You’d be forgiven for saying horror movies look a bit samey nowadays. Part of the reason for this sense of familiarity is the fact that there so few iconic, original horror movies anymore. Instead, studios are increasingly trudging through their back-catalogue and dragging out every recognisable IP in the hope of securing a quick buck. Two movies currently in production provide perfect examples of this sort of thing; the remakes of horror classics The Evil Dead and Carrie respectively. Both the originals are revered classics of the genre, and both have a unique style and tone – especially the kinetic lunacy of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead – which would seem difficult to imitate effectively. The producers of these remakes seem intent through their marketing to endlessly recycle the memorable imagery and iconography from the originals, a trait sadly characteristic of modern remakes of horror classics: 2010’s A Nightmare On Elm Street, for example, got most of its scares by riffing on the original’s best scenes while replacing the idiosyncratic wit of Wes Craven’s masterpiece with a washed-out, bland and dreary tone. Worryingly, this slavish adherence to familiarity isn’t just limited to straightforward remakes: Last year’s version of John Carpenter’s The Thing, despite claiming to be a prequel, still re-hashed almost everything from the original, with near-identical characters and Carpenter’s skin-crawling practical effects clumsily replicated using bad CGI. A common trend seems to emerge among these remakes; they recycle the best bits from the originals while sucking out what truly made the first films memorable: the atmosphere, the tension, the eccentricities and the wit of the directors. Only when remakes move away from the recognisable do we get something of value: Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn Of The Dead, for example, was able to stand on it’s own from the original because it had new ideas and a fresh, energetic style. Similarly, some of the best examples of horror remakes, such as David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Carpenter’s The Thing (itself a much better remake of the 50s B-movie) went on to become classics because they were inventive, creative takes on the material. For the most part, though, if you’re looking for a good horror movie this Halloween, try the shoddier-looking but infinitely more creative and fun original, rather than the shinier-but-shallower remake.

Sean Hayes