Tom Holland

Here's a clever genre filmmaker whose talent lies less in creating original material than in recycling old, but good ideas. Holland's screenplay for "Class of 1984" (1982) was a riotous, punked-out updating of "The Blackboard Jungle" (1955) as an action comic-book. "Cloak and Dagger" (1984) was a shrewd, quasi-Spielbergian take on "The Window," the 1949 noir sleeper about an imaginative little boy who cries wolf one time too many. His smart and witty screenplay for "Psycho II" (1983) helped make a particularly dreaded sequel into a pleasant surprise featuring classic characters and sets in new situations. As the writer-director of "Child's Play" (1988), Holland resuscitated the hoary device of an evil murderous doll to construct a surprise hit that inaugurated the three-picture "Chucky" franchise.