It’s very obvious why genre fans would take a liking to Danielle Panabaker: Extra cute, talented, smart, and into horror — all of this can be confirmed by my man, Eric W., who had the distinguished pleasure of sitting right next to her for a bit on the set of THE CRAZIES (and, yes, I’m friggin’ jealous!). Hence… SPOILER…
I was very upset when her character bit the dust (or should I say, blade?) in the remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH. Not only is Danielle a joy to watch on screen, but the death itself seemed so generic and predictable, not a fitting end for her at all. And today it seems that my gut reaction may have been on to something: Ms. Panabaker recently discussed her alternate death scene originally planned by FRIDAY’s filmmakers. Here’s what she said to our fiends over at Shock Till You Drop:
“They couldn’t get a location that worked. There was a real cute line about… I don’t know if I should use ‘cute’ to describe a ‘Friday the 13th’,” she laughed, catching herself. “I said, ‘Maybe on our next date we’ll do something a little more romantic,’ then my character gets it after this big fight involving a fire extinguisher and all of this crazy stuff. When it came to actually shooting the bus scene they decided I couldn’t be at the bus, so they had to come up with a death for me before those characters got to the bus.”
Well, at least they could have come up with a better death for her than what was finally used. I feel that instances such as this are a big part of the reason why this remake wasn’t universally loved. Oh well, better luck with the sequel (if that is indeed still happening).