What is it with crappy horror remakes?

J

Jael

New member
^^^

You get a decent enough horror film (usually from Asia) and a couple of years later the Americans remake it into a piece of crap. They are all the same. Same film techniques, same twists, same style of actors.

It may not just be the Americans fault. It may be the genre in general has lost it's way. It seems that alot of the films from the east that get remade are very similar. Maybe they had one hit then the rest jumped on the bandwagon.


I watched Shutter last night and they even got a Naomi Watts clone as the leading lady.


They are not in the least scary. Some of them remind me a bit of Tales From The Crypt. A erie tale with a evil comic twist at the end.
 
There's a lot of money in it though isn't there? Why come up with your own ideas when you can just cash in on an old one that will get cinema goers reaching for their wallets?

Saying that, I didn't mind the American remake of The Ring... :o
 
I think The Ring was quite a new type for it's time and so it got a lot of recognition. Unfortunately since then it's just same after same.

Even ones which are original like Shrooms (I think it's original) take the same filming techniques that have popped up in the last few years out of The Ring and The Grudge.


It's a shame when you sit down for an 80min horror and after 15 minutes you are clock watching and forcing yourself to finish the film.
 
For good horror movies,historically you have to mostly rely on the indie filmmakers/low budget movies.There have been some great big budget studio horror's such as The Exorcist,Psycho and The Omen,but 50% of the best ever are indie films.

We all know why they are making these remakes - easy money,especially if it's already a famous brand (Friday the 13th etc).I feel it's shortsighted though because the only horror movies that have made serious money in the last 10 years is Saw,and it's sequels.

The Ring and The Grudge made a lot of money but Mirrors,Quarantine and Shutter didn't do well at all,so maybe the novelty has worn off.

What I personally hate about these remakes is they are nearly all visually similar.In their heyday,you could recognise what was a Craven,Cronenberg or Carpenter movie.These remakes could have all be directed by the same person - they are that generic.Slick but samey.
 
I enjoyed Halloween 2007 :eek: but is it better than the original?
It's that person's personal opinion of course but I think there are only two movies in the entire horror genre better than Halloween - The Exorcist and Psycho.

Halloween (1978) is weak in terms of having a thin plot,creepy but basic horror movie dialogue and hardly well drawn characters.However,that is irrelevant as the movie is obviously intended to be a rollercoaster ride of a thriller/chiller,and is a near perfect one at that.The acting by Curtis and Pleasence is pure class,and the supporting actors can't be faulted either.The camera work influenced a generation of filmmakers with a succession of increasingly scary scenes spotlessly devised and filmed.The twist of Michael actually being this supernatural evil is the perfect end.

It's obviously dated but that's mainly because so many horror movies copied it and just added extra gore,and then more gore,not to mention the premise of the silent,masked killer.Rob Zombie added tons more blood and gave more storyline,but we had seen it all before.His slasher just had more heart put into it (and a bigger budget).Even as a different type of movie,it was still terribly uneven.
 
take the dawn of the dead remake (which as a film i think is very well done). even though everyone dies at the end you still don't get that hopelessly bleak feeling you get in the original. its the same with all the remakes of the classic 70s horrors.

plus the cast are usually too good looking which doesn't help - they don't look like 'real' people

imagine if they remade the exorcist who they would cast in ellen burstyn's role...cameron diaz? nicole kidman..?
 
horror films come in cycles though - we're probably nearing the end of the remake one (i hope), though having said that, horror films have been remade and sequelised since cinema began. no one says anything when dracula, frankenstein etc are remade...so maybe in 20 years time no one will think it odd when we get a new version of the 'freddy story', or leatherface or jason... they will probably end up being to this generation what the universal monsters were to the 30s and 40s..
 
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