Horror Movie Originals vs Remakes

Halloween brings people back to their favorite scary movies year after year. Whether it’s ghost stories, slashers, or terror from overseas, we all have that film that’s been an inspiration for our most terrified nights.

However, in the modern movie landscape, you have just as much chance of having your iconic horror movie favorite remade into something younger viewers either like or hate for reasons you don’t even understand.

In honor of the holiday of frights, we’ve taken some revered horror classics and compared them to their remake counterparts, to see if viewers got tricked or treated by the new experience. Here are 10 Horror Movie Originals vs. Remakes

NOTE: The films appear in alphabetical order.

Dawn of the Dead

Original: George A. Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead is the Godfather of all Zompocalypse movies and TV shows. At once an ambitious zombie apocalypse event film, and a smart social commentary about the rise of a consumer culture that would define the ’80s, DotD is an enduring classic with good reason.  

Remake: Before he was the controversial director of the DC Extended Universe, Zack Snyder broke out of commercial directing with his 2004 remake of Romero’s film. While not as loveably kitschy or wittily insightful as the original, Snyder nonetheless made a slick-looking, blockbuster recreation of it that introduced a new generation of fans to a zombie craze that has now made The Walking Dead pop-culture king.

Verdict: Any hardcore horror fans must watch Romero’s film as a right of passage; however, it’s not a crime if you just watch Snyder’s film. It still has enough spirit of the original to be given a pass. 

 

Evil Dead

Original: Sam Raimi’s 1981 film The Evil Dead carved out a new lane for over-the-top horror/comedy, and did so on a miniscule budget. It has since become a cult-classic, and also helped to launch the career of this guy named Bruce Campbell you made have heard of.  

Remake: Director Fede Alvarez took on the daunting tasks of remaking one of the most unique and iconic cult-classic horror films of all time. However, with Raimi and Campbell’s guidance and blessings, plus a wonderfully twisted sensibility of his own, Alvarez’s 2013 remake earned its place with modern audiences by being one of the truly sickest horror films they’d ever seen.  

Verdict: After Raimi’s beloved sequels, Alvarez’s well-done remake, and now an Ash vs. Evil Dead TV spinoff that has Bruce Campbell back with his chainsaw and boom-stick, it’s our recommendation that you should just jump into the entire Evil Dead universe and soak it all in.  

 

The Fly

Original: The 1958 version of The Fly played upon the Cold War era’s fear of science run amok (the ever-present atomic fears). Thanks to the salesmanship of Vincent Price and some intricate creature design, seeing a man turn into a cheesy-looking human fly was a horror experience that truly disturbed audiences of the time. 

Remake: The 1958 version would never, however, disturb people as much as David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake. Starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, Cronenberg’s film took the story’s “man playing god” theme and superimposed it onto healthcare paranoia of the ’80s (AIDS), with Goldblum’s character going through a gross degenerative process that’s more horrifying than the actual creature he eventually becomes. 

Verdict: Watch Cronenberg’s Fly if you truly want to be disturbed. Watch the ’50s version if you want to laugh. 

 

Friday the 13th

Original: The original Friday the 13th was the one of the harbingers of the slasher-horror sub-genre. It used 1st person POV to much greater effect than, say, Psycho or Halloween, putting viewers at the voyeuristic forefront of violent kills that mixed sex, death, morality and brutality. And though he wasn’t actually the killer, the original film still gave birth to one of horror’s biggest icons: Jason Voorhees.  

Remake: The 2009 remake abandoned the subtext of the ’80s version (the consequences of teen promiscuity) in order to bank on the iconography of Jason. Instead of a vengeful mother, Jason himself appeared as the killer, and while there was a lot pretty polish, horror fans rejected the film as a hollow and pale imitation of the original. 

Verdict: Watch the original to learn where this slasher genre came from, and what it’s truly about. 

 

Halloween

Original: By the ’70s, the idea that dark satanic things existed under the facade of normal society was reverberating throughout society. John Carpenter’s 1978 film took the idea of a satanic serial killer to a whole new level, with POV shots and brutal kills that would signal the rise of slasher-horror’s dominance.

