HORROR MOVIES 101

Re-makes.......

alright guys, as horror fans, what do we think of the all these remakes coming out.  Halloween is just the first of many 70's and 80's horror flicks being remade.......

i saw Halloween last week and posted my review, so go see it and maybe give us an idea as to what horror films you owuld like to see get remade

james 

Re: Re-makes.......

If you can have remakes as good as Halloween, why not?

The classic horror movies, Halloween included, become more dated, and in turn less effective, every day. If somebody sees Zombie's flick, then watches the original, and appreciates it versus thinking it's just an old boring horror film, that's ideal.

I adore Psycho, but what are the odds that any casual movie-watcher is gonna be even remotely scared by it? Same for so many of the great horror flicks. 

I don't think remakes are anything to worry over. A good remake will both be a new film to love, and will up the respect the original gets from people who aren't horror fans necessarily. A bad remake will at least leave people saying "They fucked that up. It wasn't nearly as good as the original."

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I agree and at the sametime disagree.....

The Original Halloween was a classic, and even still to this day I think is more effective than it ever was.  You never saw the violence just the aftermath.....nothing was more scary than Jaime Lee against the closet and you see his face come into frame.....still after all these years is scary as hell.....

I do agree that we need remakes sometimes, but it seems that if we make movies all over again to make them current......but sometimes it is just adding more blood and gore...

I do applaud Zombie for giving more depth to the story of Michael Meyers

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You're right that adding more gore and blood to make them modern is asinine. That's bad direction, though, and bad directors are gonna make shitty movies regardless, remake or originals.  I'm not convinced that even the shittiest, most blatant attempts to cash-in remakes are a bad thing, though.

Mainly because I'd seriously doubt that a terrible remake would damage the respect people hold for the original, and it might drive people to the original. Like The Invasion. It was an awful movie, but my roommate went out and rented the old Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers, which he'd never seen before, just to compare. Nobody dislikes the original because of the crappy remake, and now some new people (at least one) have watched an older movie they probably would never have seen and loved it. So who loses there? Everyone who wasted their time on the new one, sure, but that's true of any bad movie, remake or not, and the original flick has some new fans. 

So they can remake whatever they want and I won't complain, I'd just prefer they give the projects to people like Zombie, who at least actually care about them.

In the first post you asked what we'd like to see remade, and I'd fucking kill for an Eyes Without A Face remake.

Re: Re-makes.......

eyes without a face remake would be awesome!!!!!

my top 2 would be a remake of I spit on your grave and either Suspira or Opera

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   As I have stated before...   whenever somebody anounces they are going to do a remake of "The Exorcist",  I am going to go on a violent, bloody rampage to stop this from happening!

   Here is an interesting article from AOL news...   I will let it speak for it's self, although I DO highly agree about their #1 pick,  "Psycho" !    What the *** was THAT?   That movie was HORRIBLE!   And not in a good way!

   ANYHOW...   check this out....    Worst Movie Remakes of All Time: Moviefone Ranks the "Top" 25 - Moviefone

Re: Re-makes.......

I'll admit that I'm past thinking a remake will automatically be bad, there've been too many good ones for me to think that, but I still dislike hearing about new ones. I can't think of a single movie I want to be remade. The Invasion was one I was looking forward to, because with 3 good versions already, and some pretty decent knock-offs, it seemd like an idiot-proof idea, but from what I hear(I'll reserve judgement until I actually see it) it fails.

It's an interesting point that horror and sci-fi films get remade at a much higher rate than non-genre films. You don't hear much talk about people remaking Citizen Kane, or the Godfather, or any other 'classic' film, but every year about half the horror movies that make it to theatres seem to be remakes or sequels. Horror is a favorite of mine because it is so often home to much greater creativity and imagination than any other genre. It says something that so many of them, these days, are remakes. Missing some of that creativity and imagination.

That being said, some of my favorite horror films are remakes. I'd be interesting in hearing what other remakes are people's favorites.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1978): The original stands up, and the Abel Ferrera version has it's merits, but the 70s version has that horror and fear that seems to be crushing my chest. It's so claustrophobic and paranoid, and right from the word 'go' there's a surreal terror at work. And christ, that ending!

The Fly: Obviously, because Cronenberg is a favorite director.

The Blob: One of my favorite movie monsters, and a very underrated remake. Very effective, with awesome gore effects. Blessedly made before CGI, which has me worried about the upcoming remake they keep talking about.

The Thing: The first film I remember seeing, I was 5 when it came out. And I had a dog the same breed as the ones in the film. It took me years to be able to sit in the same room as someone watching it. Now I recognize a lot of the humor, obviously, but it still has a pretty tense, paranoid feel, almost on a level with Body Snatchers.

Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead: I'm lumping these two together. Both films remove a lot of the social and political subtext of the originals, but they still manage to be fairly effective movies. the NOTLD remake got passed over in terms of recognition, but it's a solid effort and has some good scares. Not to mention pretty good makeup effects.

Now, not to make this longer than it already is, but I don't think any of those remakes detracts from the excellence of the originals. But I also think we here on Spout are a bit different that way. The majority of filmgoers wont go out and see the original, they'll be content with the new, more often than not inferior, versions.

Re: Re-makes.......

I have to agree with just about everything on your list there (and I am totally stoked to see The Blob mentioned... which starts off so amazing that I could always ignore the fact that it doesn't quite keep it up to the end ). The 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers is my favorite flavor of that film. 

Though I think the Dawn remake is pretty slick I dislike how they handle the pregnancy arc (much better plotting in the original IMHO) and I wish it was titled differently so it was seperated from the Dead series (since Romero gets no money from the name I've been told). 

 The NOTLD remake by Savini is good, but surprisingly gore less. 

I am not very impressed with Rob Zombie so far, but I'll see the remake of Halloween... 

 Hills Have Eyes - the original never really did it for me, but I think the Aja remake is pretty good and I put it into the same camp as The Fly and The Thing as better than the original. I am pretty excited for the Piranha remake Aja is helming. I love the original movie and I enjoy Aja's style and slick gore... I am not looking for much more than killer fish and red waters in this one.

 Remakes have there place. We have been retelling the simplest stories for years and years (in film, in literature, etc). There are certain talesstories that are so simple and base that you can take them in many directions. I am all for remakes that alter, warp and rethink past ideas and stories (Again I think The Fly is a perfect example). 

Re: Re-makes.......

Re: Re-makes.......

schulen:

I'm not convinced that even the shittiest, most blatant attempts to cash-in remakes are a bad thing, though.

I would say another argument against remakes is the fact that studios are only going to greenlight so many movies a year and by doing so many remakes and sequels that is just that many less potentially more interesting original ideas that have been denied production.