Best/Worst remakes
 

I always find remakes are a sore point with horror fans, and therefore make for good conversation. So, what is your favourite remake, and which one do you hate the most?

For me the worst I've seen so far is the Nightmare on Elm street remake. That film was f*cking awful and just didn't need to be made at all. I knew it was going to be bad before I watched it, and it exceeded my expectations, but unfortunately not in a good way.

Best would be the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake. I've lost count of how many times I've seen that film now, but it's definately a lot more than the original. I find it's one of those films I can watch no matter what mood I'm in.

I find that most of the remakes of the last 10 years are best avoided.

However, I'm not quick to dismiss ALL remakes. For a time from the late-70's through the 80's there were a number of remakes which were actually pretty awesome such as The Thing, The Fly and Nosferatu The Vampyre.

As far as contempt goes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is up there. For example, Leatherface chasing someone around the farm for three minutes. In the original, lowers the hammer, bang, dead. Far more effective.

Also the Wicker Man because I'm not a Nicolas Cage fan and that it's a film so reviled, I've met many people who won't give the original a chance BECAUSE of the remake...and I just feel they're missing out.

Totally agree with The Fly and The Thing. Not seen the Nosferatu remake, I'll need to look that out.

The TSM remake and sequel I thought, in comparison to most remakes, were ok. But only ok. Didn't waste my time with the wickerman remake, and that's being said as a Cage fan.

i much prefer the original dawn of the dead so much more went into the original but not taking anything away from the remake it was good, i was just glad he did the movie totaly different, i like the thing remake more than the original.

Best - The Thing, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

Worst - The Wicker Man, The Stepford Wives

The Dawn remake is great i agree on that,but not better than the original.

I hated the recent Friday the 13th,Nightmare on Elm St,TCM remakes.They were utterly unnecessary and also The Wolfman was only worth one visit.

Also hated the remake of one of my all time faves My Bloody Valentine,an abysmal movie on all accounts.

I have enjoyed Willard,I Spit on your Grave,The Crazies to name but three.

While, technically it's not a remake. The movie is a prequel but The Thing? I haven't seen the film yet but I often wonder why? I understand the directors are fans of the 1982 classic but the movie just seems like it's imitating, no pun intended with the nature of the original...

yeah of course, remakes very rarely are. Dawn is just my fav remake is all.

John Carpenter's The Thing was a remake of a 1951 film called The Thing From Another World. That was what I was referring to.

Worst: this thread...


LOl - I kid honest.

Ok I'll include non-horror too (and some of these could be considered alternative versions of source material):

Best (or ones I like):

The Thing
The Fly
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
There some great remakes of Hound of the baskervilles but infairness I've not seen with the 1914/15 versions.
The Maltese Falchon (way better than the 2 earlier versions)
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (the 70's version)


Too many terrible ones to mention but THE FOG stands out at the moment..

Doesn't Carpenter's Classic take more from that book Who Goes There? I'm not sure if that's the correct book but I remember watching the director's commentary and the mention of a book popped up. I remember the original in clips and pieces. Thing from Another World? Is that the name of it?

Timeline here we go

1. Who Goes There - book from the 30's
2. Thing From Another World -movie from the 50's
3. The Thing- movie from the 80's
4. The Thing Video Game - video game that is kind of an unofficial sequel to the film from the 80's
5. The Thing (prequel) - movie (current) that shows the events at the Norweigen camp
6. Bah, I would like to see a true sequel. Don't tar and feather me here but a true sequel where the alien gets to a city or something could be epic and down right disgusting...

True, but it can still be considered a remake. To be honest, I don't know exactly where the line is.

Take for example, The Magnificent Seven. Is it a remake of Seven Samurai? And then what about other films that seem to be influenced by either of those films like The Three Amigos or A Bug's Life?

It's an interesting situation.

