Not every remake has to be bad.
Some are marked improvements over the original, others are able to reimagine things just enough
to stay fresh and interesting.
Let's take a look at a genre that often does well with modern updates: horror.
This is a bit of an odd one.
Fantasy Island was a TV series that debuted in the late 1970s and ran for seven seasons.
It starred Ricardo Montalban as Mr. Roarke, the caretaker of the titular island where
guests paid a premium fee to live out their deepest fantasies.
The show typically dealt in intrigue, wonder, and the occasional drama, although some of
the guests' fantasies took a turn into Twilight Zone-esque territory.
Just a little twist, and you've got yourself a horror movie.
Blumhouse is bringing Fantasy Island to the 21st century and the big screen, leaning hard
into the horrific potential of the concept.
This time, the island is shown twisting people's wishes beyond their control and creating dangerous,
horrifying scenarios.
The movie stars Michael Pena in Montalban's role, and also features Lucy Hale, Michael
Rooker, and Parisa Fitz-Henley.
It's directed by Jeff Wadlow, who directed Truth or Dare and has produced some successful
horror television.
Fantasy Island is an interesting choice for a horror reboot, as the show always had a
sinister undercurrent but generally shied away from outright scares.
Hopefully making the horrors of granting secret wishes more overt won't dilute the appeal.
For being such a product of the '90s, the original version of The Craft still holds
up pretty well.
The story of a group of high school girls exacting revenge through magical powers is
a good one, and the central cast of Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and Fairuza
Balk go through awesome transformations as the film builds to its conclusion.
"Aw, relax, it's only magic."
The reboot of The Craft is coming along nicely.
Blumhouse has announced that the witches in their new version will be played by Cailee
Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, and Zoey Luna.
The remake is written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones.
One thing that bodes very well for The Craft reboot is how many people who were involved
with the original film are also involved with the update.
Douglas Wick, who produced the original, is back as a producer on the reboot, and the
original film's director, Andrew Fleming, is also involved in a producer role.
There have been a lot of very unsubstantial rumors floating around out there about a return
to Elm Street, especially with the runaway success of 2018's Halloween reboot-slash-sequel.
Now, according to Bloody Disgusting, we can really expect a new Nightmare on Elm Street
film to start production in the near future, but that's about all we know so far.
"Actually, it's been giving me Freddy nightmares."
In 2010, there was an attempt to reboot A Nightmare on Elm Street with Jackie Earle
Haley playing the lead villain.
Unfortunately, the reboot was panned by critics and audiences alike, and the franchise faded
into the background.
In September of 2019, Wes Craven's estate regained the rights to the character and franchise.
Bloody Disgusting reports that the horror master's estate is actively seeking pitches
for the return of Freddy Krueger.
The site reports that they are accepting pitches for both a feature film and a possible HBO
series.
Obviously, this information is all tied to the very beginning of the process.
That said, it seems it won't be too long before A Nightmare on Elm Street comes back to haunt
us.
Interestingly enough, what's thought of as the classic version of The Fly is, itself,
a remake.
Most people think of the 1986 film led by Jeff Goldblum as the definitive version, but
the original film actually came out in 1958 and starred horror legend Vincent Price.
Despite radically different tones and levels of disturbing imagery, the two start from
the same basic concept, and both the 1958 film and the 1986 one spawned sequels.
Considering it's been over 30 years since Goldblum portrayed Dr. Seth Brundle, of course
it's about time for a reboot.
Some were worried that Disney's purchase of Fox would put the kibosh on more adult fare
like The Fly, but apparently that isn't the case.
According to Movie Hole, The Fly is in no danger of falling by the wayside.
It will be interesting to see if they keep with the teleporter as the culprit, or if
they switch things up in the third go around.
Despite the fact that it was essentially riding on the coattails of Scream, I Know What You
Did Last Summer actually became a pretty hot property in the late 1990s.
The original film was a veritable who's who of heartthrob actors: Jennifer Love Hewitt,
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddy Prinze Jr. all did battle with "The
Fisherman" in the campy slasher flick.
Fans can rejoice: I Know What You Did Last Summer is returning, this time as an Amazon
Prime series.
"What are you waiting for, huh?!"
James Wan is attached to the series as a producer, and Bloody Disgusting reports that the series'
pilot is written by Shay Hatten.
Hatten also wrote the screenplay for John Wick 3: Parabellum.
No director that we know of is attached for the pilot episode at this point.
I Know What You Did Last Summer told the story of a group of teens who run over someone with
their car and dump the body in the ocean.
The next year, the group starts receiving threats from someone who knows their secret,
and they begin to get killed by a person in a raincoat carrying a hook.
Night of the Comet is an oft-forgotten classic, and a reboot of the low-budget science fiction
flick could do wonders for the story.
