Battle Of The Horror Remakes!
Film4's Daniel Etherington pits horror movie "reimaginings" against their originals.
The Thing From Another World (1951) Vs The Thing (1982)
A creature that resembled Boris Karloff's Frankenstein's monster and was described in The Thing From Another World as an "intellectual carrot" was never going to cut it in realising the shape-shifting nightmare of the source story 'Who Goes There' by John W Campbell Jr. The 1950s film is a decent piece of Cold War sci-fi - but it took 1980s special effects to create monstrosities of pure horror (those torso-jaws!) for John Carpenter's remake, The Thing.
Verdict: "Super carrot" versus latex SFX cellular chameleon? No contest.
The Fly (1958) Vs The Fly (1986)
Like The Thing, David Cronenberg's The Fly is a masterpiece of 1980s gore that rehabilitates a Cold War-era B-movie. In the 1958 original, a scientist swaps head and limb with a housefly - the scale question doesn’t come up, nor does the slight matter of his brain's location. For his 1986 remake, Cronenberg revelled in marvellously fetid body horror to have Jeff Goldblum actually merging genetically to become "Brundlefly", pulling out his redundant finger nails and puking acid on donuts - and his love rival.
Verdict: "Brundlefly" won its effects creators an Oscar.
Like The Thing, David Cronenberg's The Fly is a masterpiece of 1980s gore that rehabilitates a Cold War-era B-movie. In the 1958 original, a scientist swaps head and limb with a housefly - the scale question doesn’t come up, nor does the slight matter of his brain's location. For his 1986 remake, Cronenberg revelled in marvellously fetid body horror to have Jeff Goldblum actually merging genetically to become "Brundlefly", pulling out his redundant finger nails and puking acid on donuts - and his love rival.
Verdict: "Brundlefly" won its effects creators an Oscar.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Vs The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Tobe Hooper's original Massacre is the seminal backcountry horror, with the cannibal killers (in part inspired by real-life murderer Ed Gein) preying on young folk passing through, applying their slaughterhouse skills to preparing them for dinner. Well, that and some skills more applicable in the lumberjacking trade. The 2003 Michael Bay-produced remake was a shiny shambles, but not in a good way.
Verdict: Just kill those noughties pretty young actors already!
Tobe Hooper's original Massacre is the seminal backcountry horror, with the cannibal killers (in part inspired by real-life murderer Ed Gein) preying on young folk passing through, applying their slaughterhouse skills to preparing them for dinner. Well, that and some skills more applicable in the lumberjacking trade. The 2003 Michael Bay-produced remake was a shiny shambles, but not in a good way.
Verdict: Just kill those noughties pretty young actors already!
The Hills Have Eyes (1978) Vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
A whitebread US family becomes a buffet for a family of mutants (yep, more cannibals) when their truck crashes on an isolated desert road. Wes Craven's 1977 film reworked the story of Sawney Bean, something the 2006 remake adhered to, as well as cranking up the notion that the muties were the sorry result of America's nuclear tests. The US debut of the creators of intense French horror Haute Tension, the remake was surprisingly okay.
Verdict: Two serious reasons why you should stick to the main highway - a draw!
A whitebread US family becomes a buffet for a family of mutants (yep, more cannibals) when their truck crashes on an isolated desert road. Wes Craven's 1977 film reworked the story of Sawney Bean, something the 2006 remake adhered to, as well as cranking up the notion that the muties were the sorry result of America's nuclear tests. The US debut of the creators of intense French horror Haute Tension, the remake was surprisingly okay.
Verdict: Two serious reasons why you should stick to the main highway - a draw!
The Omen (1976) Vs The Omen (2006)
"He must die, Mr Thorn!" Poor old Patrick Troughton (aka the second Doctor Who), does his best in 1976's The Omen to prevent the rise of the Antichrist before he's skewered by a lightning conductor. That's young Damien - aka the Devil reborn - to you. A curse purportedly afflicted the production. Superstition, perhaps, but the 2006 remake of the film was certainly afflicted - with being utter tosh.
Verdict: Not even the marketers' dream of a 06/06/06 release date could save this remake from damnation.
"He must die, Mr Thorn!" Poor old Patrick Troughton (aka the second Doctor Who), does his best in 1976's The Omen to prevent the rise of the Antichrist before he's skewered by a lightning conductor. That's young Damien - aka the Devil reborn - to you. A curse purportedly afflicted the production. Superstition, perhaps, but the 2006 remake of the film was certainly afflicted - with being utter tosh.
Verdict: Not even the marketers' dream of a 06/06/06 release date could save this remake from damnation.
Dawn Of The Dead (1979) and Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Influenced by the success of 28 Days Later, writer James Gunn and director Zack Snyder (300) "reimagined" George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, with the classic zombie shuffler now sprinting like undead Road Runners. The remake worked, retaining the original's holed up in a shopping mall satire, but come on - these people are dead, would they really be so lively?
Verdict: The original had a premise so solid, even the speedy zombies couldn't ruin it. George Romero is - and always will be - zombies.
Influenced by the success of 28 Days Later, writer James Gunn and director Zack Snyder (300) "reimagined" George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, with the classic zombie shuffler now sprinting like undead Road Runners. The remake worked, retaining the original's holed up in a shopping mall satire, but come on - these people are dead, would they really be so lively?
Verdict: The original had a premise so solid, even the speedy zombies couldn't ruin it. George Romero is - and always will be - zombies.
Ring (1998) Vs The Ring (2002)
Director Hideo Nakata has a lot to answer for. Not only did his Ring scare the bejesus out of many a viewer, its success spawned a genre (known as J-horror), which itself spawned a remake industry. Gore Verbinski's 2002 US Ring was tolerable if you're too much of a wuss for the subtitled original, but boy did it open the flood gates to a host of Rings, Grudges, Pulses and Dark Waters - all remakes of Japanese originals - most of which were predictably soggy.
Verdict: J-horror remakes? Done to death.
Director Hideo Nakata has a lot to answer for. Not only did his Ring scare the bejesus out of many a viewer, its success spawned a genre (known as J-horror), which itself spawned a remake industry. Gore Verbinski's 2002 US Ring was tolerable if you're too much of a wuss for the subtitled original, but boy did it open the flood gates to a host of Rings, Grudges, Pulses and Dark Waters - all remakes of Japanese originals - most of which were predictably soggy.
Verdict: J-horror remakes? Done to death.
The Wicker Man (1973) Vs The Wicker Man (2006)
Clash of religions, folk music, Christopher Lee in drag and one of cinema's most powerful climactic scenes, 1973's The Wicker Man is so unique a remake should never have even been considered. Yet director Neil LaBute pressed ahead with a 2006 rehash featuring Nicolas Cage bumbling around amid the bees of an all-female community in Yankeeland: it'd be funny were it not such a sullying. The best thing for it was the ridicule some wag pulled off with a fake comedy trailer ("This summer, Nicolas Cage meets... The Wicker Man")
Verdict: "Oh God! Oh Jesus Christ!"
Clash of religions, folk music, Christopher Lee in drag and one of cinema's most powerful climactic scenes, 1973's The Wicker Man is so unique a remake should never have even been considered. Yet director Neil LaBute pressed ahead with a 2006 rehash featuring Nicolas Cage bumbling around amid the bees of an all-female community in Yankeeland: it'd be funny were it not such a sullying. The best thing for it was the ridicule some wag pulled off with a fake comedy trailer ("This summer, Nicolas Cage meets... The Wicker Man")
Verdict: "Oh God! Oh Jesus Christ!"