My Stance on Remakes Part II

Here is the continuation of my little rant and opinion on horror movie remakes. The last post that I made left the idea of remakes on bad terms and I want to continue this little rant for a little longer. One of the main reasons why I loathe most remakes and possibly the next few remakes are because of the audience they are targeting. Many people have defended remakes by stating that they are exposing a new generation of horror fans to originals… that may be, in fact, when I first saw The Thing and The Blob ’88 I wanted to see the originals and even those blew me away because I took into account of when they were made. But today’s generation of horror fans don’t know shit about horror; actually, that’s not true. I know a lot of young horror fans like horror and I know there are a lot of them out there that have seen the classics but there are just as many of them that haven’t because they like the remake more.

Recently, after seeing My Bloody Valentine 3D I heard a bunch of kids rave about the movie and they called themselves horror movie fans. Fine. I liked the 3D version but then when I hear them say, “That had to have been one of the most original horror movies that I had seen,” it made my skin crawl. Again, that’s fine, because the original was not as popular and I know a lot of kids haven’t heard of it… but when I hear kids praise Rob Zombie’s Halloween or Sorority Row or even The Omen., without ever looking at the original; it’s insulting. And Andre brought up a good point: their perception on the remake is so high because they have never seen the original movie and that they are second banana to the remakes. It’s a shame!! Then, when they see the original they say it sucks, or it’s boring, or it’s not scary because the remake had such a huge impression on them.

Again, I am not saying that every young horror fan is like this but I have ran into these kinds of horror fans so many times at our theater to know there are more of them than there is true young horror fans. The reason why there are so many remakes is because these kinds of horror fans are fueling studios by seeing them. I think now studios are starting to remake more obscure lesser-known horror movies in hopes of brainwashing the younger audience. Movies like Night of the Demons, The Crazies, Motel Hell and Scanners are all being remade and I can guarantee that most of these “horror fans” haven’t even heard of the originals.

I think what pisses me off even more than anything is that now we have to differentiate between separate movies. When asked at the library, “Do you have Texas Chainsaw Massacre?” The librarian says, “Well, which one, the 1974 one or the 2003 version?” NO!!!! To me, there is only one Texas Chainsaw and there will be only one Texas Chainsaw. The 2003 version sucked and to me, it never exists and that goes for most of the remakes out there!! Even when I ask if they have The Blob they say the 1988 version or the 1954 version? That gets annoying but at least I can tolerate it because the ’88 version actually respected the original.

If studios really want to introduce the audience to the original movies, then rerelease the original movies into the theaters!! Don’t tell me they can’t because Fathom events rereleased The Wizard of Oz and Poltergeist for a few nights and they were all SOLD OUT and now those movies are also being remade!!!!!!! STOP THE REMAKES!!!!

Note: And don’t tell me that it’s a revision because as far as I am concerned, a revision is just another name for a remake not matter how you say it.

Note 2: This rant turned out longer then I excepted and I promise I will do Part 2, which is now Part 3, tomorrow.