Movies and TV shows getting remakes and reboots have become a pretty common trend in recent years. People recreating loved and adored films and putting a more modern twist on them that makes them more relevant for today’s time. The horror genre is no exception to this and is getting new remakes pretty consistently. But is this a good thing, or is it ruining films we all know and love?
People like to make remakes because it is a good way to get people to watch your film. Old fans want to watch it for nostalgia purposes and to see if the new film is up to the same standards as the old one. With new fans, it gives them a chance to be a part of a community at the time it comes out. It gives them a new chance to like something that was popular before. They are an easy way to make cash as in theory the film should perform well because the one before it did.
With horror being such a big genre with so many classic films, it is easy to find one to recreate. That does not always mean it is done well though. “It robs generations of the original classics,” senior A. Theodore said.
Horror films have been made for generations and are loved by a lot of people. So remaking them can be a challenge and has its ups and downs.
It robs generations of the original classics.
— Theodore
One of the benefits of a remake in the horror genre is that with new technology and techniques that have been invented and discovered over the years, it makes the gore and scare factor higher and better quality. Old horror movies tend to be lacking in this department because of the limited resources they had back when most of them were filmed. Also, with the use of CGI that was not present before, it gives the new film an extra edge that it could not achieve before. Gore in movies before was also highly censored and considered taboo. Today that is not so much the case.
People tend to not like remakes of films and horror remakes are no different. One of the reasons why people tend to not like remakes is because they lose part of what it was before. When you are getting new people both behind the scenes and on the screen things change and can lose some of what made people like them in the first place. It changes what the film is at its core which makes especially people who loved the original disappointed. “I hate that the remakes take the nostalgia from the old horror films I grew up with,” sophomore Tyler Bugg said.
One classic horror film that underwent the remake treatment is “Friday the 13th.” The original movie is still popular to this day and is still being watched regularly to this day. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 64%. The remake on the other hand did not do as well. It did not do as well with audiences compared to the original. It only got a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes which is a pretty low score for a movie to get.
All of this is not to say that all remakes are bad. If they are tasteful and done well then they might not do poorly and people would like them. When it comes to these remakes, they have their benefits and their downfalls. It is really up to the viewers to decide for themselves if they think the remake lives up to the standard it should.
