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Yes, unless you choose to retell the story to change or recontextualize the message or to show how things are different. It's not a great movie, but look at the Bride with Sting. Frankenstein becomes a story about love and liberation, or even at the Bride of Frankenstein as an adaptation of Shelley's novel, it turned the story into a sounding board for James Whale's views on sexuality,organized religion, gender politics and scientific ethics. At its heart there remains a similar message, but the message is augmented. I wouldn't call it a good adaptation of Shelley's novel, but I would call it a good film that takes credit where it's due and gives credit as well. This is pretty necessary to do. Of course the message gets diluted and changes, but this is how folklore has worked for ages. From one village to the next in Slavic countries, what a vampire was used to change, as did the ways to get rid of it. Some towns said you needed to find a pair of twins born on a Saturday and convince them to wear their underwear outside of their clothes. We do this with our monsters and with all of our narratives. It gets harder with movies because they're more concrete. You can't say "I saw Nosferatu yesterday. Max Shreck was ten feet tall and had three heads and he was eating cows two towns over. My sister's friend swears it's true!" However, we have a natural need to. So,Todd Browning makes Dracula and says that Dracula is something different. The same thing happens nowadays, but its also done out of greed and stupidity when nobody has a new slant. What Rod says about supporting horror that's original is definitely true, but I think some well conceived remakes might also be in order. Demon Seed would be pretty cool with CGI technology and a greater knowledge of artificial intelligence behind it. Old Monogram thrillers turned into fun period pieces or updated would be kind of cool. An update or homage to radioactive insect movies would be awesome. If anything, we need smart people helming and writing our remakes to deal with a natural cultural imperative.
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