Even in the midst of this remake and reboot-friendly era, a lot of horror movies are just waiting
to be remade — and they could be genuinely spectacular.
Keep your mind open and your grumblings to a minimum, because here's a look at some horror
movies that legitimately deserve a remake.
Ever since its release in 1997, this Paul W.S. Anderson space chiller has divided audiences
over whether it's a good time or one hell of a terrible movie.
One thing everyone can agree on is that the film, in which a space crew investigates an
abandoned ship only to discover it may be a gateway to hell, is a product of its time
which hasn't exactly aged well.
In its defense, it also suffered a troubled production history that heavily impacted the
final cut.
As fans of the film will tell you, this visceral sci-fi-horror outing was given a preposterously
tight post-production deadline on top of studio demands for excessive edits.
Apparently, this deeply affected the pacing and visual effects of the theatrical cut,
and it also meant some of the film's scariest and goriest set pieces were scrapped.
The film's notorious lost footage was unwisely packaged off to a Transylvanian salt mine
and the resulting damage was apparently irrevocable.
In 2019, it was reported that Adam Wingard is developing a TV adaptation of Event Horizon,
which could be great, as long as it delivers all the vital unseen moments and plot development
that were sadly scrapped from the original.
Event Horizon deserves a remake that can finally fulfill the gnarly, nasty vision that neither
Anderson nor the movie's audience ever got to see.
"What happened to your eyes?"
"Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see."
This stylish 1983 horror movie from director Tony Scott has it all — and still makes
for a great, if quaint, viewing experience.
The Hunger uses '80s goth and New Wave culture as its backdrop to explore a story that revolves
around addiction, sexual politics, and the anguish of aging.
The Hunger follows a vampire named Miriam who takes lovers that she turns into vampires.
But there's a catch: While she lives forever, never aging, her vampiric lovers grow old
and frail while forced to subsist on human blood.
In 2009, Warner Bros. were reportedly working on a remake of The Hunger, though clearly
that idea seems to have been abandoned fairly early in development.
While fans of the original underground hit revealed they weren't happy at the prospect
of a remake, it certainly deserves one.
It's worth noting that the original ending of The Hunger was changed at the studio's
request to leave the film open for sequels — something cast member Susan Sarandon has
said she regrets.
On the DVD commentary, she said:
"The powers that be rewrote the ending and decided that I wouldn't die.
Nobody knew what was going on, and I thought that was a shame."
The ambiguous ending of The Hunger is certainly something that could be fixed with a remake.
A 3D remake of the 1987 cult classic The Gate was in pre-production in 2009, but sadly died
in development.
Director Tibor Takács, who helmed the original, told Birth.Movies.Death in 2012:
"We were on board and involved in the remake for a while and then we had a difference of
opinion and we parted ways.
I don’t even know if they shot it or not!
I can’t get a straight story."
Alex Winter of Bill & Ted fame was also on board to direct the remake, which he planned
to use as a launchpad for an entire PG-13 horror franchise, but it unfortunately never
got off the ground.
A more modern remake of The Gate could be perfect for reflecting youthful fears of being
powerless in the face of a world that seems out of control.
“The old gods, the rightful masters, are jealous, watching mankind with a hatred as
boundless as the stars."
An American remake of Battle Royale has been at various levels of development since the
original Japanese release became a cult hit, though various obstacles have prevented it
from coming to fruition.
Telling the story of a class of schoolchildren in a totalitarian society who are forced to
fight to the death until a lone survivor emerges, the film's themes remain painfully relevant
in modern America.
Sadly, that relevance has hit a little too close to home, with one attempt at a remake
paused following the Virginia Tech Massacre.
That same remake was officially dropped in 2012 out of fears that it would look like
a rip-off of The Hunger Games, even though Battle Royale was written years before the
first Hunger Games book.
Still, the potential to develop Battle Royale for the next generation still exists.
Given the current sensitivity over mass violence, especially when it concerns children, it's
likely to be met with controversy, but maybe that's exactly the reason why this film deserves
to be remade.
Centered around a pack of practical-joke loving college students who end up being picked off
by a mysterious killer with a cruel sense of humor, April Fool's Day is quite possibly
one of the dumbest, and most fun, slasher movies of its time.
Leading the ill-fated group of teens is an unconventional Final Girl named Muffy St.
John, an eccentric, wealthy teenager with plenty of mansion space to share with her
ill-fated coeds.
April Fool's Day is packed full of ridiculous plot twists and red herrings, as well as obnoxious
rich kids getting slaughtered in ridiculous ways.
In short, it's everything you could want from the genre.
This film actually did receive a remake in 2008, but the direct-to-video film wasn't
able to tap into the core comedic appeal of the original.
With the rise of internet pranksters turned viral stars like YouTube celebrities, we're
in what can only be described as a prankster renaissance.
A newly modern remake may not retain the same cheesy charm as the original, but it could
still be timely and huge amounts of fun — especially if it means seeing YouTube pranksters getting
their hilariously hideous comeuppance.
