What Obscure Horror Film(s) Would You Remake?

Rip Torn in a remake of Motel Hell.

I was actually thinking about starting a discussion thread on what the criteria for a movie to be a good candidate for a remake are. Jamie beat me to the punch.

In the Elm Street thread that's beena ctive this week, it was posited that the NOES films would be good candidates for remakes, because they're essentially flawed films based on good ideas.

I started a thread about a year ago asking "What films would you actually like to see remade?" My opinion at the time was remarkably similar. I was, and I guess still am, of the opinion that remakes should be limited to movies w/ a good premise, but flawed execution. I said then, and I'll repeat it here, that movies that aren't seriously flawed, should be left alone. In support of this idea, I cite Rob Zombie's "Halloween" and the 07 remake of "The Fog". Neither original had any real problems. Neither was really effects driven so even if they were primitive & didn't look that good (and I don't think they were bad at all; they fulfilled the requirements of those films), there wasn't any real need to update them on that basis. And the acting wasn't THAT bad in either. I think opinions around here are near universal that neither remake brought anything new & worthwhile to the table.

On the other hand, there HAVE been good remakes of movies that weren't overly flawed. The most often cited examples are "The Thing", "The Blob" and "The Fly". None of those original films was inherently flawed (although the probably unexpected effects update in "The Thing" was just awesome). But these remakes were good, which shoots a big hole in my theory. So does the fact that I heard a rumor that they were remaking "Them!", and while I initially thought because this was an old favorite of mine, and a damned good exemplar of its sub-genre, a eemake didn't need to be made. But I now admit to some curiosity as to what an effects update could do for this film. Perhaps effects updates are the only reason to remake an already good film, and flawed films SHOULD (but probably won't ever) be the fodder for remake-minded filmmakers?

To answer the original question, I saw two low budget zombie films, "Meat Market I" and "The Ghouls" that both had decent premises but terrible executions (mainly the acting & effects), that I think have the potential to be really cool films if done right.

Re: That Empire article:

Phase IV is a great and under appreciated gem. I doubt any remake could come close to the intent of the original

The Stuff could be a great satirical horror movie and should be remade.

My obscure horror movies that should be remade:

Tourist Trap: Chuck Conners does his best but this movie sucked...except for this room full of creepy dolls that all have hinged jaws. At the end of the movie the Survivor Girl winds up in this room and all the Dolls start going "LA" and their jaws fall open: C*R*E*E*P*Y

The Car: One of the best opening scenes in any horror movie: a couple of bikers are on a highway, up in the mountains in Colorado (I think) and the weird black car with black windows and windshield is driving around , horn blaring like some drunk coked out guy is driving it. The tension mounts as the cars come up to, and runs down the bikers. The rest of the movie comes nowhere close to attaining that level.

Slight Derail: Not movies but "Major Television Events!" that should be remade: Stephen King's The Stand and Stephen King's IT.

Originally The Stand was going to be an HBO Miniseries directed by George Romero. When I saw that ABC travesty of a version and remembered this I almost wept.

Can I nominate a film that's only a year or two old? Because Teeth could have been a great movie if it had been made by somebody with some actual ideas. Let's give the premise to David Cronenberg, and let him school this loser on how this sort of thing is done.

Yeah, you think that one would have been done by now, but they're still shitting out sequels.

It's sci-fi/horror but I've always wanted to see a remake of Alien Factor.

"A spaceship containing specimens for an intergalactic zoo crashes on Earth near a small back woods town. The specimens escape, and soon town folk are turning up mutilated."

Granted, not exactly high concept but I've always like the premise. The original, however, is such a low budget affair that they just couldn't do justice to the trio of creatures loosed upon the town folk. Didn't stop them from trying though. I still hold a soft spot in my heart for the 7 ft. tall Zagatile.


Also, Gargoyles (1972). But only if they can get Bernie Casey back for the remake.

Hi - post number two so don't kill me - as a massive horror geek who's spent the last ten years bemoaning slasher fims whilst secretly stocking up on them all on dvd - I sa My Bloody valentine 3d last week. Godawful, but plenty of gory deaths. If the studios want to remake fun slashers nobody gives a shit about, remake "Pieces"!!! Broken glass, chainsaws, and -last but not least - karate instructors... I love the movie but I really wouldn't care too much if they remade it all to hell... make it 3D and i'm there!!!!

I said it a bit back, but a TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE ("It's a Good Life") reunion... Joe Dante directs a NIGHT OF THE LEPUS remake for WB with Rob Bottin's creature FX. With a new theme-appropriate Bugs Bunny theatrical short at the open.



Featuring cameos by: Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, Kevin McCarthy, etc.

You get Dante and Bottin together on a new film, I don't care if it's a Citizen Kane remake!!!

One could argue that they already made an unofficial remake of TOURIST TRAP just a couple of years ago & called it HOUSE OF WAX.

As for the two King mini series that you mention, I wholeheartedly agree with you that both desperately cry out for eventual remakes. ESPECIALLY, IMO,
IT.

While many still have fond memories of the original 1990 four hour two parter, I could barely get through it a year or so back while finally checking out the DVD I'd bought when it was first released. This despite an all too brief iconic turn by Tim Curry as Pennywise. An absolutely terrific performance wasted on an otherwise mediocre adaption.

Thing is about Tourist Trap, bearing in mind I've not got the DVD - I reckon it'd lose a lot without what I like to call the VHS vibe. Some of my favourite 80s horrors lost so much when i finally tracked them down - just because they were clear prints!!! I'd rather have that flickery wavy vhs tape vibe on a movie like that - it makes it all the more sinister. As much as I realise House of a 1000 corpses was a pretty bad film, it managed to capture that flickery horrible "rented as a kid" vhs vibe really well. I'd hope any remake of Tourist Trap would do the same!!!

