The Fright Stuff

Capping off Hollywood's first-ever $4 billion summer, writer-director Rob Zombie's remake of the 1978 horror classic Halloween debuted with $31 million, marking a record tally for the Labor Day weekend. Not only did it reverse horror's downward trend (recent torture-porn entries Hostel: Part II and Captivity flopped), but Halloween also scared up all that cash a full two months before its namesake holiday. Says Zombie: ''Everyone was laughing that the movie was coming out too early, and then I'm surrounded by a mountain of Halloween candy at the grocery store. I was like, It's a sign.'' With an update of Wes Craven's 1972 chiller Last House on the Left and a film version of '60s vampire saga Dark Shadows in the works, will horror's next wave be classic-remake chic? If so, someone other than Zombie, who has a two-picture deal with Halloweenco-distributor Dimension, will have to spearhead the sequels. ''I'm not going to do any more Halloween movies, or any more remakes of any kind.'' — Additional reporting by Youyoung Lee