Remakes are always tricky territory. If the original was good enough to warrant
a remake, you’re running the risk of alienating all sorts of fans if you change too much.
But if you change too little, you’ll be accused of not having enough originality.
It’s a fine line to walk, and often filmmakers can’t hack it on the tightrope.
Essentially what moviegoers want is something that captures the spirit of what made the
original great, while infusing these ideas with more modern sensibilities and years of
hindsight. Too bad a lot of studios want remakes because
they’re easy bets and should make them a lot of money.
That’s where things go sideways. Or maybe a director is more of a fan of the
original work than they should be, and end up making a big fancy tribute to the first
one instead of a good, original movie that can stand on its own legs.
Unfortunate, I know. And don’t get me started on reboots! I’m
gonna stop myself there. In the end, lots of horror remakes give us
something to talk about. Lots of comparing and contrasting can be done,
and plenty of jokes can be cracked. If there’s one thing people love to do,
it’s make fun of remakes. Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the
scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos. I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and
today we’re counting down the Top 5 Horror Remakes We Love To Hate.
Before we get started, make sure to give this video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more
remake rundowns. Alright, let’s get going.
NUMBER FIVE: GUS VAN SANT’S PSYCHO This is a very strange movie to think about.
An inexplicable, shot-for-shot remake of the revolutionary Hitchcock thriller classic,
1998’s Psycho was an interesting experiment in modern filmmaking.
We had an all-star cast for the time, sporting the likes of Vince Vaughan, Julianne Moore,
Anne Heche, and William H. Macy, as well as the ever-popular Danny Elfman on the score.
Van Sant was coming off two major successes when he broughthis remake of Psycho to the
public. Good Will Hunting had an incredible season
at the Academy Awards, and Drugstore Cowboy was a piece of cinema that had all sorts of
actors wanting to work with him. He could get anything greenlit at this point,
so he did. Van Sant had been thinking of remaking a classic
in its entirety for a while before this, but couldn’t get enough people on board.
If he were to remake something with a modern twist, or with a fresh perspective they would
have given him free reign, but a shot-for-shot recreation seemed too far-fetched.
Once he was allowed to run with this idea, he went full-force, ensuring that more or
less everything was the same as when Hitchcock did it.
He shot it in colour instead of black and white, and gave it a more modern setting,
but every shot is indeed the same. The result isn’t necessarily bad, it’s
just odd. Especially if you’ve seen the original.
For this reason, it was critically panned across the board. Critics called it boring,
and indulgent, and long-winded. And audiences found it very easy to make fun
of a movie that was simply being re-made in full.
How lazy! They must have thought. Over time, this remake gained more appreciation
as an art piece, and more people warmed up to it as a creative project.
Van Sant did come out later on and explain that he did it as a total experiment, just
to see what would happen. It sort of serves as a warning against Hollywood’s
obsession with remakes, reboots, and existing properties taken to an extreme.
It could also sort of prove that films each have a soul of their very own.
Even if someone takes it apart and reassembles it exactly as it was before, it will never
be the same. That’s fascinating, isn’t it?
NUMBER FOUR: ONE MISSED CALL For whatever reason, Universal Pictures decided
they wanted to release an Americanized remake of a Japanese horror six years after the peak
of their popularity. The Ring and The Grudge were far off in distant
memory, with plenty of new, more classically American fare taking the lead.
One Missed Call is like the cheapest of all cheap cash-ins on the Japanese horror remake
trend. They took a Takashi Miike movie, also known
as One Missed Call, which wasn’t even that well-received to begin with, and watered it
down even further. Miike has a lot of great horror under his
belt, One Missed Call is a weaker offering of his.
This boring, long-winded, cheap jump-scare filled mess never hits its stride, and never
makes all that much sense. There’s a whole lot of exposition in this
movie, with different secondary characters just sitting around and wondering when they
might die. All this happens when there could be a ton
of spooky atmospheric setup, but no. Let’s just wait for the next scheduled spooky
thing to happen. None of these characters are proactive in
the slightest. And they all have the most hilariously “Hollywood”
normal names. Just like two first names slapped together:
Beth Raymond, Jack Andrews, Taylor Anthony, Marie Layton.
Have you seen this movie? Did you remember anyone’s name? Me neither. Had to look them
up today. Although, it has been quite a few years since I last viewed it…
Honestly I think the advertising campaign was the most effective, scariest part.
I remember the movie’s ringtone being pretty iconic for a while, with people playing it
to spook their friends, or to be a cool edgy flip-phone owner.
Something tells me that they might have just seen the trailer before downloading it.
By the way, One Missed Call was not screened for critics ahead of release.
They knew what they were doing. NUMBER THREE: POLTERGEIST
This one had a lot to live up to for sure. How can you compete with the original when
it was produced by Speilberg and directed by Tobe Hooper?
You can’t! You just have to hope you make something passable!