Personally, I think with most remakes it should be best to run to the hills and become distinctly different from what came before like The Thing or The Fly which are quite different from the films before. Although the Nosferatu remake is relatively similar just with colour and sound (although the characters get their names from the Dracula novel and I think Kinski's Dracula is more intriguing.)

The avatar of Anthropophagus makes me wonder when they are going to get around to a remake of Phantasm.:mad:

I always keep hearing about the potential for a Suspiria remake starring Natalie Portman (although now Black Swan comparisons are almost inevitable) but I do wonder how it'd work in a major Hollywood fashion, because it's style is distinctly un-American as it were, it'd be strange.

Perhaps they'd focus more on the story elements about the witch's coven, but Suspiria's supposed to be a sensory film. The plot, such as it is, is not what's really important.

Suspiria and Phantasm should NEVER be remade.

And if any execs out there want to then i hope you die the most horrendous death to you all all your families.:mad:

what did you guys think of the children of the corn remake?

Ok you got me....What is the remake?

I enjoyed it and dug how it was more in the vein of the short story. But yeah I wouldn't run out and buy it or anything but it was a decent enough time killer.

Hated it. It was a lot closer to the story but the characters were way too annoying and the children weren't scary at all and didnt stand out as individuals like they did in the original.

Lets see what Remake I think is best and worse?? Please do not feather and tar me for these choices as I this are what I think are the best and worst remakes

Best- John Carpenter's The Thing, Village of the Dammed, The Blob, Bram Stokers Dracula, Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.


Worst- Rob Zombie's Halloween I & II , Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Fright Night, Children of the Corn, Salem's Lot (2004)

I liked the Friday the 13th Reboot, nice nods to the previous movies whilst upping the body count and gratuitous nudity! :)

Whereas the Nightmare on Elm Street remake fell apart in the first 5 minutes for me, I mean really, who falls asleep at a funeral? ha

I agree with you. I think most people didnt like the Friday the 13th Reboot/Remake/Sequel? whatever. I for one enjoyed it but hated the Nightmare remake. I didnt even bother finishing it.

i thought friday 13th remake good, better than all the other follow ups i thought.

The two remakes that stand out as the worst for me would be The Omen and Last House On The Left. Both were insultingly SHIT. I always read people having a cry about the Halloween remake but come on these two flicks were infinitely worse.

I really hope this never happens. I couldn't stand Black Swan. Any remake of an Argento film is sheer idiocy. Didn't they learn from the Psycho remake? Some directors have to much of a unique stlye that can be replicated, "improved on" or modernised. Although in the case of Hitchcock I've always thought De Palma's early work was a pretty decent riff on his style.

I've done it. You're in this hot, stuffy church, you're emotionally drained from the event, and some religious figure is droning on and on and on.... zzzzzzzzz

I agree with you on Omen. I feel asleep during that.

As for Last House, i agree with you except on one thing that the remake did differently which always bugged me about the original

SPOILERS

In the original when the girl dies in the lake and the parents find out, they instantly run out to where her body is and find her. How they hell did they know she was there? I liked how in the remake she lived because it made sense how they found everything out.

The rape scene though was way too over the top for me. I still prefer the original. That detail i just liked better even though i still think it works better with the daughter dieing. Also the microwave scene at the end was cool but you can't beat the chainsaw through the chair.

END OF SPOILERS

I always thought the TCM (2003) remake with Jessica Biel was horrible. It is depressing, dark, and rainy the whole film.

In fact, Jessica Biel is my main reason to even watch that one. ;)

I haven't watched a remake that I thought was better or just as good as the original but then again I don't watch that many remakes but the ones I have seen I didn't like them:

Friday the 13th-it seemed really rushed to see me and the teens were very annoying to me
NOES -was so frustrating and.....idk it was something about it drove me crazy and it was the first twenty minutes I couldn't take no more
Fright Night- I didn't even bother to watch it reminded me of Twilight from the previews I could tell it wasn't gonna give me the same scrae factor as the original

I thought TCM, Halloween, and The Last House on the Left were all terrible. Especially TCM and Halloween; what really pissed me off about those two in particular was that instead of trying to innovate or put a fresh spin on the originals, they just added lots of the same tired conventions of contemporary, blockbuster horror. Really irritating and total wastes of time and money, in my opinion. The Last House on the Left remake was just pointless nonsense. I hadn't been that bored by a horror movie in a while.