Remake: Horror-themed rock star-turned movie director Rob Zombie was a great hope for directing the 2007 Halloween remake. Unfortunately, Zombie took the modern approach of trying “humanize” his monster, revealing a lackluster woeful backstory for horror icon Michael Myers, that was at complete odds with the more violent and brutal Myers we got onscreen. 

Verdict: Carpenter’s version remains a creepy horror classic. Zombie’s version remains painful misfire that stains an icon. 

 

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Original: Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street created a new playing field for horror movies: Thanks to razor-clawed Fred Krueger (Robert Englund), not even our dreams were safe anymore. The movie gave horror an inventive new premise, an iconic new monster, and a bonafide star-in-the-making in the form of Johnny Depp. Not too shabby. 

Remake: Like most successful horror films, ANoES worked as a great metaphor for the very real effect that traumatic memories can have. The 2010 remake by Platinum Dunes, on the other hand, leaned into a more literal approach, delighting in the molester/killer malice and violence of Jackie Earle Haley’s Freddy Krueger. 

Verdict: Like all Platinum Dunes remakes, it looked polished, but was hollow and ultimately unsatisfying. Check out the original for to see some true horror creativity at work. 

 

Psycho

Original: Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho is legend for good reason. It pulled off one of the biggest twist endings in cinema, used meta-minded techniques like bait-and-switch casting to shock fans, and kept unprecedented levels of secrecy and mystique, long before internet spoilers were a thing. It also made Anthony Perkins’s boyish face into a terrifyingly disturbing serial killer icon. 

Remake: Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake almost does too good of a job recreating Hitchcock’s work, as it slavishly walks the path of the original, step for step. Vince Vaughn was a surprising breakout, however, leaving his comedy image aside to play a really creepy Norman Bates.

Verdict: With Sant unable to top Hitchcock’s genius, and Anthony Perkins’s Bates far outclassing Vince Vaughn in the creep department, the original Psycho is really all you need. 

 

The Ring

Original: Hideo Nakata helped the “J-horror” craze hit American shores with his 1998 film Ringu, the story of how a young murdered girl uses a video tape as a means to kill viewers who see her image. The premise and story were fantastic for the time, with a ghostly twist that was terrifying. 

Remake: Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski broke onto the scene with a 2002 English language remake of Ringu, The Ring. It was a much more polished and cinematic film, one that framed underlying themes of entertainment culture much clearer for American audiences, and helped make a star out of Naomi Watts. 

Verdict: For the horror elite, Ringu will always be the prize-winner; however, for many people, The Ring is a modern horror classic that is the rare remake to improve upon the original. 

 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Original: Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was so bizarrely macabre and horrifying that it has made people terrified of venturing into America’s remote rural corners, ever since. Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface would go on to take his place amongst horror’s top elite characters. 

Remake: One of the first of Platinum Dunes’ horror movie remakes, Marcus Nispel’s 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the test subject that convinced the production house that taking on other icons like Freddy and Jason was a great idea. Though it made money, the 2003 film was a harbinger of the hollow-yet-polished brand the studio decided on. 

Verdict: As with all Platinum Dunes films, it’s better to watch the original. 

 

The Thing

Original: The original movie adaptation of John W. Campbell Jr.’s “Who Goes There?” story was the 1951 The Thing, which was your basic ’50s scientific paranoia tale, with an alien monster thawed from an ice block. However, the remake of that film would get far more inventive. 

Remake: Halloween director John Carpenter remade The Thing in 1982, and his version of the story got a brilliant re-envisioning. In the Kurt Russell remake, the alien in the ice was a nightmarish shape-shifter, hiding in plain sight, as one of the human members of a remote outpost team.

Verdict: Carpenter’s Thing was a masterful re-imagining, one that added a new layer of tension and psychological terror onto the proceedings. Aside from having Russell give a great performance, and a pulsing soundtrack, Carpenter’s visual effects for the creature were horrifically masterful (for the time). 

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That’s our list: Did we nail some of the horror movie remake experiences you’ve had? Or are there some other significant comparisons you made? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @ComicBookNOW or @kofioutlaw