Why I strongly support horror remakes

[Spacetraveler]

I know many people react negatively when a remake is announced for a classic horror film. I used to feel the same way about news of remakes as most of them are terrible. However, many people overlook one important thing- The potential for SE releases of the original movies to tie in with the remake. Friday the 13th and Stepfather movies have received special edition releases most likely to tie in with the remake. So for those who want SE DVDs for Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, Child's Play sequels, and Fright Night films should welcome the news of remakes for these films since it greatly increases the likelihood of special edition DVD or Blu-Ray release for them. If you hate remakes, just simply don't watch them but enjoy the superior DVDs that usually come with them.

[Dave]

Good point and it certainly is a benefit. I'm definitely mixed but I can certainly enjoy a remake. Dawn remake was great; Night too. Hated Friday and Halloween, however. We'll see on Nightmare...

[rhett]

Good points, and I'd add that remakes also give us another way to reflect on how we feel about the original. Seeing it done again (usually for the worse) allows us to solidify why exactly we like certain films, certain moments, certain storytelling techniques. Conversely, if it's done well, like say Last House on the Left or Night of the Living Dead, then it can help demonstrate why certain aspects from the original didn't work so well. Good or bad, I'd say any film that gets you talking about the original is always a good thing. Even the shittiest remakes, like Zombie's Halloween, don't really do anything to lessen the impact or importance of the original. And if it does, then time heals all wounds.

[Shannafey]

Also, they introduce a whole new generation to a film that will hopefully check out the original!

[fceurich39]

yep we probably would of never gotten stepfather/stepfather 2 rerelease as well as prom night II and F13TH SPECIAL EDITIONS if it weren't for remakes
there is some decent remakes too like Dawn,Night,Texas chainsaw,Hills remakes i really enjoyed

[buck135]

I say fuck em. They should at least attempt to try something original as opposed to cashing in on "modernizing" our favorite films.

I see your point of view but I believe the remakes hurt more than they help. By relying on remakes the studios divert much of their time, money, and promotions to them while letting original works languish in development hell. Who knows what great scripts are sitting forgotten on a shelf somewhere because the studio spent half their budget to make Jaws 2010: The Final Revenge (in 3D naturally). It's great to have re releases and special editions of some gems but personally I'd rather have new and original movies. Also I feel a lot of these remakes (and lets face it most are unnecessary at best and utter shit at worst) drag down the whole genre and marginalize it more than Uwe Boll could ever hope to.

[Paff]

Yeah, I agree. It's a pretty lame reason to support remakes in general, let alone "strongly" support them. If anything, it's the small silver lining in the cloud of shit that is this current trend of remakes. By the way, anytime the subject of remakes comes up, a couple of people will invariably invoke the few good ones. The way I see it, it's like going to see a live band. I want to hear original material, with one or two cover songs done in the band's style. But some band playing just covers? bah. That's gonna suck.

And while a handful of good remakes exist (and that was more in the 80s, with the revamps of campy 50s movies into more serious fare. Not the case now, where films that were already good to great get tepidly remade into forgettable trash), it doesn't excuse the massive glut of remakes we see today.

Yes, there's always the option of "not going to see them", an option I take nearly all the time. But it's not so simple. Like 2D says, are these remakes taking the place of legitimate films at the box office?

Oh, and this whole "it makes the current generation want to check out the original versions" bit. No, I doubt it. Horror fans are horror fans, and people like us will check older movies. I highly doubt the teeny-bopper audience that actually like crap like the recent Friday the 13th movie will want to check out the 1980 version, and if they do, they'll just make fun of the clothes styles and call it "lame"

Seriously. End this remake shit now. Stop going to these movies!

[allmessedup]

I don't really have strong feelings either way about them, some I have liked and some I have not liked. I usually like remakes better if I'm not all that crazy about the original film in the first place [like most of the slasher film remakes, other than the Halloween remake which was just a poorly constructed piece of crap]. I tend to really dislike it when they remake foreign films for the US market, but there have been a couple of those I've liked too.

I guess I don't get too upset by it because most horror tends to work within the same themes anyway. Even the better "original" films are usually working with something that has been examined elsewhere. I'm more concerned by lack of originality outside of the horror genre.

[Golem]

Hello, all. 1st post here and gladly echo Spacetraveler's initial comment. Watched the remake of Last House on the Left with a gathering of friends from work and no one had ever seen the original. One seemed most interested in seeing the original and even took to my comment that Last House on the Left was inspired by The Virgin Spring. Let him borrow my copy of Craven's Last House on the Left plus Bergman's The Virgin Spring. He liked them both, 'nuff said. Never would he have watched a Bergman film if not for the remake. The remake made it worthwhile.

Originally Posted by Shannafey

Also, they introduce a whole new generation to a film that will hopefully check out the original!

OMFG TWILIGHT! yeah uh huh right!

Ironic how the same films Hollywood dismissed as B movie shit are stuck in remake hell. Have so many people on here forgotten that? Have so many of you forgotten how Hollywood drove all the Horror films of the past out of the theaters? Hollywood drove a shit load of motion picture companies right out of business. Now we are supposed to skull fuck & brain wash ourselves into supporting remakes?

NO!

[buck135]

Sundownrider brings up a good point. Paramount is still embarrased by the success of the Friday the 13th franchise, yet they rebooted the franchise instead of trying something (anything) else in order to cash in.

[aoiookami]

I never really understood the hate-on people have for remakes. I've never been strongly for, or against them. If anything I've really enjoyed a couple of them, and am looking forward to some (The Crazies). They don't affect the originals in any way, if anything all they mean is a new special edition release of the the original (oh no!!). As for the 'they should be doing something original' argument, nothing is original anymore. Whoever uses that argument should back it up with their own, original, never-been-done-before story, I doubt they can.

Plenty of original movies are coming out just not from hollywood. Originality isn't dead but just ranks very low on the list of qualifications to get funding in the US. Most important is the name of the director and is it a franchise or remake. And speaking of originality it doesn't have to be some revolutionary new idea that no one has though of till now. It can be as simple as a zombie movie but told in a way that hasn't been done before. The basics can be the same but everything else is up the the imagination such as: Why are they zombies (maybe they are being mind controlled by nanobots that were released by a nefarious company, a disgruntled scientist, or even a terrorist organization), how do they spread, what do they want, is it worldwide or localized, what is the government(s) doing about it, do the zombies have a pov, etc. Maybe one would be much better off being told in a manner similar to Pulp Fiction or Rashomon. Lots of originality can be had from a simple vampire or zombie movie. Also characters seem to take a back burner in the majority of these remakes. Who cares about the main characters? Most of us want them to die because they are so annoying, stupid, or stupid and annoying (sadly also a criticism of horror movies in general). We don't feel that they are genuine and we certainly don't have any investment in their well-being. Who is the new Nancy or Kirsty? Where is the sympathy? Where are the complicated characters that aren't just generic cookie cutter "tough guy", "nerd", and "sex obsessed chick"? Originality is obtainable but the truth is that most studios don't care about it.

[hots4]

i think everybody has forgotten about the most important remake, my bloody valentine, if it was not for the remake then we will NEVER have got to see the wholy grail of uncut footage and finally see the original in all it's uncut glory and for me even if the remake was crap (and the to be fair it was a fun, gory rollercoaster ride of a remake) then i would have been more than happy.