The Miracle of REMAKES

I for one am not the first to declare his dislike of most of the remakes assaulting our screen now and in the past few years but there is some legitimacy to remaking beloved films of the past for a new generation.

This year has seen the release of a multitude of remakes both big and small from FRIDAY THE 13th, SORORITY ROW, MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D, IT’S ALIVE, CHILDREN OF THE CORN, THE UNINVITED, and HALLOWEEN II, among many others. Next year will see the release of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, PIRANHA 3D, THE WOLFMAN, THE CRAZIES, MOTHER’S DAY, and STRAW DOGS, among others. Remakes are here to stay but that doesn’t mean that they will all be bad.

There have been many excellent examples of great remakes that are treasured by horror film enthusiasts such as John Carpenter’s THE THING, David Cronenberg’s THE FLY, Alexandra Aja’s THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and Zack Snider’s DAWN OF THE DEAD, among others, and then there are those remakes which are a travesty to the genre (i.e. PSYCHO, PROM NIGHT, DAY OF THE DEAD, THE HAUNTING, THE INVASION).

When a remake strives to take the theme and spirit of the film that it is remaking and re-imagine it for a modern audience then the film will become a success as long as it doesn’t bastardize what both new and old audiences want from the film itself. Two films that do this to perfection are the remakes of THE FLY and DAWN OF THE DEAD. Cronenberg and Snider took the themes and ideas of the original film and modernized them and made them more relevant to today’s audiences. Cronenberg made a film that was (in the eyes of the audience) a scientific possibility of teleportation but never took the heart of the film away. It always returned to the relationship between its two main characters which is what due in both horror film fans and regular audiences as well. In the case of Snider’s DAWN OF THE DEAD remake it had a harsher road to travel as trying to remake what is considered the best zombie film ever crafted was not an easy task. Snider’s film kept the spirit and theme of the original film while updating the zombies and making it fiercer and more suspenseful. Many thought that making running and fast zombies would be a bad idea but Snider proved that in many ways it was more terrifying. DAWN OF THE DEAD was the highest grossing zombie film until ZOMBIELAND was released.

Two films that got the remake wrong are Gus Van Sant’s PSYCHO and Jan de Bont’s THE HAUNTING. Van Sant wanted to do a shot-for-shot remake of the original Alfred Hitchcock classic but he soon realized upon his film’s release that what was the point? Audiences didn’t want a shot-for-shot remake if they could just go rent Hitchcock’s original. Van Sant would have been better off returning to the original novel for inspiration (ala Carpenter’s THE THING) or gone in a different direction altogether which would have at least been an inspiration. The opposite can be said of de Bont’s debacle THE HAUNTING which took the basic plot and premise of the original film and completely through away the spirit and theme that has made the original THE HAUNTING one of the best haunted house films ever made. Every film has a plot, but not every film has a spirit and something to say which is why both of these films failed.

Remakes continue to go both ways, those that strive to honor and homage the original film (i.e. THE RING and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and those that go in a completely different direction (i.e. THE STEPFORD WIVES and MIRRORS) and some are successful (i.e. THE GRUDGE and HALLOWEEN) while some are completely ignored (i.e. SORORITY ROW and FUNNY GAMES) and there is no end to the cycle (as the many films that I named earlier will attest).

Remakes are something we love and we love to hate and they will never go away. They may disappear for a few years but they will never be gone. Think for a moment about the accomplishments that the remake sub-genre has had. There are countless remakes of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA not to mention Gaston Lereaux’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and Mary Shelly’s FRANKENSTEIN and they are always being addressed for the current generation both good and bad. Let’s all think about this when watching the next remake that Hollywood assaults us with.

The Indie Filmmaking Scene (REPRINTED)

Note: The following is reprinted from it's original post in its entirety.

Last week I was the Program Director for the Blank Stage Shorts Film Festival whose mandate was to promote local Georgia filmmakers.   The event was free for the public as it not only wanted to promote Georgia filmmakers but the venue that the event was taking place at as well (the Artisan Resource Center of Marietta, Georgia).

Watching the many films that had been submitted by local filmmakers I started to see a pattern.  The pattern was that many of the films were from the horror genre or made by filmmakers who mostly do horror films.  I found this fascinating as that many of the actors that I know personally are looking for more “meaty” roles of which are few and far in between in the horror genre.

Ron McLellen, director of JACK O’LANTERN, was on hand to unveil 3 films from Southlan-Films – THE VAIL, DER SOLDAT, and THE SPIDER & THE FLY, whereas as producer & director Dave R. Watkins (director of THE STRAGGLERS) had four – APPARITION POINT, DEAD JUSTICE, DEAD VENGEANCE, and ZOMBIEWEEN.  Sam Drog (director of ZOMBEAK!) had two films with SIXTY SECONDS and BLOOD SCRUB, and director Gary Lynch had CASTING CALL and the non-horror film I WILL HURT YOU.  There were several others but the point is that between the 23 films screened a huge chunk of them were horror.

I’m amazed at how horror has infected the indie scene (but let’s not forget that all other genres were represented as well).  I’ve worked with and spoken with many of the filmmakers behind some of the festival’s films and many of them had the same thing to say – whether low budget or no budget horror films are some of the most fun to make and can be made quickly.  Another good point to mention is that horror films usually have larger than normal casts (the more people to kill the better) and have more action. (and less dialogue – although I’m adding this one in myself).

As an independent producer and director I love making horror films.  They’re fun and entertaining and there is always a lot of fake blood going everywhere.

Now the most important thing to remember about low and no budget horror films is that audiences are the most forgiving in terms of almost all technical aspects of filmmaking with the exception that the film must be entertaining.  The film can have a bad script and bad acting but as long as someone is getting killed in a unique way every ten minutes then you’re not going to completely fail.  It’s almost “good” to be “bad” with a indie horror film whereas with a comedy or drama most audiences are unforgiving in these aspects (it’s all or nothing at all).

Having been a part of three previous film festivals. I’ve seen a lot of bad films but I have to say that as long as there are indie filmmakers out there trying their best to entertain me than I’ll keep watching them (no matter how bad the script or acting may be).

So if there are a few good (or bad) horror shorts out there that you want me to see and review feel free to send them to me.  I’m all EYES.

Kevin L. Powers

PO Box 2684, Forest Park, GA 30298

Sorry I've been away for awhile...

Sorry, I've not written anything in a while but I was on location filming the faith-based film BETWEEN LOVE & A HARD PLACE which took up over three weeks of my time and before that I was doing the Blank Stage Shorts Film Festival and before that I was in production on the Blank Stage production NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY, which means that I've had a very busy schedule as late.  I also now write a weekly article for the on line site CRYPTSHOW.

My schedule has been pretty hectic which means I've not been able to publish as many reviews or blogs as I would have liked but that is all about to change for 2010 as I am putting myself on a schedule to produce one blog entry a week so be on the lookout for many new things to come!

There will also be more pictures and more reviews (which are also published on Associated Content website) and lots of more original content that can only be found on this blog!