They did it again!

Let's talk about movie remakes, since they are all the rage these days.

Not only are they all the rage, they can also inspire quite a bit of rage as well, since Hollywood likes to take beloved classics ( I use the term loosely) from ages past, and redo them with modern technology. Now I get why they remake films that are liked, since the odds of anyone watching a remake of a lousy film, are pretty slim indeed.

Case in point: Evil Dead (2013)

Why? Why take a movie that, though technically not all that good (the budget was only about $350.000) had a magnificent atmosphere and good acting and turn it into ninety minutes of boredom? The original was great, the remake is like a gooey, choppy music video.

Sure, the remake is prettier, and the characters have a better excuse for being in a ghastly shack-nasty in the middle of nowhere. But apart from that, the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell version wins. No further questions, Your Honor.

To make matters even worse, despite much better technology and a budget of 17 million dollars, they actually managed to make the possessed less scary than the original. Instead of “WTF?”, we get “meh”, which only goes to show that while a decent budget is great, it is in no way a substitute for imagination, vision and passion.

But it's not all Doom and Gloom. 

 

TheNightmare on Elm Street (2010) remake is actually fairly decent, if not actually good. Here they did a better (imho) make up job on Freddy, making him look grimmer and more intimidating than he used to be. Not that Jackie Earle Haley can hold a candle to Robert Englund, but props for trying! The biggest problem with this little remake is that I can't think of a single reason not to just watch the original instead.

I have vague recollections that that Omen (2006) remake was so bland and uninteresting that I won't even mention it any further.

I suppose it's prudent to point out that my point of view may be a bit skewed, since one tends to look back with a certain amount of nostalgia, but since I have watched the three original movies mentioned above, many many times, I truly believe my points are valid.

As a matter of fact, I don't even hate these remakes, I just find them utterly pointless, which might be worse, come to think of it. Why not take all the money, talent and time it takes to remake classics and put out something fresh and original? It might be a gamble for the studios, but is it not a gamble as well to throw millions at a remake project, when the audience might not care enough to go watch it? Or rather, watch it again...

The Hollywood bosses sitting in their big shiny boardrooms, wondering why they are loosing money and respect by the truckload might want to consider the following;

1. Stop relaunching the same movie franchises over and over again (especially superhero franchises).
2. Stop remaking everything that was even vaguely popular twenty years ago over and over again.
3. Make new original works, that will in time become classics on their own merits, and we the audience, will watch them over and over again.