The Remake Culture in Modern Day Horror Films

As any modern day film scholar or critic might tell you these days, Hollywood seems to be running out of original ideas. That’s not to take away from some of the classics that have been written and released in the modern era of film, but if you look at recent summer blockbusters and recent hits, you’ll find a common trend. These days Hollywood is all about remakes, reboots, prequels and sequels. Once one original idea is brought to the screen and finds success with audiences around the world, studios will then try to build off of that name as much as possible and build off of that original success. Even right now, I just looked at last weekend’s top box office results and the top five films are either based on a book or comic book or a sequel.

However, specifically with this blog post, I wanted to take a look at how this “remake/reboot” effect has taken it’s toll on the horror movie genre. Now this isn’t to look at the millions of sequels many of these classic franchises have spawned, but rather the wave we’ve seen within the last decade of studios trying to redo many of these original films and often failing critically. My teenage years were riddled with remakes of all of the classics from the 1970’s and 1980’s and so I was always interested in seeing what the studios were doing with these remakes. While many of these films were obvious cash grabs from already successful (and somewhat worn out) movie franchises, the one positive I will say is that they introduced these characters and their films to a whole new generation of people. While a very limited amount of directors were able to do this in positive fashion, most of these films have been duds.

When looking the idea of remaking films, the one line that always comes into my head is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Some of these classic properties simply need to be left alone and be admired for what they are. One of the biggest examples I can think of is the 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Hitchcock’s original film is regarded as not just one of the best horror films of all-time, but even one of the best films of all-time. And yet, studios of the late 1990’s found it would be a great idea to taint this film by doing a shot-for-shot remake with Vince Vaughn taking over as Norman Bates. Needless to say the film did not sit well with critics and audiences, only going on to make about half of its original budget back at the box office. Again, some materials are best left untouched.

However, on the rare occasion we do find a remake that can stand on it’s own while also paying a proper respect to it’s source material. For example, an often talked about remake is 2004’s Dawn of the Dead. A remake of George Romero’s 1978 classic zombie flick, the film gathered positive reviews from critics who saw it as a film that blends modern day horror with Romero’s classic vision, all while not ruining its source material. Another frequently debated horror remake is Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Now, speaking from a biased perspective, I did enjoy this film. Zombie is one of my favorite directors these days and has a very unique style he brings to the screen. With his remake, not only did he take his own style and mix it with John Carpenter’s original film, but he was able to make the film into his own. By doing so, we weren’t just looking at a rip off of another film. Zombie added much more backstory and depth to the character’s of the original while also adding a variety of new characters and perspectives to Carpenter’s vision. Again, it’s a debated film but from a personal standpoint and in looking at horror remakes, I found the film to  be a success.

It’s easy to see how remaking many of these cult classics could be an issue. Many fans are torn whether they want to see their favorite killer hit the big screen again, if it’s at the risk of a bad plot, bad acting and just an overall bad movie. And I won’t discredit the few remakes that have found success. But as the recent trend of remakes and reboots shows, critically, these films aren’t hitting their mark. However, the only things studios seem to care about is if they’re hitting their mark at the box office. I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon in Hollywood.