror Train, Roadgames and Halloween 2. Yes, Prom Night, one of the only "modern" films in which you're asked to accept Leslie Nielsen as a normal human being. (Creepshow would be another.)

Sony's Screen Gems is the one behind this particular remake, and it's producer Neal Moritz who'll be coaxing Prom Night back to the silver screen. Mr. Moritz's most recent movies include Click, Stealth and xXx: State of the Union. Horror fans may know Moritz from titles like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legends: Final Cut, I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer ... and Soul Survivors. Can't wait. Raise your hand if you think the new Prom Night will be a PG-13 affair. Sigh.

Seriously though -- have we learned nothing from the remakes of 13 Ghosts, The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, The Fog, The Haunting, The Hitcher, House of Wax, House on Haunted Hill, The Omen, Psycho, When a Stranger Calls or The Wicker Man? What's that? Most of those lame-o remakes turned a profit? Oh. Then I guess we really have learned something...

[ via Bloody-Disgusting.com ]