As the genre evolves, hopefully so does our way of thinking and looking at horror films. What I’ve discovered over the last decade or so is that my approach to remakes has changed significantly. Set aside the thought of “Hollywood is creatively bereft” because I don’t think that’s an acceptable war cry when a new remake is announced. The studio system works in mysterious ways and has been working that way for decades. Bad movies happen. Great movies happen. Remakes happen. It’s what they bring to the table (or don’t bring to the table) that matters.
Next month, Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead turns 10. That was a film I didn’t want to have happen. It didn’t need to happen. I rallied against it. Took to the site I was working for at the time to bitch and moan. And then it came out and it was in my top 10 of the year. I think that was the last time I preemptively complained about a remake, as if I had not learned my lesson before with films like Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Chuck Russell’s The Blob. When Snyder’s film landed in theaters, I adapted a more laid back attitude about remakes.
“Oh, they’re remaking The Hills Have Eyes with a promising French director? Interesting. If it sucks, at least I see the Wes Craven film whenever I want.” (Pleasant surprise, it’s good!)
“Yikes, they’re remaking The Crazies? The original’s okay – let’s see what they can do to improve upon the idea’s execution.” (Pleasant surprise, it wasn’t too shabby!)
It’s our natural instinct to take up torch and pitchfork and form an angry mob when a horror remake gets announced, but haven’t we learned our lesson to jump to knee-jerk conclusions? Don’t we always have the original film that’s being remade within arm’s reach?
As a horror fan, I get it – over the last 14 years we’ve seen the remake business swell, so that may very well have to do with the vociferous backlash against remakes I see on our comment boards, blogs and whatever pointless petition comes along to try and stop a remake from happening. But I say channel that energy into trying to get the word out about great horror films that very few people have seen.
Still, when I read an essay or a blog or a comment where a fellow fan screams: “I’m against horror remakes!” I think, really? How can that be? I’m not against them. I can’t say I am when I can sit here and list several that have all worked for me. I’m against the notion of doing a remake, but not improving on or doing something different from what’s been done before. But when a new remake is announced, I’m not going to get fired up. I’ll just choose to wait and see what they do with it before making any judgement call.
What about you? Sound off below!
