Rant on Movie Remakes

Within the past five years it seems there has been a flood of remakes coming out of Hollywood. Or so that's what people have been complaining about recently. The truth is yes there have been a lot of remakes but just not in the last five years. Since the beginning of cinema people have been rehashing other people's ideas. Let's take Dracula for instance, IMDB has 138 movies listed that has to do with Dracula. Which date all the way back to the 1930s. Most likely that's probably not even half of the ones that have been made.

There have always been remakes but it's my believe that because our generation is starting to see movies they saw when they were younger now being remade, it appears as if there's more remakes coming out. The truth is there's no telling how many movies we saw growing up that we thought were original but was a remake.

So for me I don't really mind a remake. It just depends on how it's remade. So far the best new remake I've seen is The Hills Have Eyes. I also really enjoyed the remake of Dawn of the Dead and the Texas chainsaw massacre. Other remakes like When a Stranger Calls I thought was done really poor as well as The Grudge and The Ring which were remakes of Japanese horror movies.

It all just depends on the individual movie. Take House of Wax for instance although it's been called a remake it has nothing to do with the movie it was supposedly a remake of except for the victims of a killer being turned into wax figures. I have heard a lot loyal fans of Vincent Price and the original to say it was awful because the story was so different. I personally loved the way they reinvented it.

If at all possible I would prefer remakes of movies to allow the original's creator to have input in the remake. Like Wes Craven with The Hills Have Eyes remake. If they like it and agree with the direction it's going in then everything should work out fine and us fans would get a really nice treat.

Also I was told recently that Rob zombie will be remaking John Carpenter's Halloween and I want to go on record right now. This could possibly destroy the franchise and would most likely go directly to DVD. House of a Thousand Corpses was mediocre at best and the Devils Reject was only slightly better. I respect Rob zombie for his accomplishments but I also think he should listen to the fans a little bit more. We're the only critic he should worry about because were the one who buys the tickets and the DVDs.

To sum it up changes are always tough. I think people like their movies like they like their coffee, if they like their coffee black than that's how they want it. No matter what store they go to or café they want their coffee the same way. So when it comes to movies that we grew up with then that's what we want. We don't want a remake we like the other one just how it is. It's as if there's a sense of loyalty to certain films. So I say keep an open mind before you see a remake don't go into it already hating it. It could be better than you thought.