Eric Red (born Eric Joseph Durdaller; February 16, 1961) is an American screenwriter and director, best known for writing the horror classics The Hitcher and Near Dark.
Red was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Nancy (née Pickhardt) and Cornelius Gerard Durdaller. He attended the AFI Conservatory and graduated in 1983. His thesis script, The Hitcher, was produced in 1986, and is considered a cult-horror classic. A major studio remake o...
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Eric Red (born Eric Joseph Durdaller; February 16, 1961) is an American screenwriter and director, best known for writing the horror classics The Hitcher and Near Dark.
Red was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Nancy (née Pickhardt) and Cornelius Gerard Durdaller. He attended the AFI Conservatory and graduated in 1983. His thesis script, The Hitcher, was produced in 1986, and is considered a cult-horror classic. A major studio remake of The Hitcher was released in 2007, with Red on board as a consultant.
Red was found to be at fault in a car accident that caused two deaths on May 31, 2000. After the accident, Red apparently picked up a piece of broken glass and slit his own throat. He was taken to the hospital under an alias and released weeks later. No criminal charges were brought, but a jury in a civil suit found that he had acted intentionally. The suit, which awarded over a million dollars to the families of the two men killed in the accident, was appealed to state and...
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