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'Superman III' reimagined as a horror film

Evil Superman battle! Killer computers! Richard Pryor as a hacker! Watch this "Superman III" trailer remade to look like the horror film it probably should have been.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
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"Superman III" gets the dark trailer it always deserved.

Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET

The 1983 film"Superman III" always seemed more hilarious than terrifying, but now a perceptive fan has re-created the DC Comics superhero film starring Christopher Reeve as a horror film in which a self-aware computer tries to kill Superman and even traps a woman and transforms her into an odd-looking cyborg.

Of course, with legendary comedian Richard Pryor playing computer programmer Gus Gorman, it's hard to take the movie too seriously. Pryor wears a huge foam cowboy hat in the movie, for crying out loud. Serious hackers call themselves black hats and white hats, but they don't actually wear giant novelty hats.

Still, when you watch this fan-made trailer "Superman III: From Horrible to Horror" from One Perfect Shot, a "website that honors the art of filmmaking, frame by frame," the underrated superhero movie seems oddly terrifying now that it's re-edited and backed with an ominous-sounding film score.

There's fire, blood, choking and a very angry-looking Superman going through a nervous breakdown complete with split personas. Superman ends up violently fighting with himself as his alter ego Clark Kent in a junkyard.

Come to think of it, this dark "Superman III" trailer, posted last week, actually makes director Zack Snyder's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," out in March 2016, look cheerful.