Movie Remakes: The latest trend to hit the big screen

By Shaun Lee

“One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.  Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. Nine, ten, never sleep again.”

For those born in the 80s, this nursery rhyme was unmistakably linked to Freddy Krueger, the antagonist in the 1984 horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street.  However, after almost 26 years, the infamous undead slasher has made his way back to the big screen again.

The movie is just one of the few movies that have experienced a phenomenon that is now taking the movie industry by storm – movie remaking. Others that come to mind are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) remake (2003), The Hills Have Eyes (1977) remake (2006), Friday The 13^th (1980) remake (2009), Halloween (1978) remake (2007) and many more.

Movie remakes are generally movies that use earlier editions as the main story. The main intention of such movies is to bring back some of the movies that are considered classic as well as to enable the younger audience to appreciate the movie.   However, movie remakes usually alters some of the original aspects of the movie such as characters, plot and themes.

For example, in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the titular Freddy Krueger was given a background as a pedophilic gardener whereas in the original version of the movie, he was a convicted child murderer.

Another difference between the original and remake versions of the movies are the murder scenes. In all the original Nightmare version, we see more gory scenes such as a bed swallowing a teenager and spewing blood and gore all over the place whereas the remake features more ‘slash and gutting’ scenes.

Another form of movie remaking which is quite popular is English versions of their original language.  This is a very common occurrence in today’s film industry and is intended to enable the audience to enjoy the movie without obstacles such as language or were the producers just copycats?

One example in the Japanese horror movie The Ring (1998) which was later remade into an American version in 2002.  This version of the movie had most of the characters renamed to suit the local viewership, including the movie’s main character, Sadako Yamamura, which was modified into Samara Morgan.

Another modification is the fact that the character Sadako Yamamura was a hermaphrodite (had both male and female reproductive organs) and was possibly a godly being. In the remake, Samara Morgan was just a female with a vengeful spirit and superpowers, sound familiar?

So in this case the remake tends to leave out certain facts that may seem trivial to viewers but is associated directly or indirectly to the original movies.  These facts can sometimes contribute to the story such as the real reason behind The Rings antagonist, which is to ‘live on’ or reproduce rather than the American remake in which Samara only ‘wanted to be heard’.

Movie remakes are generally popular in the horror film genre. Remakes of popular horror are Thailand’s Shutter, The Ring, Kairo (Pulse) and Ju-On (The Grudge) from Japan just to name a few. However, there have also been remakes of movies outside the horror genre such as Bewitched, Clash of the Titans and Robin Hood which is currently showing in cinemas.

In short, movie remakes have made an impact on the film industry.  However, there is always the question of how good the remake version of a movie is, compared to the original – better, even or worse?  This answer is a matter of opinion and preference.

Some may prefer the original while others that have not seen the originals believe that the remakes are better with the state of the art special effects.  Whatever the inclination, the fact remains that the movie remaking phenomenon is here to stay because maybe, just maybe the producers think that if they can scare you once, they can do it again!