From a filmmaking perspective, though, remakes make no sense to me. It puts you in a quandary as a filmmaker: you want to branch out into your own new direction, but you have to be (at least somewhat) true to the source material. This works okay if the original film isn't all that great to start with. I mean, who's going to complain if you improve upon something? The Ryan Reynolds Amityville Horror, for instance, didn't cause much of a stir because the original film isn't very good. The Omen remake, however, caught a bit more flak because the original is kind of a horror classic.
Speaking of which, why do horror films always seem to get the remake treatment? The Haunting, House of Wax, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and on and on and on - so many movies, none of them worth the film they're printed on. Gus van Sant's Psycho was truly a pointless exercise. A shot-for-shot remake? Really? If you're not going to do anything different, why should I waste my time? Horror is such a simple genre to do. It's perhaps the hardest genre to do well, but it's pretty straightforward as far as crafting a story. Yet there are at least a few horror remakes each year.
What doesn't work at all is trying to remake a great film. Why bother? This rarely happens, but it still comes up; and if the subsequent films were more successful, I'm sure studio executives would love to mine old classics for more "updated" treatments. I'm sure someone has been itching to remake Citizen Kane, and maybe one day he'll get his chance.
The producers are trying to circumvent this comparison by saying this new film is a prequel, but who are they kidding? Seriously, a prequel? ... Thirty years after the fact? ... With the same title and same story, just transplanted to a slightly different location? That sounds like a remake, my friends - a remake that is trying desperately to save face.
Prequel, remake, whatever - what disturbs me most is that there is simply no chance that this new film will be better than the Carpenter version. Aside from the incredible storytelling technique and groundbreaking, jaw-dropping special effects, The Thing also has undoubtedly one of the best endings of any horror film ever made. Even if you hate the rest of the film (which is ridiculous), you just have to give it up for that ending. Rarely has a movie so perfectly captured the relentless, hopeless fate of its protagonist. That's what makes it extraordinary. Despite claims to the contrary, I'm willing to bet this most recent entry will be more interested in the "sound and fury" of the monster than the paranoia it causes.
One good thing about sequels/remakes, though: nine times out of ten, you can DVR the original in the weeks surrounding the theatrical release. Thank you very much.
I actually have developed a lot of respect for Van Sant's remake of Psycho. It was anything but pointless. What would happen if you remade a film shot-for-shot? That is a very interesting question. Gus Van Sant answered it. The remake of Psycho is anything but pointless. Now, don't get me wrong, I will never sit through that festering turd again, but it is interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteAs for the thing, boy does it have a bleak ending. That, and the TCM, and Alien 3 (your mileage may vary on that one), and The Descent, and Night of the Living Dead, and the Vanishing, all have endings without hope.
By the by, did you ever see the assembly cut of Alien 3?
I respect Van Sant as an artist, but I think this one was a failed experiment. Pointless almost to the point of pretension. I'll grant you it is, indeed, an interesting question, but not all questions deserve answers - much less answers that cost millions and waste so many hours.
ReplyDeleteI sense a bit of sarcasm here... I guess it's true that a lot of great horror films tend to be bleak throughout, not just their endings, but in a few of your examples, the "good guy" still manages to survive. Sure, Leatherface lives on to kill again, but at least the girl got away; Ripley dies in Alien 3, but it was a sacrifice for the greater good. I suppose Ripley and Russell could be compared in terms of "giving up" to the bad guy, but Ripley's self-sacrifice is raised to heroic levels, whereas Russell's is more nihilistic - he's won, in a way, but mostly in that his spirit has been broken and he's simply stopped fighting.
I've always been interested in The Vanishing, but have never seen it. How is it overall?
As for Alien 3: no. Only the theatrical, and I wasn't exactly impressed by that, haha.
Check out the assembly cut when you get the chance. The film, and what Fincher was trying to do come into much sharper focus.
ReplyDeleteAlthough she was wiping out the alien species, the fact that Ripley had been betrayed and left for dead over and over again, and that her only way out was suicide still qualifies it as a bleak ending in my book.
Really? You think the girl got away at the end of TCM? Physically maybe.
The Vanishing is excellent, and although I didn't realize it when I posted, it is a good film to bring up now.
The Vanishing is a French/Dutch suspense film released in 1988. In 1993, the same director, George Sluizer, was hired to helm an American remake. Judas Rockin' Priest is the US version horrible. Roger Ebert said it best when he called it, "a textbook trashing of a nearly perfect film."
I don't want to go into detail because the original is a fantastic film, very much worth your time. Just make sure you avoid the remake like the plague. Or, better yet, see it after the original so we can trash it together.
I would feel bad if I didn't mention some remakes that have equaled or bested the originals. Insomnia is one. Although the original is very good, and Stellan Skarsgard is great, the remake has a better cast and as a result, the supporting cast and relationships are given a lot more depth. Al Pacino's take on the main character is so different from Skarsgard's that, even though the plot is almost identical, it is a completely different movie.
Although I find Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween to be problematic, I think his Halloween 2 is damn near a masterpiece.
Damn, so that is what? One-and-a-half remakes do the original justice. There have to be others. You think of any?
PS. There is no such thing as a failed experament.
Sure, all of her friends died and she's no doubt traumatized, but she looked pretty happy to be alive at the end of TCM.
ReplyDeleteRecently got rid of the Netflix disc option, so I might have to do a little searching for The Vanishing. I'll try and give it a view.
I'm having trouble with superior remakes. Hitchcock bested himself with a couple redos, how about those?
Still haven't seen either Zombie Halloween. I'm a big fan of his Devil's Rejects, and I think he really knows what he's doing, just haven't gotten around to it. Keep forgetting about them.