This is a fundamental problem with remakes. After the desperate effort for remakes to be more shocking and hardcore than their precursors, we end up with films that would only appeal to fans of “When Animals Attack” and car accidents. For example, take the 2008 reboot of “Halloween.” While the original film relied on suspense and ambiguity, the remake turns killer Michael Myers into a bad professional wrestling villain who eliminates members of the supporting cast in increasingly stupid and violent ways. Or how about “Dawn of the Dead” (2004) which, despite actually being slightly less violent than the original, completely lacked the sense of humanity and overwhelming desperation present in its predecessor. I also blame this particular film for introducing running zombies and effectively kicking off the most annoying nerd argument since Trekkies came to blows over who was the show’s best captain.
Finally, most remakes are just plain unnecessary. Was anyone out there really clamoring for another “Arthur” or “Fame”? Did enough sociopaths scrape together petitions to warrant modernizing “Last House on the Left” and “I Spit on Your Grave”? I joked in a previous article that I was the only person in the world dumb enough to have watched “Maniac Cop,” but, low and behold, I must have company, seeing as how that film is set to be remade as well. With over 30 more remakes officially in production stages, can’t we just have some originality?
