Worthy Recent Horror Remakes? PART 1

What recent horror remakes do you feel were really good and lived up to their titles? Whether they were good adaptations, or completely different but still really enjoyable, what are some of your favourites?

Choose as many films as you want!

 

The only one which I think is an outstanding movie and even slightly improves upon its predecessor is Willard.

 

I wouldn't say any of these are outstanding, but the three that I thought were decent enough were The Ring, TCSM, and Dawn of the Dead. I know The Hills Have Eyes gets a lot of love, but I'm not sure why. I saw it once, and it had zero impact on me. No desire to see it again. I like the original quite a bit.

I haven't seen Willard, Dark Water, When A Stranger Calls, The Invasion, or Quarantine.

 

I own 12 of the titles listed, and think most of them have pretty decent replay value. But the one I visit most often is Black Christmas, so I went with that. I love the original but I just dig the 2006 version (not that I don’t have a few issues with it) and Christmas themed horror movies (for me) rock.

 

I haven't seen most of these, so I'm not voting. But, if I did, it would probably be for "House on Haunted Hill". I know that "Dawn of the Dead" is probably "better", but I just really liked "House..." a lot more and thought that it did a decent job of capturing the fun of the original while still be current. And Geoffrey Rush did a great job of emulating Vincent Price.

 

Damn, I don't know what I was thinking - I should have included that one when I voted. Not great, but definitely quite good. And Rush is a big part of that.

 

Most of these I found passable, but I really did like the AMITYVILLE remake. Thought it combined the best aspects of 1 & 2, had a great look and some pretty people.

 

I found Dawn of the Dead pretty entertaining. I'll never prefer it over the original but I would definitely watch it again down the line.

 

Crispin Glover, every time.

 

Dawn Of The Dead
The Ring
The Hills Have Eyes
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
House On Haunted Hill
The Grudge

The rest fall in either the mediocre or terrible categories.

 

I've heard some good things about the Toolbox Murders and Willard remakes.

But, as for the rest of these, hell no. Not a single worthwhile movie of the bunch. If you consider worthwhile to be more than 5/10. Which I would, if we were talking about the 70's and 80's.

House on Haunted Hill and Thirteen Ghosts had their moments but still were bad movies. Making The Ring the best of this bunch that I've bothered with. And it was still underwhelming. I mean, a semi-"original" film like The Others is unquestionably superior anyway so why bother?

As I've said time and again about this time in the genre, quality of any film is stretched so thin that their resources are being milked from an extremely dry well. Like bologna/boloney "meat" which factories mix with shit parts like nail clippings to try and beef up their product (they really do use animal nail clippings when grinding the actual stuff they pack into bologna).

 

I surprised myself and went with House on Haunted Hill over The Ring. Both have great moments, but the part in House with the doctor and nurses performing the operation and then stopping to look up at the camera has to be one of the greatest moments in all of horror film history. I am very pleased with the German blu-ray of this film. Looks and sounds great, and even carries over all of the special features from the DVD.

 

Willard (2003)

 

Like I just said in the unpopular opinions thread, I would fight tooth and nail to defend Walter Salles' Dark Water remake. It's one of my favorite movies. I would never call it scary but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the point. It's a great character study/psychological thriller that was tragically mismarketed. The performances, especially by Connelly, are outstanding.

The Ring is very good from the opposite extreme (making a quieter film into a more overt, shock-heavy horror picture), and The Grudge was... eh. Not really any better or worse than the theatrical Ju-On movie, IMO. So, decent enough.

I still can't stand the Amityville Horror remake. Empty, insignificant CGI effects and J-Horror emulations mixed with a heavy helping of "historical" bullshit and quick-cut trickery. I've yet to enjoy any of the Platinum Dunes remakes... they've all been too "glossified" and personality-free.

 

Black Christmas for me is a modern classic, but I also greatly enjoyed the TCM remake and House of Wax.

 

Voted for Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Dawn Of the Dead is second.

 

I actually own all of these listed. I do have a soft spot for When a Stranger Calls. It's not great, but it kind of grew on me over the years. I would appreciate a Blu-ray release.

 

There are a few on here that I enjoy - I will admit I hated the Black Christmas remake - on a second view I enjoyed it more although it is still not that great - maybe it was because of the women cast in the movie I enjoyed it more the 2nd time - I do like the cast <:

None of these beat the originals IMO but I do enjoy The Ring, Willard, The Grudge (really only because SMG is in it), House of Wax and, please forgive me, Halloween the most on the list. There are a few more I find watchable as well.

 

13 Ghosts
Dawn of the Dead
Mirrors (I didn't know it was a remake, but I enjoyed it)

I definitely didn't like The Hills Have Eyes, The Ring, or Halloween.

The rest I haven't seen yet.

I take that back, I did see Texas Chainsaw Massacre (it was ok, but didn't have the impact of the original)

 

Saw all but six on this list. My favorites: Dawn of the Dead and Quarantine.