Remaking My Childhood (A Movie Post)

Remakes are a total double edged sword for me. First and foremost is the fact that anyone with an actual emotional attachment to a movie is going to abhor the remake. I'm convinced. But if you didn't grow up watching the movie, then you probably don't have an issue with it. Plus, some movies can really benefit from updated effects or a better storyline. But the thing is, I really think that there is so much original content out there just ripe for the picking, that I wish they would stop remaking all of the movies I watched as a kid! And I can't talk shit about them if I don't see them to compare.

I went to see Nightmare on Elm Street today. I waited. I didn't see it opening weekend because I've heard that the movie industry bases the success of the film on opening week numbers. So I waited and saw it today. Plus, Mike's working a shoot so I couldn't see anything he actually wanted to go see at the theaters : )

First off, things I did like about the movie:

• Expanded story - to an extent. This was also a dislike for me because they went into icky details that the original never touched on
• Kyle Gallner
• Thomas Dekker
• The dream sequences - although many of the memorable scenes from the original was done again in this version
• The updates - the stuff about insomnia was interesting, the blog scene was pretty neat (and the other kids, this is where the expanded story I liked came in), and there were a few other scenes that were definitely a product of being in 2010 rather than 1984

Things I didn't like:

• The fact that the really iconic scenes from the original were redone in this version. I mean, I understand it, but really this just adds weight to my opinion that the movie shouldn't have been remade in the first place
• The ick factor. This is a movie about a child molester. I get that. Somehow, the original just didn't quite go the same place this "modern" version did.
• REPLACING ROBERT ENGLUND!! I get that Jackie Earle Haley was really the only redeeming factor in Watchmen, but couldn't you just have made him the bad guy in an original concept horror movie?

Overall, it was a better remake than Friday the 13th (which I'm convinced was all about Jason guarding his pot plants) and My Bloody Valentine 3D (no attachment to the original, but it was a crap movie), but not on par with the recent remake of The Crazies.

New remakes in the works that I'm pissed about:

• Karate Kid
• Child's Play - does the world really need a new Chucky movie?
• Dr. Giggles - um, the original is pretty terrible. We REALLY don't need a new one.
• The Experiment - this one would piss me off more if I knew that anyone other than me (and Mike) had seen the German movie here. Seriously, see the German movie. It's so worth it.
• Near Dark - just see the original

And remakes I'm on the fence about:

• Suspiria - I love the original but this one definitely needs some new effects
• The Birds - I've heard it won't be a remake of Hitchcock's film so much as another adaptation of du Maurier's short story
• Hellraiser - could benefit from new effects, but the only reason I'm semi ok with this is that Clive Barker has apparently given his approval

Originals we should all see instead:

• Gil's All Fright Diner - based on the book by A Lee Martinez
• Breathers: A Zombie's Lament - directed by Diablo Cody and based on the book by S. G. Browne
• The Countess - a Bathory movie written and directed by Julie Delpy
• The Innkeepers - not sure if this is a sequel to House of the Devil or not, but I thought that one was pretty good so I'm looking forward to West's newest
• The Ward - movie due out this fall and directed by John Carpenter

I don't actually know when or if a lot of these are due out (and I don't know that any of them are any good). We'll just have to wait and see. I'm just hoping horror (and movies in general) takes a turn sooner rather than later.