Remakes: A Comparetive Study

[Thundarr]

With all of the movies being remade, reimagined, rebooted, re-whatever, I thought it might be interesting to look at some remakes of the past and compare them with their originals. What was better? What was worse? How could the remake have been improved? Should the remake have been made at all. Feel free to compare any remade films you like, post whatever your opinions on those films happens to be. There's no real "right" or "wrong" here, just opinions (which often differ between individuals). I'll begin:

John Carpenter's Halloween

VS

Rob Zombie's Halloween​

Original: John Carpenter's 1978 original Halloween is about as close to being the perfect horror film as you can get. The imagery is creepy as hell. The story itself is quite terrifying. And considering their limited budget and lack of resources, they managed to put together one hell of a great picture. There were a few minor technical imperfections, such as seeing palm trees in the distance when they're supposed to be in Illinoise, but not enough to detract from the film itself. There's literally nothing about this movie I dislike.

Remake: Boy! Where to begin? While I find little if anything to complain about with the original, I find little worth praising in the remake. Rob Zombie's decision to try and explain Michael's homicidalmania by dumping every serial killer cliche onto his upbringing (abusive stepfather, neglectful sl**ty older sister, stripper mom, bullied at school, etc) made him much less scary. Making Doctor Loomis a total deuche who's more concerned with his book sales than keeping Michael locked away made his character less sympathetic. Making the movie more about jump scares and bloody, violent deaths than about building genuine suspense was a bad idea. Laurie Strode wasn't very likeable, nor were any of her friends. Dispite having far more to work with than John Carpenter did, Rob Zombie managed to do far less with his film. The ONE thing I DID like about this movie was Bob & Linda's death scene, where Michael pins Bob to the wall with a butcher knife, then dresses in a sheet and glasses to fool Linda. It was enough like the original to feel like Halloween, but different enough to not be a total frame for frame re-do. Had Rob Zombie done the ENTIRE movie like that, it would have been a great remake. Alas, what we got was a white trash piece of redneck garbage.

The original wins over the remake, hands down.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

It's not even close between the two Halloween's. Carpenter's is a staple of the history of horror on film while Rob Zombie's will be washed away with time. It's sadly just another bad horror movie.

 

[redhawk23]

I think Rob Zombie's film was hindered by having to be a remake. A film just about Loomis experiences with Michael at the Asylum, essentially the early part of the film, it would have been a lot better. The film loses all identity once it moves on to the business of remaking the first film.

 

[Thundarr]

I think Rob Zombie's film was hindered by having to be a remake. A film just about Loomis experiences with Michael at the Asylum, essentially the early part of the film, it would have been a lot better. The film loses all identity once it moves on to the business of remaking the first film.

Even the part with Loomis and Michael in the sanitarium was poorly done, IMO. It would have been so much better if it were more like the Halloween comic published by the now defunct Chaos Comics back in 1999. THAT was beautifully done. Essentially it showed Doctor Loomis trying to get through to Michael. Meanwhile the other patients at Smith's Grove all begin to suffer from a series of "mysterious fatal accidents". Doctor Loomis suspects Michael, but no one else will believe him. The whole thing is already storyboarded out for any film maker who wants to make the film, they'll just need to flesh it out a little more. It's not that long of a comic (maybe 50 or 60 pages).