Back in the 1980s, the Twilight Zone had its first revival, and one of the best episodes was “Button, Button”. The premise was very simple: a couple struggling financially is given a very simple button in a box. If they press the button, someone that they don’t know will die and they will get a pantload of money.
Looking up that episode, I saw that it was going to be remade by the writer. Now it looks like that movie will be coming out just in time for Halloween under the name The Box.
Here’s the only problem I have with this: that is a very simple premise that barely filled a half hour. How do you make this movie-length without diluting the story’s one-two punch of an ending?
Some stories just aren’t supposed to be 90 minutes long. Look at The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. There was a very short book that told an excellent story. Even the TV episode version of it was padded with songs and bits of business in order to fill that length. And then they made it into a movie, and there’s just no way to do that without garbaging it up.