PS: please don't read this as a vindication of Rob Zobie's Halloween. One of the only horror films i've fallen asleep during. Not just once - it took me 3 viewings to get all the way through it!! A bigger waste of time would be hard to find.

See THE ROOST for that vibe as well. SHAMELESS PLUG!

Not too obscure, but, Werewolf of London (1935). The whole film feels like a metaphor for impotence, something helped along by Henry Hull's deliberately difficult to empathize with lead character; I'd really love to exploit that. Also, and I suppose this is "sacrilege", I prefer it to The Wolf Man by a good mile at least.

I'll try and track that bugger down - well promoted!!! I know I've seen "Altered" at Blockbuster, but not seen "The Roost" yet - is it available in the UK?

yep.

I shall rent the bejeezus out of that then. Cheers!!!!

Maybe not a mile, but I prefer it as well.

I'd love to see someone take another crack at Ghost Story, preferably as a miniseries. The movie barely scratched the surface of the book's epic feel.

How could you possibly top that cast, though? They just don't make those guys anymore.

As to I. Wolf Man never really worked for me compared to the other Universal monster pictures.

I'd quite like to see Children of the Corn get a remake. The premise had plenty of potential, but the change to the endig of the original short story combined with the sloppy execution led to a pretty shoddy film. A new final scene and some decent acting could easily redeem that.

Since they put Shocker on the list and I find it to be more mainstream than Puppet Master I shall say bring me some updated possessed marionettes.

Great idea! Love Straub's book...but the movie was pants.

Personally, (and I LOVE the original film), I wouldn't mind seeing 'The Hidden' updated...

Let's Scare Jessica To Death.

First Man Into Space could be a really fun, creepy, nasty remake.

And yet, a remake would undoubtedly involve Mick Garris. Everybody loses.

Which makes me wonder if King missed out on the current remake frenzy by letting The Shining, The Dead Zone and Carrie and such get remade for TV. I keep waiting for the trades to explode with news of a Christine remake, or a Re-Cujo.

I think this is being remade.

Always loved this site for reviewing some of the lesser-known 70s and 80s horrors: http://www.terrortrap.com/

CHILDREN OF THE CORN is being remade, in fact I think it's shooting or done shooting.

LET'S SCARE JESSICA has been seriously considered for remaking by several production companies, but to the best of my knowledge no one is going forward. They don't know what to do with it and think it's "too slow". I know this for a fact because I've talked to the interns who's job it was to screen it for the producers.

Yes, that's right, it's PA's and interns who are the first line of defense in this remake selection process.

If they emphasized the mystery a bit more, with a few more red herrings so that the outcome wasn't quite so obvious (I'm referring to the identity of the killer, not the final scene), a remake of SLEEPAWAY CAMP might be a lot of fun.

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS -- Caught this on Comcast On Demand recently. Not nearly as funny as I remembered it to be, but with a better script, it would make great fodder for a horror/comedy today. Although it'll be hard for anyone to top Tom Atkins's performance.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: TNG with the same cast.

Squirm

In black and white!

That's just what we need: a Cujo origin story. Cujo 2: The Whelp!

McConaughey was surprisingly entertaining in that one.

Cujo: The Fluffy St. Bernard Puppy With The Inexplicably Scary-Sounding Name.

Second this! One of the most disappointing book to movie translations


There was a remake that came out direct to video called Children of the Crow (for legal reasons). This was part of an "Officially sanctioned by Stephen King" series called Night Shift Collection. I never saw it so I can't attest to it's quality or lack thereof

If it was a spin-off from the 'Beethoven' series, I'd appreciate it even more!
You wouldn't even need the rabid bat to explain anything.

Sci Fi Channel already made I think mini-series remake that suppose to be out sometime this year.

I'd remake Bloody Birthday. Kids killing shit (and peepin on naked sisters) for no good reason deserves a better movie.

Critters.

Hey, wait a minute now. There were a lot of unanswered questions about that bat.

You're in luck! Just watch James Gunn's Slither. I think Nathan Fillion gives Atkins a run for his money.

Part of what makes obscure horror films "classics" is the same thing that makes people want to re-make them -

the dirty old cheap and badly acted awkward dated vibe.

Re-making them is pointless.
As we all know.


I vote for the Blind Dead films.
I would love to see someone rip-off Peter Jackson ripping off Tombs of the Blind Dead's slo-mo horse zombies galloping through a clearing with hoods up, chasing some wench.

I'd vote for House On The Edge Of The Park, but several things get in the way of that.

1. It's WAY to dirty and filthy, that the result of a remake would be really sanitized.

2. NO ONE can compare to the dynamic duo of Hess/Radice.

3. Attempting to recreate "the Radice dance" would fail.

4. It's fine the way it is. I'd just like to see what someone would attempt to do with this flick.

Yeah, I was thinking about those too, but they'd have to leave in the lesbian subplot. They'd have to.

I'm not gonna name names, but some of you want remakes of already good B-flicks. Some of my faves in fact.

I'll save you the time.

I'm not gonna name names of my favorite non-remade horror flicks. Didn't Michael Bay used to read the boards? I say something about The Unseen and next thing you know there's a deal.

If Last House On The Left does well, will we soon get a remake of lower-tier shit like Maniac? Where the fuck is Lustig? you know he's trying to get Maniac and Maniac Cop "rebooted".

Critters is a good pick if the makers don't change the goofy creature design or remove the alien-rockstar-bountyhunter.