[Editorial] 9 Amazing Horror Movies with Equally Amazing Remakes

This month at Ghouls we’re celebrating remakes. Movie remakes pop up quite often, but for some reason, the horror genre seems to be home to more remakes than any other genre. 

And I’m not complaining, as some of my favourite horror movies are remakes! The sheer amount of remakes that have come out in my lifetime has opened my eyes to older horror movies or word cinema movies that I didn’t even know existed, and I love seeing how different directors take the same story and shape it into their own unique tale.

So to celebrate the wonderful world of remakes, here are nine amazing films which have equally amazing remakes!  

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and (2006)

Wes Craven’s low-budget horror The Hill Have Eyes (1977) sees the Carter family attacked by a vicious family of hill-dwelling folk who survive by eating those unfortunate enough to stumble onto their land.

The 2006 remake follows most of the same plot beats but has the hill folk mutated after government bomb tests on their land. The violence and gore are amped up, and you can practically feel the heat radiating off the screen. Both movies are fantastic, but the 2006 version shows how well the story works with a little more budget and improved special effects.

The Fly (1958) and (1986)

The 1958 version of The Fly starts with the death of scientist ​​André Delambre and works backwards as we find out how he ended up in this situation. After an experiment with his telepods went wrong, ​​André ends up swapping heads and an arm with a house fly. Despite their best efforts to capture the fly and reverse the experiment, ​​André realises his fly side is taking over and his death is the only thing which will stop it.

Enter David Cronenberg in 1986 who decided to amp up the body horror of this tale and have scientist Seth Brungle slowly melt away and turn into a giant fly monster while his horrified ex-girlfriend, Veronica, watches on helplessly. Both versions of the fly creature are scary for very different reasons, and both versions show a very different side to a scientist who has messed with something he really doesn’t understand.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and (2003)

In my mind, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is the perfect horror movie for so many reasons. Leatherface is a complicated character with a twisted family which Sally and her friends find out the hard way when they are picked off one by one. This film has a vicious reputation, but is surprisingly light on the blood and gore, leaving most of it to your imagination. 

The 2003 version not only smooshed the words chain and saw together for the title but also gave us a more violent and sneaky version of Leatherface, who takes great pleasure in slicing people apart. It also shows what a very gory and gross version of the story could look like. It’s so interesting to see two different interpretations of the same story with everything turned up to eleven in the remake. 

The Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead (2013)

Another fantastic low-budget horror movie is Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981) which kickstarted the ‘cabin in the woods’ subgenre and introduced Bruce Campbell to the horror world. With the help of his friends, Raimi produced a practical effects masterpiece that made viewers terrified to set foot in the woods. 

In the 2013 remake/reboot, the location is the same but the setup is different. Mia asks her brother and friends to help her overcome her drug addiction by going cold turkey at her family cabin. Once there, the evil force in the woods is released and claims Mia as its first victim. Evil Dead is the same gore-fest as the original movie but adds a deeper storyline and gives us Mia fighting her demons and coming out triumphant where she was sure she would fail.

Tourist Trap (1979) and House of Wax (2005)

Tourist Trap is one of the strangest and most amazing horror movies I have ever seen. It follows a group of teens who discover an abandoned tourist trap off the highway where the owner is a telekinetic killer who likes to turn his victims into mannequins which he decorates his house with. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking. House of Wax (2005) is a remake of House of Wax (1953), which is itself a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), so why are we talking about Tourist Trap? Because I think House of Wax is so much closer in plot to Tourist Trap than the other two wax movies. Two brothers - one an artist and one a killer, victims turned into living statues, abandoned tourist sites, moved highways, broken down cars via sabotage, teens travelling across the country, I could go on. House of Wax once again ramps up the violence, has some amazing death scenes, a great soundtrack, and perhaps one of the best horror settings I’ve ever seen.

Ring (1998) and The Ring (2002)

Based on the 1991 novel Ring by Koji Suzuki, Ring follows journalist Reiko Asakawa as she tries to track down the origins of a cursed videotape which killed her niece. Through her investigation, she learns about Shizuko Yamamura, her daughter Sadako and their violent deaths. 

The 2002 remake takes the creepy imagery and bleak tone of the story and changes the origin story to something slightly different but still incredibly compelling. Both movies give the supposed villains a backstory which makes their actions in death understandable, even if innocent people end up dead because of it. And both movies are incredibly scary, making something as simple as the sound of a phone ringing very chilling.

Black Christmas (1974) and (2019)

Black Christmas (1974) is often credited for bringing the slasher genre into the suburbs and showing us that monsters can be lurking anywhere. The tale follows a group of sorority sisters dealing with a nuisance caller harassing them as they prepare for the Christmas break. As the girls disappear one by one, Jess and her friends realise how difficult it is to get the police to believe them and have to fight to survive.

The 2019 remake also takes place in a sorority house, but this time Riley and her sisters uncover a sinister plot by the nearby fraternity house to rid the college of women who have their own thoughts and fight for themselves. Both stories are feminist tales that show what happens when women stand with each other and fight against men who refuse to listen.

IT (1990) and IT Chapter 1&2 (2017, 2019)

The 1990 miniseries of IT is responsible for terrorising a generation of young horror fans when Tim Curry popped onto our screen as Pennywise. Split into two parts, the story follows the Losers’ Club as they find each other and try to rid the little town of Derry of the evil presence which lurks there.

Split over two movies in 2017 and 2019, Andy Muschietti tackled one of Stephen King’s largest books to bring the story to life once again. This version is far more violent that the 1990 version, and while we get a very different depiction of Pennywise, it stands alongside Tim Curry’s version as equally excellent. Both movies tackle the run-ins the children of Derry have with Pennywise amazingly and are both terrifying in their own way.

Child’s Play (1988) and (2019)

Chucky has appeared in a lot of movies and even a TV series, but 1988 saw the possessed doll’s first appearance. Hoping to escape death after being shot by the police, criminal Charles Lee Ray uses voodoo to transfer his soul into a nearby doll. Chucky then ends up being gifted to six-year-old Andy and terrorising him as he tries to take over his body and reclaim his human life.

The 2019 remake/reboot takes a slightly different turn with Buddi the doll brought to life by AI. The doll this time around, also named Chucky, has its chip tampered with and begins to act very violently. This Chucky has less of a motive for killing people and clearly just enjoys the carnage. I think it was a wise decision to swap Chucky’s backstory to something different so we got a slightly different story this time around, and some of the 2019 kills are outstandingly violent.

GHOULS GANG DISCOUNTED SHOP

RELATED ARTICLES

---