And I mean, this remake is passable, but it also decided that it wanted in on the Insidious
hype too. The identity of this movie is all over the
place. Sometimes it's a loving homage to the original,
sometimes it’s a cheap cash-in on familiar themes, sometimes it’s trying to be Insidious
by using a ghost dimension of sorts. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to
think or feel about this! It just seems that everyone believes this
movie to be a big pile of “just okay.” The 80’s-era original had a lot of nods
to the culture of the time, giving it a very grounded and real feel.
The family was experiencing economic hardship much like many other Americans at the time,
and they story had some sneaky social commentary to slip in here and there.
The remake really doesn’t anchor itself in any era in particular, although we get
a few scenes involving some very modern technology in case you were wondering when it takes place.
At least Sam Rockwell gave a pretty good performance. At this point, I think I’d much rather watch
director Gil Kenan’s other haunted house flick, Monster House. At least that one has
heart! NUMBER TWO: THE THING
A remake slash prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, this one might benefit from some
time on ice. Maybe people will rediscover it years after
the critical panning as an unfairly treated hidden gem.
I mean, that’s what happened to Carpenter’s version when he first remade The Thing.
Now it’s one of the most universally acclaimed horror movies of all time!
Let’s be real though, it’s pretty much impossible to live up to Carpenter’s legacy.
Congrats to the folks behind 2011’s The Thing, you guys followed through and made
an entire movie that pieces together events preceding Carpenter’s version!
It’s a pretty cool concept, you can’t lie!
And making a movie is no easy feat! Sometimes I feel like a jerk standing up here decrying
poorly executed movies. However, that’s exactly it: it all comes
down the execution. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. does his best
to make a fun flick that fills in some gaps, but it falls flat.
Where the original has claustrophobia and tension in spades, the remake spends a little
too much time in wide shots, making it feel open and airy.
Carpenter employed some of the greatest practical effects of all time to create believable,
horrible monsters, and Heijningen Jr. used CGI ineffectively.
1986 had Kurt Russel, 2011 did not. It just feels like the remake was set up for
failure! All of this plus a whole lot of unnecessary
exposition, and you have a movie that will forever live in the gigantic shadow.
Show, don’t tell people! It’s a classic filmmaking rule!
NUMBER ONE: THE WICKER MAN You know I was saving the best for last!
Oh baby, the birth of going FULL CAGE, this is one hell of a cult hit.
Cult for two reasons: It has a following of dedicated fans who could probably recite it
word for word, and also it’s about a literal cult.
Go figure. The original 1973 flick is considered a folk
horror classic to many, doing daylight horror way before anyone was talking about it.
Thanks to this pre-existing love of the story, there was a lot of hype surrounding the 2006
remake. Keep in mind that this was before Nick Cage
was one big meme. So when it came out and really, really stood
apart from the original, people were obviously conflicted.
Gone were the tight pacing, tense atmosphere, and well-developed characters from the first
Wicker Man. Instead, audiences were treated to Nicolas
Cage absolutely losing his mind for the entirety of the movie: sucker punching women while
wearing a bear costume, roudhouse kicking smaller women into walls, pulling his glock
on a woman who won’t step away from his bike before pedaling away like a schoolboy,
screaming at little girls in animal masks, this man puts on a show, and is probably the
only part of the movie worth talking about. A lot of fans of the original really hate
that this movie exists, to them it is a stain on the pristine reputation of their folk horror
classic. But, a lot of folks who haven’t seen the
English original absolutely love the insanity of the new one.
It’s just so much fun, even if it does get excruciating at times.
When a movie is so bad it births a whole new generation of memes, you know it’s time
for some fun. HOWD IT GET BURNED HOWD IT GET BURNED HOWD
IT GET BURNED. NOT THE BEES NOT THE BEES OH MY EYES
Truly the classic horror people love to hate. OUTRO
Whether its so bad its good, or so mediocre its unwatchable, I don’t think we’ll ever
run out of bad horror remakes to watch. Like a good horror villian, they just keep
coming back for more. What did you think of the list?
Are there any stinkers that deserve a spot? Let me know down in the comments!
Speaking of comments, let’s have a quick look at some of your more masterful ones from
last time: TTV Barbra says “Have a great day whoever
reads this” YES BARBRA! Let me signal boost the hell out
of this! Everyone have a wonderful day! LadyVaJedi says ‘Heredity was a slow and
boring movie” Man I haven’t seen Heredity, but I’ll
have to give it a watch! Something tells me it won’t hold up against the tightly wound
and horrifying Hereditary, though. Great name btw.
GRIFFOS says “Hereditary instead of the Void? Really?”
I love the Void! Saw it at the Mayfair theatre back in 2017! But Jack already covered it
on another movie cults list, go check it out! Ashley Brown says “Did he just say varial
heel down a ten step? How many people even know what that means?”
If you know you know! Now I just need the Canadian weather to get nice again so I can
keep breaking my body trying! NestingSpider says “Why Captain Spaulding’s
face but no mention of him?” Sorry about that, I’ll mention him now!
Sid Haig, you’re a legend and dearly missed. RIP to a real one! Horror hasn’t been the
same since you stepped out. That’s all the time we have for today, thanks
for watching and I’ll see you next time!