Terrifying 2023 Horror Movie With 93% RT Score Is Getting an American Remake, And It Needs 1 Big Thing

One of 2023’s best horror movies is getting an American remake at the studio known for delivering unique big picture scares, and it’s a movie that brings to life that feeling of everyone in the world being out to get you. What if, it imagines, for one man it were actually true, and nobody could look at him in the eyes without wanting to give him a beatdown? There’s no explanation for this irrationality; it’s just terrifyingly real. Social media is out of the question, since anyone even seeing his picture online might get the urge to hunt him down. A life off the grid might become essential in a world where everyone is full of irrational hate.

Audiences and critics who have gotten to see this film have responded enthusiastically — it got a special jury mention at Fantasia, and a 93% Rotten Tomaties score coming out of the 2023 Canne Film festival. It premiered in France that November. The movie is Vincent Must Die, a French-Belgian horror comedy that’s been earning comparisons to Shaun of the Dead since it premiered at the Cannes Film festival three years ago. And as of today, it’s set to get an American remake.

The American Vincent Must Die Adaptation Needs a Strong Lead

Variety reports that AR Content, Vertigo and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are teaming up to Americanize the story. Orphan and Aquaman screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick will make his feature directorial debut following a long history of working with James Wan; the original film also had a first-time feature director in Stéphan Castang, who had previously directed TV and short films.

Now, here’s the trick: it’s going to need the exact right actor if it’s going to work — someone on the same level as a Simon Pegg (who is sadly uninterested in a Shaun of the Dead sequel, but maybe he’ll want to tackle this one), for example. The premise is horrific, but the original works in part because of tonal shifts. In one scene, children attack the protagonist, and he has to beat them away to survive, but there’s no chance he’ll be believed that as a middle-aged man, he was attacked by them first.

Yet it’s also a satire of how toxic the discourse has become, and how untrusting everyone is now — handcuffs are used during a love scene not as a fetish, but just in case a partner suddenly feels the urge to kill. The only safe people are those who won’t make eye contact, and dogs. Whoever takes the role has to go from sad-sack office worker to self-defense fighter, and play it straight for pathos and laughs. It’s the sort of shift Bob Odenkirk mastered in Nobody; he may be too obvious a potential pick here (and older than the role calls for), but a comedian with dramatic impulses could be the best equipped.

Who would you like to see playing the Vincent who must die? Let’s discuss in comments.