When Remakes Go Right

So with successful franchise reboots in the last several years, including Batman and Star Trek, I got to thinking about a similar, though slightly different, genre of film making.  The straight up Remake — yes, there is a difference between the two.  Reboots occur when a franchise has run out of gas creatively and a director and/or studio believes that said franchise still has enough charisma about it to begin again.  Remakes are a bit more dangerous.  Instead of taking a film in a new direction à la a reboot, remakes come at the film making process from a different viewpoint.  Films that are remade are usually done so because the original films are thought to be outdated, whether in terms of the story or special effects from the time.  And most times remakes do not set out to tell a different story, only an altered one — one that it is only slightly different so as not to be a complete retread.

Sadly, though, movie remakes fall flat more often than not.  Last year’s Prom Night is a perfect example.  The original Prom Night, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, was not a great feat of cinema itself.  The characters were forgettable, the plot, well, nothing really going on there besides classic revenge and whatnot, and the scares themselves didn’t punch a whole lot of creativity, either.  And quite honestly, had the film not received a shout out from Wes Craven’s Scream, no one in the present day would probably remember it to begin with.  So when the film was remade and turned out even more bland than the original it left film-goers scratching their heads wondering why even bother?  Of course, there are other remakes where actual effort goes into the project with the producers and filmmakers simply trying to make the best film possible… and it still winds up falling flat — e.g., The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake.

So will all this mind it is now only fair to share the handful of decent remakes that have come out in the both the past and present that have proven to be as good, and in some cases better, than the originals.

The Ring

A remake of the foreign film, Ringu.  I never saw the original but I did see this Gore Verbinski-helmed version and thought it was quite enjoyable.  A lot of what makes this film work is the mood set throughout, from the slightly green hue everything seems to have to the somewhat subliminal flashes of “rings” during the picture.  There is also a nice mystery that is slowly unraveled as well — at first it is just made out to be just another revenge plot but as we continue along the story actually becomes darker and darker until the character of Samara, who starts out as scary and then becomes a bit tragic, circles all the way back around to truly evil once again.  Very well done… It’s almost too bad The Ring Two blew so hard.

Halloween

This is possibly one I’ll catch hell for, but screw it.  There is no denying that John Carpenter’s 1978 original is a classic piece of horror film making (and a personal favorite of mine as well) but there is also no doubt that it was a film destined to be remade as well.  When I first heard that Rob Zombie would be directing the new version I, like everyone else, very, very skeptical.  It seemed like a project that a ton of other directors could have been given and probably would have been honored to have it.  After seeing the film for myself, though, I understand why Zombie was the right choice.  Any other director would have tried to stick too close to the original, thereby making the remake itself unnecessary, but Zombie did what any good director should do when remaking films: simply make it their own.  He took the original idea of Michael Myers, and made him do pretty well the same thing for different reasons while at the same time bringing his own raw and visceral style to the picture as well.  He also made several nice casting sides, too — my favorites being Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis and Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie.  And while the ending is quite different than the original, I find Laurie screaming bloody-murder as the credits begin to be very haunting.  Hopefully Zombie will do an equally good job on the sequel, due out later this year (of course, sequels are always a toss-up).

The Thing

Why not follow a remake of a John Carpenter film to one Carpenter remade himself.  Here we have Carpenter’s version of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, and again while I have never seen the original, I do have a small love affair with what is Carpenter’s other horror classic.  This film is the whodunit to end all whodunits, with the audience not only never sure of exactly who is infected and who is not but also never quite sure what the “thing” is or wants, either.  It’s got excessive amounts of gore and a large cast of characters all on the blistering edge, ready to kill anyone that so much as looks at them the wrong way — not because they are innately badass, but because they are frightened.  And so are we.  Oh, and let’s not forget the ending: So quiet and subtle and perfect.

Dawn of the Dead

Here’s a case where I have seen the original.  George A. Romero’s 1978 original will always be the definitive version but Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake serves as a wonderful companion piece.  Here again is the director taking the basic concepts of the original and making it his own.  Instead of bringing in a small handful of characters to deal with and observe, Snyder’s film brings us an ensemble of many different characters which essentially tells us in advance that most of them will probably die (and in probably very horrific ways).  But this movie, like the original, isn’t about the horrifying ways that people can die, but rather it is about how they survive, or at least try to.  Take Mekhi Phifer’s endearing character — his pregnant wife has been infected and he stays by her constantly to make sure she’s okay… but the day comes when she finally passes away and Phifer is left with an Undead baby and a case of the crazies.  Very chilling.  And it’s also worth mentioning Snyder’s choice of songs during the picture as well also seem to make it that much better — Johnny Cash’s “When the Man Comes Around” playing through the opening titles and Richard Cheese’s version of “Down with the Sickness” playing through a montage sequence.  Awesome.

The Departed

Moving out of the realm of horror, we have Martin Scorsese’s remake of the foreign film, Infernal Affairs.  What can I really say about this movie that hasn’t been said already?  A stellar cast and– come on, this is the film that won Scorsese the gold!  I never saw the original, and probably never will because, really, who needs to?  The Departed.  Enough said.

Insomnia

Again, never saw the original, just this Christopher Nolan-helmed remake.  The film wasn’t a big hit if I remember correctly, which is a shame because most people haven’t seen this film from The Dark Knight director — sure, they’ve probably seen Memento because their film-geek friend forced them to, but more often than not, this little treasure goes unnoticed.  It follows the events after a murder in Alaska brings two big city detectives, which included Al Pacino, in to investigate.  Of course, when Pacino shoots and kills his partner accidentally, the action slowly begins to haunt Pacino — and when it is revealed that the killer saw Pacino do this, well, things begin to get really screwy.

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And that, for the moment, friends and neighbors, is it.

Now there are also few others worth mentioning — The Blob, Ocean’s 11, Red Dragon, Casino Royale and even Evil Dead II fits the category, more or less — but these are the ones that stick in my mind as top of the line remakes that hold the most replay value — and also, Ocean’s 11 and Casino Royale could also be seen as reboots… so there!