Remakes Taking a Turn for the Worst

Remakes are either a hit or miss topic in today’s film industry. It’s not  a new thing, but lately remakes have been taking a turn for the worst. The point of a remake is to successfully capture something about the original that caught the attention of the viewers, but now remakes are just an excuse for lack of originality.

What’s noticeable in many recent remakes is that they’re based off of original foreign films. American films seem to have lost originality to the  point where they are using foreign films as remake material. Some of these foreign remakes have been successful such as  The Departed which is a remake of a Japanese film called Infernal Affairs. The film eventually won director Martin Scorsese his 1st  Academy Award for Best Director. The Ring was also a good remake, bringing a new type of horror to the American audience.

Speaking of which, one of the main victims of the remake takeover is the horror genre itself. Friday the 13th again? The original brought something new to horror films but remaking the movie after the 11 sequels before it was an obvious move to cash in on the (way too) long running franchise. Now the words out that a reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street is in the works as well as Evil Dead. Instead of making reboots of legendary movies such as the latter, why not make an original movie? It’s not impossible, and Sam Raimi ( director of Spiderman and Evil Dead, yes that Sam Raimi) proved that with the release of Drag Me to Hell, which was well received by audiences and critics for it’s originality yet humorous and campy feel.

Remakes aren’t all that bad, it just depends on the direction that the movie takes. One prime example is the new Quentin Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds. Although not exactly a remake of the 1978 film (directed by Enzo Castellari); the new “sub” remake takes its own path in a typical violent Quentin Tarantino film, hence the misspelling in the title. It’s charming yet spikes curiosity of how this film will differentiate from the original.

Movie directors are even remaking their own movies. Austrian director Michale Haneke remade his 1997 horror/torture film, Funny Games, shot by shot. I’ve seen both versions of the film and they are literally the same movie, just speaking different languages and different actors involved. There really was no point into remaking his own film when the original had English subtitles on the DVD. Americans don’t mind reading subtitles as much as people think; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon anyone? Either Michale Haneke ran out of ideas for a new film or his ego was big enough to drive him to remake his own movie.

All that is being asked by the film industry is just to bring more originality to the screen. Don’t stop remakes from being made, rather slow it down and if a remake is being made, at least make it a good one. I’d watch a movie based on a book any day over a remake, but maybe that’s just me.