Coincidence? Just a few weeks ago Guillermo del Toro announced that he was setting up Disney Double Dare You, a specialty division specifically for making scary animated films for kids. Now one of the other best scaremasters working today, Sam Raimi, is doing essentially the same thing.

In a press release yesterday Raimi announced that he was creating Spooky Picture, a division of his Ghost House label, with the intention of making "scary movies for a family audience." First one up will be The Substitute, an adaptation of a Danish thriller about a class of 6th graders trying to prove that their teacher is an evil alien. Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman, who wrote The Exorcism of Emily Rose, will write this one as well.
Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, I am all for this. Kids are naturally going to seek out scary stuff, but have no business watching Saw movies, or even Raimi's own Drag Me to Hell. Starting on horror early, with age-appropriate material, is the best way to turn them into the Evil Dead-watching citizens we want them to be.

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