Yeah, I agree. The 2003 remake of TCM was frankly depressing (and not in a good way). The whole film had this MTV modern quality to it that sucked. Totally ruined the flow although it WAS a dark movie.

My favorite remake is probably Carpenter's "The Thing". Though I must say, I like that some people have thrown out the new "Friday the 13th", as I also think it's underrated and am glad to see some people agree with me.

I'm sorry to say this given what inspired the post, but-Synder's "Dawn of the Dead" is the worst remake, if for no other reason than he made his zombies fast. How can you change the one thing that makes Romero, Romero and it still be a worthy remake?

So should everything be kept exactly the same in a remake? The Rage zombies in 28 Days Later were fast too so it's not like he's the only one whose done it. I was actually fine with the fact that they were fast because the remake is pretty much a completely different movie. The remake is more of a fun action type horror whereas the original actually had a point and a message. But i guess if you don't like fast zombies at all in general i can see how you would be disappointed.

I like 28 Days a lot and don't mind fast zombies in general, just thought it was a little blasphemous.

First off, 28 Days Later always struck me as a little bit too much like Day Of The Dead. It's a decent film and all, not one of my favourites, but when I watched it and it got to the part with the fascistic military compound with a chained up "zombie" I thought, "Oh, we've been here before"

The reason why I put zombie in speech marks is because I don't even consider the film a zombie film. I don't see them as zombies as they don't physically die they just change. Heck I think Suspiria has more cause to be a zombie film, at least they have one.

*sigh* rant over.

I think you can do a good remake and still be pretty comparable to the original (such as in Nosferatu) but for the most part, it's always better to go with something quite different.

[QUOTE=ZombieDrone;912970]...but when I watched it and it got to the part with the fascistic military compound with a chained up "zombie" I thought, "Oh, we've been here before" QUOTE]

Haha very true. They share the threat of sexual assault by soldiers as well. You're right about the similarities in the storylines, but as far as the pace, atmosphere, and the general vibe- they're pretty different imo.

My Favorite Remake is John Carpenter's The Thing
Worst Remake is Halloween
Did anyone hear about the Remake to Poltergeist?

I really hope they don't go through with it because one its a Classic! it would be like remaking Jaws( which i heard the were remaking also) or the Exorcist.

Also most of the Horror Movie Remakes are In my opinion really Bad or Poorly made. With a few exceptions Horror Remakes are awful

I agree with you there. I hated the Halloween remake. Also hate more than anything the A Nightmare on Elm street remake...I think that was by far the very worst. I can't say I like many remakes at all horror wise... What I do like is the Funny Games remake, and despite people giving it shit, I actually liked the Last House on the Left remake. I don't mind the Texas Chainsaw remake either at least in comparison with other remakes. I hated the Evil Dead. I'm pretty much over remakes at this point. I just hope soon we can see more original and unique horror movies that aren't complete shit.

13 Ghosts. The remake was tremendously better than the original. The ghosts were amazingly done. Same with the house. Acting was of average quality except for Tony Shalhoub who was above average. The plot was decent as were the characters. I said tremendously because the original was so bad, and not a good sort of bad.

Not saying any of these were better than the original, but best/enjoyable remakes for me are:

The Thing
Evil Dead II
The Fly
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Godzilla 1985

Heard good things about Dawn of the Dead.

Ive only got worst remakes, off the top of my head.... Day Of The Dead (they should have been sued for murdering the original!!), Nightmare On Elm Street, i havent even watched the remake but its just not Freddy without Robert Englund!