The unfortunate burden of modern cinema is the business of remakes. It seems that almost every movie is the basis of a past endeavor. This becomes very frustrating to anyone searching for new media as opposed to the corporate feedings of money hungry Hollywood executives.
The downtrodden business of selling people what they have already bought is much the calling card of modern horror movies. With trashy, money hungry remakes like The Eye, The Grudge, and Halloween hitting theaters, some real gems are getting passed up.
Hatchet Missed its Mark
Take for example the recent, straight to DVD Hatchet. Now here is a movie that missed an opportunity to strike it big in theaters. Hatchet truly is an attempt at reviving and regenerating the lost art of slasher flicks. However, the movie was left for intuitive horror viewers to wait for rentals (rather than vie for an opportunity to wait in line at some pretentious film fest).
The point is, people mourned the death of the slasher film and spit on its grave for it to stay there. Yet, in the same year, Hollywood green lit a wide release for Rob Zombie and his most recent knockoff. But don’t take that the wrong way; Rob Zombie has done great things with the horror genre, particularly with House of 1000 Corpses, and his less than classy sequel, The Devil’s Rejects.
However, the argument still remains, leveraging House of 1000 Corpses as less than original. The line between rip-off and homage is devilishly thin, and other filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino find themselves frequently stealing other’s ideas, but calling it ‘homage’.
So where is horror supposed to go from here? The remake sickness has stricken the genre pretty hard. Even lesser known, straight to DVD, B movies, like 2001 Maniacs, are playing a part in the disease. There seems to be no answer for the unoriginal content hitting the theaters.
Funny Games Gets a Make-Over
One assumption is to view the remakes as timely updates. Some movies were made in such a corny generation with such low budget graphics that they need a face-lift. Michael Haneke gave his 1997 thriller Funny Games a recent makeover, and it was much needed. Other movies, such as Wes Craven’s original exploitation thriller, Last House on the Left, are amidst an updating, and there are rumors that Jason Voorhees will have receive a much needed modernizing (upcominghorrormovies.com).
The plague of unoriginality faces a critical juncture. If the world of horror cinema wishes to bounce back from all of the recent remakes, especially the remakes of all the traditionally original Japanese horror films, there needs to be a couple of quality original films.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Battling for the right to originality will be upcoming films such as Trick ‘r’ Treat, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and even Clive Barkers new flick, Midnight Meat Train. Horror fans can rejoice in the originality that is coming in the next few months (that is, of course, if you can forget about the remake of Prom Night).
