2008 Woodie Awards
Horror remakes are becoming a tired trend
By Colin McGlinchey
Issue date: 2/11/08 Section: Entertainment
Anyone who has been to his or her local cinema recently has noticed an alarming trend. I'm not talking about the $6 popcorn or the $11 ticket. I am talking about the slew of remakes that Hollywood has been churning out for the last several years. No genre of movies has been exempt from the recent remake craze but one could argue that horror has been the most affected by it.
Remakes have always been an important aspect of the horror genre. There have been three versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and countless cheap knock offs. Horror master John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" is considered a classic. There is nothing wrong with a good remake. Sometimes a fresh eye can even benefit an aging film. Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was arguably a better, gritty version of the 1974 film which tended towards the campy side.
In 2004 the "Dawn of the Dead" remake by Zack Snyder didn't top George Romero's original, but easily surpassed the zombie king's last two genre efforts. The success of these two movies has led us to the predicament we find ourselves in now: studios pillaging the horror vaults and remaking anything for a cheap buck.
Last year saw no less then five separate remakes of horror classics. There were five remakes in 2006 and several sequels to remakes. This year has seen two so far, and it's only February. This trend shows no signs of stopping either as the "Prom Night" remake will be hitting theaters in April and studios begin preparation on new versions of "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street." These last two are the ones that most likely will cause horror fans to start stock piling water and coffee in preparation for the upcoming apocalypse. Before last year these two films were considered to be untouchables. Then Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remake hit theaters and all bets were off. Along with "Friday" and "Nightmare," "Halloween" comprises the "holy trinity" of horror films. While Zombie's film wasn't awful it wasn't entirely groundbreaking either. Zombie would have been better off had he just paid an homage to "Halloween," as he did for "Texas Chainsaw" with his 2003 masterpiece "House of 1000 Corpses," then remaking it outright.
Remakes have always been an important aspect of the horror genre. There have been three versions of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and countless cheap knock offs. Horror master John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" is considered a classic. There is nothing wrong with a good remake. Sometimes a fresh eye can even benefit an aging film. Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was arguably a better, gritty version of the 1974 film which tended towards the campy side.
In 2004 the "Dawn of the Dead" remake by Zack Snyder didn't top George Romero's original, but easily surpassed the zombie king's last two genre efforts. The success of these two movies has led us to the predicament we find ourselves in now: studios pillaging the horror vaults and remaking anything for a cheap buck.
Last year saw no less then five separate remakes of horror classics. There were five remakes in 2006 and several sequels to remakes. This year has seen two so far, and it's only February. This trend shows no signs of stopping either as the "Prom Night" remake will be hitting theaters in April and studios begin preparation on new versions of "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street." These last two are the ones that most likely will cause horror fans to start stock piling water and coffee in preparation for the upcoming apocalypse. Before last year these two films were considered to be untouchables. Then Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remake hit theaters and all bets were off. Along with "Friday" and "Nightmare," "Halloween" comprises the "holy trinity" of horror films. While Zombie's film wasn't awful it wasn't entirely groundbreaking either. Zombie would have been better off had he just paid an homage to "Halloween," as he did for "Texas Chainsaw" with his 2003 masterpiece "House of 1000 Corpses," then remaking it outright.
RSS Feed
Be the first to comment on this story