Comedy Remakes of Horror Movies Like ‘Anaconda’ Are Nothing New
Paul Rudd and Jack Black just released a video announcing that their comedic remake of Anaconda will hit theaters on Christmas 2025. Because what better way to spend the holidays than by watching a new entry in the franchise that gave us a giant CGI snake vomiting Jon Voight’s corpse?
Dropping an awkward promo that contains no footage from the actual movie (and, to my eye, doesn’t even seem to be in focus most of the time) may not be the best indication that Anaconda will be a great movie. But, hey, at least they promised us a “big fucking snake.”
Some folks seem to be pretty skeptical about the prospect of an Anaconda remake — and not just because Anaconda was literally just remade earlier this year in China. Beat this Paul Rudd:
Do we really need to put a comedic spin on a dated horror franchise? The Anaconda reboot seems to be following in the footsteps of 2010’s Piranha 3D, which similarly remade an older creature feature (Joe Dante’s 1978 Jaws rip-off Piranha) as a ridiculous, self-aware comedy.
But this trend is older than you might think. For example, in 2004, Frank Oz turned the landmark ‘70s satirical sci-fi horror film The Stepford Wives into a broad Hollywood comedy, complete with a tacked-on happy ending.
Before that, National Lampoon very nearly made Jaws 3, People 0, which wasn’t a remake exactly, but rather, a sequel with a meta twist. The script, co-written by John Hughes, was all about the production of a third Jaws movie that gets upended when the filmmakers are targeted by a bloodthirsty great white shark.
Early reports about Anaconda suggest that it may have a similar meta conceit and feature the actors “playing loose fictional versions of themselves who go off to make an Anaconda movie” when “all hell breaks loose.” So basically, it sounds like they’re doing Jaws 3, People 0, but with a franchise that Steven Spielberg doesn’t control.
The point is, the idea of taking an established horror property and reworking it to accommodate comedic actors isn’t really all that new. In fact, it dates back to at least the 1930s.
In 1939, Paramount released The Cat and the Canary, a remake of the 1927 silent chiller of the same name, which was an adaptation of a play. While the play undoubtedly had dark comedic elements, the ‘39 version completely overhauled the “haunted house melodrama” in order to “retool it as a comedy” for star Bob Hope.
Of course, Anaconda 2025’s biggest creative obstacle may be coming up with anything as remotely funny as Jon Voight’s ponytail and Paraguayan accent work.