Yes, you read that right. Here is a list of remakes that I believe that are better than the original. It is fine if you don’t agree…that’s the beauty if cinema, right?
Okay, I know a lot of you will be familiar with most of these remakes but I thought it would be a good subject for an article and if anything…cause a bit of discussion on Moviehooker. I’m also hoping that there will be one or two you haven’t checked out yet
THE FLY
Before Cronenberg’s body horror masterpiece, we had the original that was released in 1958. Obviously, a lot to do with Cronenberg’s superiority over the original is the advancement in special effects not to mention the historic performances from both Jeff Goldblum and Gena Davis.
The story of a crazy, genius inventor who designs teleportation pods but during human trials a common housefly gets into the pod with him gradually turning Dr Brundle into The Brundlefly. No one, still to this day does grotesque body horror like David Cronenberg (and now we have Brandon and Caitlin Cronenberg on the scene too)
THE THING
A lot of people fail to realise that John Carpenter’s The Thing is a remake of The Thing From Another World from 1951. Both films are based on the book Who Goes There? by John W Campbell Jnr – Who Goes There was heavily inspired by H.P Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness
Again, Carpenter’s classic has the advantage of the ground-breaking practical FX but The Thing just wins in terms of body horror chaos and intensity.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES
Look, I am not slagging Wes Craven. I mean, he is the man who gave us A Nightmare On Elm Street. And he paved the path French director to come in right off the back of Switchblade Romance (High Tension) to (re)make his English-language debut with Craven’s classic The Hills Have Eyes.
I have always loved the tagline for The Hills Have Eyes: The Lucky Ones Died First. I just thought Aja’s version gave his killers more of a mean streak, they were nasty pieces of work. His remake was one of the first American language horror remakes we could put into the extreme category.
The story of an all-American family on vacation that breaks down in the U.S. desert. With no help for miles, the family become targets of a mutated killer hillbilly family that lives in the desert mountains.
I am sure you will agree with me, we had a huge spike in alien movies getting made in the 1950s. Then in the 1980s, we saw a few of those getting the remake treatment and The Blob is another great example.
It doesn’t get more Lovecraftian than a cosmic space blob rolling about a small American town, consuming everything it touches and growing in power as it feeds off every living thing it devours, creating a hideous creation the human mind can’t comprehend.
Another awesome bit of news is that ANOTHER remake has just been announced for The Blob. This time, Hellraiser and The Night House director/writer David Bruckner is the man to bring our cosmic Blob to the modern age! I can not wait for an updated release of The Blob.
THE CRAZIES
I’m a huge fan of George A Romero. He is partly the reason I am typing here today and why Moviehooker exists. So, in no way am I trying to tarnish the legend’s name.
The Crazies continued Romero’s groundbreaking Dead creation but with a nice unique spin that gave the infected more of a human touch – which I thought was a more terrifying approach to his usual dumb walking bags of decomposing puss we get in his Dead Trilogy.
The remake stars the great Timothy Elephant and teens the story of residents of a small American town who start to show homicidal side effects after coming into contact with the town’s water supply.
I think we have George A Romero and The Crazies to thank for Garth Ennis’ fantastic, Crossed…which 100% then went on to inspire Robb Jabaz’s Shudder hit The Sadness
FUNNY GAMES
Another one I will probably take a lot of sh*t for. The English language rename of Funny Games is directed and written by Michael Haneke who also helmed the original Home Invasion 1997 shocker.
A remarkable cast including Tim Roth and Naomi Watts, and chilling performances from Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet.
A wealthy family’s lives become a living nightmare when their vacation home is invaded by two young adults who take them hostage and force them to play sadistic games with each other. This one hits hard, folks and if you haven’t seen the original or the remake then please approach with caution.
DAWN OF THE DEAD
At this point, I can feel 1000 daggers pierce through my chest from Romero fans. I’m I mad? Am I choosing a Zack Snyder remake over the original zombie Godfather original? I am, I’m sorry but I just loved Snyder’s vision way more. Of course, this would not been possible with the genus of Romero. Everything was there for Snyder and he really added that apocalyptic dread so well.
Have we ever seen a better opening? not only in a zombie movie but in any horror movie. 2004’s Dawn Of The Dead was one of the most adrenaline-fuelled, heart-pounding and terrifying visions of a zombie apocalypse, of a world on the brink of total collapse. And, all of that soaked in the beautiful tone of Johnny Cash’s, When The Man Comes Around.
Then, we have the amazing alternate ending and on top of that, we got Andy’s Lost Tapes (both are on the extra features). There was just so much more to love and it seemed like every bit of it was handled with insane knowledge of the genre and total respect for the original.
WE ARE WHAT WE ARE
We Are What We Are is a fantastic low-budget indie Cannibal movie from Mexico. The story of a family of cannibals that must figure out a way to get food on their own when the father dies of a heart attack. Now, they must figure out how to kill, who to kill…and more importantly, how to choose their meals appropriately.
The remake was released 3 years after the original in 2013. They changed the sex of the two main characters and I thought that was a better choice. How the family was approached was way more in detail. The father treated his wife and daughters almost like prisoners, scared to show these flesh-eating monsters to the world. When the father dies it deals greatly them trying to fit into society after a life time of being kept inside 4 walls, barely seeing the light of day and getting fed human meat 24/7.
Well, that is it for my list of remakes that I think that are better than the original. I am probably gonna anger a lot of cinephiles with this one. But I love the subjectiveness of cinema. Come at me
Well that is it for my list of remakes that I think that are better than the original. I am probably gonna anger a lot of cinephiles with this one. But I love the subjectiveness of cinema. Come at me . As always, thanks for reading.
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