DOWNERS GROVE One Step Closer to a Reality

Brett Easton Ellis made one of the most fascinating reads in recent history when he unleashed American Psycho to the world. The book was then turned into a very good movie adaptation starring Christian Bale. He now will be creating the screenplay for Michael Hornburg’s book Downers Grove. Grove is an all too familiar tale of teenage angst mixed with societies pressures that have an eerie air of death that surrounds it.

Downers Grove revolves around a young girl in high school that thinks she is next on the list of senior tragedies that happen at their school each year. Nelson McCormick who directed the yawn remakes of Stepfather and Prom Night is set to direct the film, and so far Hayden Panettiere (Heroes, Scream 4) and Nikki Reed (Twilight) are set to star in the film. The film is also set to have Hand that Rocks the Cradle star Rebecca De Mornay. In the story, the students of Downers Grove believe they are cursed because every year a senior dies in some tragic way. Two girls from the school deal with everything from jocks that try and rape and kill one of them to a student that murdered many students before turning the gun on himself. One of the girls finds protection from a boy she likes in high school, but with a bunch of new problems circulating around her, she truly believes she will be the next statistic as the school year is winding down.

The movie is currently being shopped in the American market and they hope to have a buyer soon so they can start production. In a Final Destination type way they hope to showcase the deranged lifestyle of current teens and how they deal with unforeseen terrors. This movie smells like PG-13 written all over it and with lackluster success from movies like Wes Craven’s My Soul to Take, I don’t think the kiddies are responding to new school teenage horror movies. If anything, McCormick can be blamed for that after the hype that was created by Prom Night and how poorly it performed in the box office and the reviews it received. Hopefully with Ellis writing the screenplay it will at least have a chance to be somewhat good.  I say,  just bring out a masked maniac to kill them all in my opinion.

Below, you can find the Amazon link to the book which the upcoming movie is based on.