The horror genre is long overdue for the arrival of a smart, grown-up slasher franchise.
While most horror fans would likely prefer an original take on what that would look like,
there's something intriguing about the prospect of remaking horror satire The Slumber Party
Massacre for modern audiences.
The subversive cult classic from director Amy Holden Jones and writer Rita Mae Brown
was dismissed as little more than a derivative slasher-by-numbers when it was released
in 1982.
"Dog's in the trash again."
“So go take care of it."
"What do you think I am, stupid? I'm not going out there alone in the dark."
Since then, the film has since been hailed for skewering the overt misogyny of the slasher
genre in its revolt against genre tropes.
Jones has expressed some regrets about having to include gratuitous nudity in the film's
early shower scene, which she has said was unavoidable.
Producer Roger Corman insisted on the scene's inclusion because, according to Jones:
"Nudity was more important to [Roger Corman] than sex and you know he has to sell the thing"
It's a horror trope that's been gradually forced out of the genre, and even subverted
in modern entries like Midsommar.
Shout!
Factory acquired Corman's library in 2018 and have reportedly expressed interest in
a potential remake.
There are currently plenty of incredible female horror directors who could take a confident
swing at it, so here's hoping that they get the chance to make their bloody mark.
The Return of the Living Dead continues to be one of the most fun horror movies ever
made, and one which provides a neat time capsule in celebrating some of the subversive youth
culture of the '80s.
The Return of the Living Dead is pure punk rock, right down to the set dressing and outfits
worn by the cast.
That punk spirit includes authentic depictions of punk culture, but it also has an aggressively
irreverent anti-establishment stance, which is emphatically anti-military.
It's rare to find similarly authentic depictions of young, rebellious subcultures in modern
horror, or anywhere in contemporary cinema, for that matter.
The fact that there's no modern-day remake of The Return of the Living Dead could be
considered a real wasted opportunity when youth subcultures are arguably the most visible
and politically active they have been in decades.
There's definitely an argument to be made the last decade has given us enough zombie
films and TV shows to last a lifetime and beyond.
Still, there's still something intriguing about discovering a fresh zombie narrative
which has a slightly different story to tell.
A modern-day remake of Sugar Hill could be the one that could brings fresh life to the
overdone genre.
As much a revenge movie as it is a zombie flick, this underrated 1974 blaxploitation
horror film follows a woman who summons an army of zombies to seek revenge against the
mobsters who killed her boyfriend.
With an empowered African-American woman leading the story, Sugar Hill takes on feminist issues
alongside some sharp commentary regarding racism and class.
Most importantly, it does all of this while still being extremely entertaining.
With the current renaissance of black horror pushing African-American narratives and concerns
to the forefront of a genre that hasn't always been so historically inclusive, Sugar Hill
could make for an incredible mainstream Hollywood remake that's well deserved.
Anyone who holds a place for this '80s classic in their hearts will be well aware of the
fact that The Monster Squad, in which a group of witty, talkative kids take on some classic
monsters in their hometown, is arguably one of the biggest influences on the current pop
culture trend of kids-vs.-monsters content.
From Stranger Things to the Child's Play reboot and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and
the new It, you can't go far without bumping into stories about children fighting monsters.
In recent years, Monster Squad filmmakers Fred Dekker and Shane Black even had to let
go of their idea for a 30 years later sequel to the original because everyone's already
doing exactly that.
As Dekker put it:
"I thought, well, let's make this movie for the people who fell in love when they were
kids and say, 'Where is the squad as adults?'
And Shane said to me, 'Well that's it.'
I said, 'Yeah, it's a great idea.'
And he goes, “No, that's Stephen King's ‘It.’ the first part of the book and the
first movie is them as kids fighting monsters and the second movie is them as adults fighting
monsters.”
But it's the ubiquity of these tropes which could actually make for a great remake of
The Monster Squad, particularly if it added a fresh, modern take while parodying current
trends.
Though nothing could beat the original, there's definitely potential in a story that sees
a bunch of desensitized kids rolling their eyes at the threat of a bunch of old-school
classic monsters.
Maybe a Monster Squad remake could finally bring that Blumhouse shared universe to fruition,
with a gang of kids sneeringly taking on the horror studio's most notorious foes.
The fact that we haven't gotten a remake already is completely:
"Bogus."
Starring Vincent Prince as a sour old thespian who enacts ghastly acts of vengeance against
his worst critics, this British tongue-in-cheek horror outing is an underrated classic.
The film leans confidently into camp sensibilities and takes great glee in some of the most preposterous,
and elaborate, murder scenes in horror comedy history.
The inspirations for each are taken from classic deaths of various Shakespeare plays, which
played perfectly to early '70s British audiences when the film was released.
Although Theater of Blood continues to enjoy a strong cult following, it's difficult to
imagine young audiences connecting with it in quite the same way.
However, in focusing on how critics can wield their power, the underlying themes of Theater
of Blood remain familiar.
After all, we live in a time when anyone can take to social media to be as careless and
cruel as they like about art and the people who make it.
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