At a time when it seems like every movie in history is being considered for a remake or
a reboot, the horror genre has found itself particularly ripe for pillaging.
Sometimes, it takes more than just one attempt to get it right.
For proof, just queue up these horror remakes that actually turned out better than the original
films.
The Evil Dead
The horror genre wouldn't be the same without Sam Raimi's 1981 classic The Evil Dead.
Made on a shoestring budget with no-name actors, the film used guerrilla special effects and
wildly inventive camerawork to sell its story.
Many fans who were still stung by the failed remakes of Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday
the 13th were understandably skeptical when the 2013 Evil Dead remake was announced.
What they didn't know was that director Fede Alvarez's new version, which Raimi produced,
would turn out to be one of the best horror films of the decade.
"I'm really excited to see something that I care about really deeply being reborn by
a great artist."
The 2013 film is tense, well-acted, and efficiently paced, with the kind of jaw-dropping practical
effects Hollywood hadn't seen in years — a ridiculously underrated film, and an improvement
on the beloved but understandably flawed original.
"I will rip your soul out, daddy...I'll rip your soul out!"
The Hills Have Eyes
French filmmaker Alexandre Aja earned his ticket to Hollywood with his stylishly effective
2003 film High Tension.
In turn, he was handed the remake of Wes Craven's 1977 cult classic The Hills Have Eyes.
Released in 2006, the film garnered middling reviews, despite being as stylish and effective
as High Tension, and ratcheting the gore way up.
Not that the remake is a great film, but it's far more effective than the original — which
may be the most overrated horror film ever.
Craven's Hills was released before the advent of home video, when a film's legend often
grew by word of mouth, which is likely why the original Hills is remembered as anything
but laughably inept.
Luckily, seven years later, Craven crafted a true classic, Nightmare on Elm Street.
[Screaming]
The Crazies
George A. Romero is a revered filmmaker for one simple reason: he created zombies as we
know them, introducing the concept in his low-budget masterpiece Night of the Living
Dead.
But with 1973's The Crazies, he branched out with a story about inhabitants of a small
town turning into maniacs when exposed to an experimental virus.
Unfortunately, the only place the film ever gained much of an audience was the video store.
It was a box office failure — because it wasn't very good.
The 2010 remake was the sophomore effort of Sahara filmmaker Breck Eisner.
Understandably, nobody was expecting much from the retelling of a of a little-loved,
decades-old film — but what they got was a shockingly well-made, superbly photographed,
and at times unbearably tense film that bears little resemblance to its schlocky, B-movie
namesake.
Remaking Romero is hardly ever a great idea, but Eisner's The Crazies is simply excellent
in its own right.
"Is he dead?"
[Screaming]
Funny Games
With his 1997 German-language horror film Funny Games, Michael Haneke wanted to challenge
the audience, implicating them in onscreen carnage in a way that no film had before.
It's an excellent and disturbing piece, and many of its fans saw the 2007 remake — also
directed by Haneke, a nearly shot-for-shot recreation of the original — as completely
unnecessary.
But by a slight margin, it's the superior film.
One could go so far as to say that the 2007 version is the one Haneke intended to make
in the first place, since his goal was to target an American audience — something
the original failed to do.
It also benefits from a pair of truly talented leads in Naomi Watts and Tim Roth.
The debate around this oddly unique pair of films will likely never be settled, and they're
both fantastic — but the 2007 version is ever-so-slightly better.
Silent House
The 2010 Uruguayan film La Casa Muda, shot entirely on a $6,000 budget, is quite an achievement.
It's edited to appear as if it's one continuous, 88-minute shot, following a young woman who's
shown up to help renovate a creepy old house.
The single-take gimmick is well done, but the film suffers from the rough edges you'd
expect from a shoestring production with an unknown cast.
By contrast, the 2011 remake Silent House benefits from putting its star, Elizabeth
Olsen, front and center in every shot.
Olsen completely sells the mounting terror as things go from weird in the first act,
to terrifying in the second act, to sanity-shattering in the third.
Silent House is a heavy-duty upgrade to its ultra-low budget predecessor — not to mention
criminally underrated.
We Are What We Are
The 2010 Mexican film Somos Lo Que Hay was a confounding piece of work: a dark, brooding,
well-made psychodrama about a family of cannibals.
It was well-received, but suffered from a tone that some called "relentlessly humorless,"
and fielded a cast that at times was less than engaging.
The English-language 2013 version borrows the basic premise of the original, but not
much else.
It trades the 2010 film's urban setting for the backwoods of the deep South, injecting
an American Gothic feel that's much more appropriate for the lurid subject matter.
Director Jim Mickle uses the material to raise questions about the dangers of tradition and
religion that were completely absent from the original, and he trades that film's ending
for one of the most bizarre, haunting conclusions of any horror film this decade.
We Are What We Are might not exactly scare your pants off, but it will stick with you
long after viewing.
"Tell daddy supper's ready."
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