Roxanne Benjamin, who started out as a producer on horror films like V/H/S and The Devil's
Candy before moving into writing and directing, is attached to the project.
Night of the Comet finds the earth passing through the tail of a comet, wiping out almost
all of humanity.
Our heroes are two sisters who try to search for answers while fighting off zombies.
It's a campy girl power film that has become a bit of a cult favorite in the years since
its release in 1984.
The original film starred Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney.
Benjamin told Birth.Movies.Death that she has submitted her screenplay for the reboot,
and that she hopes the studio will approach her to direct the movie if they decide to
go ahead with it.
Don't expect it anytime soon, however, as it's, quote, "still very early days."
Wrong Turn is a surprisingly recent film to be receiving the remake treatment, but well,
that's how the business works these days.
The original film came out in 2003 and spawned several sequels, with the most recent being
2014's Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort.
Strangely, the reboot is being penned by Alan McElroy, who created the franchise to begin
with.
That's good news for fans of the series; if anyone can get a reboot right, hopefully it's
the man who created the series.
The Domestics' Mike P. Nelson is attached to direct, with a cast led by Emma Dumont,
Dylan McTee, and Charlotte Vega.
The original Wrong Turn followed a group of friends who get lost in rural West Virginia,
and are terrorized by a cannibalistic family as they struggle to escape.
According to Coming Soon:
"The Wrong Turn reboot will feature a cross-country hiking expedition that puts a group of friends
in the land of an inclusive society called The Foundation, described as people who have
lived in the mountains since before the Civil War."
Another reboot with some strange names attached to it is Saw.
The original film was released in 2004, and quickly became a horror juggernaut.
Despite a paltry budget of just over one million dollars, Saw made over $100 million worldwide
and spawned a massive franchise.
Director James Wan has gone on to become a huge star in the industry, and the latest
sequel came out as recently as 2017.
And now, Chris Rock; yes, that Chris Rock; is rebooting the franchise for Lionsgate.
Rock will feature in the film and serve as the executive producer.
Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed the second, third, and fourth Saw films, is at the helm
again.
Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson star.
The original Saw series got more and more insane as the sequels piled up, but it originally
focused on a serial killer who placed people in elaborate puzzles to see "how much they
wanted to live."
"I want to play a game."
With Rock and Bousman's reboot, hopefully some of the magic will return to the franchise.
Quick quiz: how many Hellraiser movies have there been?
Answer: Ten!
There are ten.
And the most recent one, Hellraiser: Judgment, came out in 2018.
That said, Spyglass Entertainment is trying to revitalize the franchise a bit with a reboot.
Yes, the Lament Configuration is headed back to the big screen, bringing Pinhead and the
rest of the Cenobites with it.
The Dark Knight's David S. Goyer is attached to the reboot as both a writer and producer.
Clive Barker, who wrote the original story the series is based on and directed the first
film in 1987, is also attached.
Hellraiser never quite reached the level of massive horror franchises like A Nightmare
on Elm Street or Halloween, but its dark and twisted narrative and memorable villain did
help the series carve out its own fandom.
The story revolves around a puzzle box that, when solved, unleashes a gang of demons into
our world.
The leader of these demons is Pinhead, one of the most iconic horror villains of the
1980s.
Goyer is excited to be given a chance with the franchise.
He told Deadline:
"Having the chance to reimagine Pinhead and the Cenobites for a new audience is a nightmare-come-true."
What's that?
A successful movie from another country?
In true American fashion, Train to Busan is getting a western remake; the buzzworthy zombie
film out of Korea is in development from James Wan and Gary Dauberman.
If you like zombie films, you can't do much better than Train to Busan.
The 2016 film follows a group of people stuck on a moving train as a zombie virus spreads.
It features some absolutely gruesome scenes and some very inventive set pieces, and the
naturally claustrophobic setting is prime for an outbreak.
There aren't a lot of details on the remake at this point in time, but it should be in
good hands with Wan and Dauberman, two of the leaders in recent horror success stories.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Dauberman explained his approach to the source material:
"I'm being very careful how we translate it over here.
And really my rule is, Don't f-- it up!"
This one is still extremely early in development, but we do have a few concrete details on the
remake of this obscure gem.
Audrey Rose was released in 1977, a bizarre little horror mystery starring Marsha Mason
and Anthony Hopkins.
Mason plays Janice, a woman with a daughter whose life is turned upside down when Hopkins'
Elliot Hoover shows up.
He insists that Janice's daughter is actually a reincarnation of his own dead child, and
all sorts of creepy events start occurring.
It's a slow burn, but one that could be very impressive with the right people telling the
modern adaptation.
All we know so far about the remake of Audrey Rose is that it is being released by Orion
Pictures and the screenplay is being hammered out by Chloe Okuno.
Okuno seems like just the writer to put together a creepy, surreal story like Audrey Rose.
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