The first time I saw Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs I was floored. It was one of those films that immediately made it into my never-ending list of “favorite films”. I’ve never thought about where it would rank, and to be honest it’s a film so visceral and destructive I’m not even sure I would want to watch it too many times. I haven’t watched it since, which perhaps means Rod Lurie’s long-gestating remake will arrive right on time.
Set for a September 16 release, Straw Dogs centers on David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, who return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father’s death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy’s ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), leading to a violent confrontation.
The synopsis reads pretty much just as the original played out outside of the Sumner couple moving to the South instead of England, and skimming the trailer looking for a screen capture for the image above it would seem Lurie hasn’t deviated far from the original one bit. The only thing that concerns me is the fact it’s being released by Screen Gems, a house known for Resident Evil-esque PG-13 horrors such as this weekend’s Priest, more than it is for a film such as the one Peckinpah delivered back in 1971.
The teaser trailer for the film is directly below and you can read my first reaction thoughts on the original right here if you’re interested.
