Editorials
8 Horror Remakes That Are Worth a Second Viewing
Remakes are still a hot button issue among horror fans. Even now that we’re seeing fewer of them, people are still angry. I get it, too. The amount of horror remakes released in the mid-2000s was staggering. It felt like nothing could be successful unless it was a reimagining of a pre-existing property. But the problem with remakes was oversaturation, not the films themselves.
When every weekend saw the release of a remake of at least one classic horror, fans obviously got annoyed and aggravated, because there was just so much. That doesn’t mean the movies couldn’t be good. They often weren’t, of course. With studios so eager to push out features based on recognizable titles, they weren’t too concerned with quality control.
It’s much easier to look back at these films now that their time has come and gone. During the height of the remake craze, it was so easy to just get mad at the fact that they even existed. Now most of them are over ten years old. All of these movies might have been made for the same reasons, but that didn’t stop filmmakers from coming up with unique and inventive takes on these beloved properties.
The entries on this list have mostly been met with mixed to negative reviews. Some of them were popular when they came out and quickly tapered off. They weren’t what the fans wanted them to be. In some cases, they just didn’t want them to happen at all and reacted passionately.
But now I think enough time has passed to really evaluate them on their own merits. With that in mind, here are a few remakes that don’t deserve the amount of hate that they get.
King Kong (1976)
Initially, I was going to include Peter Jackson’s King Kong on the list, but the general consensus seems to be that it’s pretty good but way too long. It’s hard to argue with that, even though I do like it. Instead, I’m going with the all-but-forgotten 1976 remake. It’s a fascinating combination of a big budget epic and a schlocky B-Movie. Its flaws are obvious, but it was a childhood favorite and it’s still a lot of entertaining, campy fun.
While Jessica Lange’s performance doesn’t begin to show the talent she’d demonstrate later in her career, Jeff Bridges is a surprisingly believable action lead. The socially conscious, environmental plot works as a modern update. It provides arguably the most believable reason for getting the crew to the island in the first place.
Yes, the movie does wind up tragically dating itself with the inclusion of the World Trade Towers. But that doesn’t negate the strong set pieces and pure, earnest entertainment value of the whole production.
Village of the Damned
John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned is far from the director’s best movie, but it’s definitely not his worst, either. At the end of the day, middle-of-the-road Carpenter is still Carpenter. There are some memorable sequences. Christopher Reeve actually does a really good job with his character.
There’s a solid sense of pacing to the whole first act and some of the children are genuinely creepy. Kirstie Alley’s death in particular is a memorably gruesome scene. It also boasts one of Carpenter’s most underrated scores. The main “March of the Children” theme is one of his best.
Piranha 3D
Alexandre Aja proved that he could make a great movie with High Tension. He even proved he could make a great remake with Hills Have Eyes. He had nothing to prove with Piranha, so that’s what he did. It’s pure exploitation schlock just for the hell of it. To see a filmmaker that good tackle something like this is endlessly entertaining to me. Especially because he completely went as extreme as he could with it.
It might not hold up as well in 2D at home as it did seeing it in the theater in 3D, but that doesn’t stop it from being undeniable, sleazy fun. The surprising cast including Elizabeth Shue, Jerry O’Connell, Richard Dreyfuss and Christopher Lloyd shouldn’t work at all. Everyone is better than this, even the director. That’s what makes it so great.
Body Snatchers (1993)
Abel Ferrera’s Body Snatchers is not nearly as well known or as celebrated as the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great film on its own, though. With a script by Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli and a story by Larry Cohen, it would have been hard to screw this up.
The decision to confine the action to a military compound allows for a take on a familiar story that has a flavor and style all its own. This movie stands on its own, the characters feel original and it’s an approach to the situation that doesn’t retread what was already done in the first two. At the same time, it embraces its roots and features several callbacks to both of the previous features. Most remakes fail to achieve this balance. Body Snatchers definitely doesn’t get enough credit for how well it tows this line.
On top of that, Meg Tilly’s performance alone—her brutally unsettling monologue in particular—is reason enough to give this one a watch if you’ve still never seen it.
Let Me In
There’s no need to debate that this was not a remake that needed to happen. It was a popular foreign property that was remade for an American audience, part of a long and kind of infuriating tradition. Let the Right One In had barely even hit the States before the American version was announced. But there’s a lot going for this. It might not need to exist, but that doesn’t stop it from being really well executed.
Cloverfield was a successful production, but it didn’t showcase Matt Reeves’ talents as a director, at least not in an overt way. That changed here. He directed the hell out of this movie. It’s so subtle, so subdued, hinging entirely on the central performances. Yes, it leaves out key elements of the story that it should have included. But it’s still a very strong piece of filmmaking on its own.
Friday the 13th
The hatred thrown toward Friday the 13th is kind of odd. For the most part, its criticized for being exactly what fans wanted it to be, because it wasn’t made the way they wanted. It’s a back-to-basics slasher about a bunch of young people at Camp Crystal Lake getting picked off by Jason one-by-one. After detours in Manhattan, Hell, outer space and Elm Street, that was unbelievably refreshing.
But people who were young in the ‘80s don’t identify with modern teenagers. That seems obvious in retrospect, but it wasn’t when this was being made. That disconnect and lack of clarity to its target audience was a major reason for its huge drop in box office after its opening weekend. Admittedly, not all of the characters are likable and the pacing is a mess, but the intensity and energy of it are terrific.
It made Jason scary again, which was probably the most surprising thing it could have done after the direction the series had taken.
Fright Night
Tom Holland’s Fright Night is a masterpiece of the vampire genre. It’s impossible to adapt it directly. But Marti Noxon’s script smartly updated the story with enough new touches to allow it to stand on its own two feet. It’s a smart, funny script. Where it really succeeds, though, is in the casting.
Colin Farrell is probably the only person who could have believably stepped into the shoes of Jerry Dandridge. But it simply wouldn’t have worked without Anton Yelchin as Charley. He’s the anchor. Without him, the whole thing could easily have fallen apart.
It takes the original’s underlying subtext of teenage masculinity and identity and turns that into the overriding theme. The remake is inherently about an insecure kid coming into manhood, the idea of what it even means to be a man in the twenty-first century, as wisely written from a woman’s perspective. While it might still have its problems, it’s an exciting and witty remake that doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
Halloween
I cannot begin to express my reverence for John Carpenter’s Halloween. It is precisely because of that reverence that I am grateful for a remake like this one, even if I don’t always agree with the direction it takes. I’m not in love with a good chunk of the dialogue. Rob Zombie really struggles to write characters outside his wheelhouse and it’s never more apparent than in this film. But the cast? The idea behind it? The overall concept? All of those things are great.
A remake of Halloween should have a totally different approach while still being recognizable. For better or worse, that’s what Zombie did. The last thing a remake should do is copy the original, especially when said original is so innovative from a filmmaking perspective. It would have killed me if Halloween received the same remake treatment as Psycho.
It’s like a comic book. There are so many versions of the origins of popular characters in different contexts and environments. Zombie’s Halloween is no different. It’s completely its own thing, and that’s better than trying to redo—or especially outdo—Carpenter. Plus, the mask looks great and that’s the number one thing most Halloween movies screw up.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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