As I understand it, it's supposed to be a prequel to John Carpenter's film - specifically, the story of the Norwegian camp that we see in the film.
Of course Carpenter's film is great (never seen the Howard Hawks' film), but it just seems like one of those unnescessary movies. Without any involvement from Carpenter - very little interest.
It is interesting though that a movie that was a failure in the theaters and made like less than 20 million is now getting a "prequel" almost 30 years later. Says something about its life on the home market, and theatrical runs aren't always an accurate measurement of a film's quality.
Heck, look at 'Blade Runner,' which - believe it or not - I think was released on the same exact day in 1982. It was a similar failure at the box office, but it has one of the most ardent "cult" fan bases in movie history. It had a huge DVD release a few years ago with the new Director's Cut, and even got in the top 100 for AFI's best movies.