10 Classic Horror Movie Match-Ups from Yesterday and Today

Is it me or do remakes rule the box office? Oh sure, we all complain about them. No one wants them. Why can’t you just leave well enough alone? A classic is a classic! Hollywood must be out of ideas!

Well, it’s time for a newsflash. Remakes are just as much a part of filmmaking as original ideas. It’s always been that way. It’ll always be that way. And it’s all your fault. Well, yours and mine. See, we’ve been endorsing remakes for years without even knowing it. From acclaimed director William Friedkin’s 1977 Sorcerer (which was a remake of 1953’s The Wages of Fear) to maestro Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (which was a remake of his own movie), great directors have been all about the do-over, and, in the cases mentioned above, have produced far better results. Bad remakes are no worse than bad movies. Neither should ever be made, while the reverse is true for good remakes and good movies. Bring on all of those that you can, Hollywood. We’ll be waiting.

So enough whining. Yes, sometimes it turns out horrendous. (I’m looking at you, Prom Night.)

Other times it’s just what the doctor ordered. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the horror genre. Following are 10 horror movie match-ups from yesterday and today, singled out and sequestered for your enjoyment and approval (or disapproval). The criteria for these:

• No Americanized updates of contemporary foreign films (Let the Right One In / Let Me In)

• No adaptations of widely known contemporary works (Seriously, how many Dracula adaptations would we have to go through?)

• No movie adaptations of television shows (Twilight Zone: The Movie)

• No television remakes of feature films (Carrie, The Shining, Salem’s Lot)

Now on with the show!

Psycho: 1960 vs. 1998

1960	1998
Psycho

Robert Bloch’s classic horror novella came to the big screen in 1960 thanks to Alfred Hitchcock’s able hands. Starring a perfectly cast Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, inn-keeper of the Bates Motel and slave to his brutal mother, Psycho shocked audiences and made it hard for anyone who watched it to take a shower with the door unlocked. In 1998, Gus Van Sant tried to rekindle the magic, but his decision on shooting the same movie shot-for-shot in color with a cast led by Vince Vaughn as Bates gave one cause to ask the question, “What’s the point?” If you’re not bringing something new to the table, why bother with a remake at all? It wasn’t as if Hitchcock left out much of the Bloch novel to draw anything new from. The only real difference comes in the shower scene. In Bloch’s book, Marion Crane is decapitated. Both movies opt for a tamer approach.

And the winner is: The Original.

The Amityville Horror: 1979 vs. 2005

1979	2005
The Amityville Horror

Give George and Kathy Lutz credit. Their story about a supposedly real-life haunted house and demon possession frightened readers and, later, movie audiences in the 70’s. More than 30 years later, there has been no additional haunting for the folks on 108 Ocean Avenue. There have been a string of bad sequels and a slew of well-meaning tourists making life miserable for the inhabitants to occupy the real house since the Lutzes fled in terror. In 2005, director Andrew Douglas took another crack at the tale, originally helmed by Cool Hand Luke director Stuart Rosenberg and starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as the unlucky couple. For the second turn, Ryan Reynolds and Michelle George took the leads and proceeded to outdo the initial effort. While the first film had been solid to a point, it started to unravel at the end. The remake matched the intensity of the original, but trumped it with a super-creepy storyline taken directly from the book and left absent, for some reason, in the prior effort.

And the winner is: The Remake.

Friday the 13^th: 1980 vs. 2009

1980	2009
Friday the 13th

Slasher films got their big break with this original body count flick from director Sean S. Cunningham with FX work by maestro Tom Savini. Shot for well under $1 million, Friday the 13^th grossed, in more ways than one, over $39 million in 1980 dollars. That’s over $100.2 million when adjusted for 2009 figures, which also happens to be the year Marcus Nispel’s remake hit. The 2009 version takes elements from part one (Jason’s psychotic mother), part two (Jason wearing a bag over his head), and part three (Jason’s iconic hockey mask), and blends them together into a series reboot. Made for $19 million, the remake’s worldwide totals registered a respectable $91 million, ensuring a sequel but failing to make the splash of the one that started it all.

And the winner is: The Original.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: 1984 vs. 2010

1984	2010
A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Krueger attacked audiences the same year “The Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez claimed his first victim. Moviegoers all over the world felt terror both in and out of theaters as a madman stalked the streets in our world and a razor-gloved burn victim haunted the big screen. While Ramirez was eventually arrested for the 13 murders that rocked L.A. from June 1984 to August 1985, Krueger would go on to target over 25 years of teenagers in a number of sequels, a crossover, and one TV series. His most recent outing found Jackie Earle Haley wielding the knives once worn by Robert Englund. Englund’s last turn as Krueger came with Freddy vs. Jason, Ronnie Yu’s hit crossover. Like the other half of that dubious pairing, 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street rebooted the entire franchise (like the aforementioned Nispel Friday the 13^th reboot) breathing new life into a very tired series of films. The new Nightmare was fun to watch, and brought with it equal amounts of darkness and humor, though it finished more strongly than its predecessor.

And the winner is: The Remake.

The Last House on the Left: 1972 vs. 2009

1972	2009
The Last House on the Left

There is a difference between raw and incompetent. The original Last House on the Left had a touch of raw with a heaping dose of incompetence. Young director Wes Craven oversees poor cinematography and laugh-inducing, out of place musical cues to create multiple effects that take you out of the movie. Aside from that, it does boast cutting edge brutality and a clever concept: a murderous gang of thugs seek refuge in the home of two people whose child they raped and murdered. In 2009, the best parts of the 1972 version were expounded upon and turned into a tense and truly suspenseful thriller with a much better cast led by Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter as the vengeful parents. Director Dennis Iliadis forces you to face the ugliness inside of yourself as he asks the question, “If bad people hurt someone you love, how far would you go to hurt them back?”

And the winner is: The Remake.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: 1974 vs. 2003

1974	2003
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Before he got a crack at Jason Voorhies, director Marcus Nispel cut his teeth on Leatherface. Kick-starting a franchise that had fallen quite far from its 1974 perch—with efforts like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 3, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A New Beginning—Nispel cast promising young stars such as Jessica Biel and Eric Balfour and borrowed support from the veteran R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) for a raw, dirty, intense revisit to the Texas back roads of Tobe Hooper’s original nightmare. Hooper makes use of a small cast of unknowns and really punches the true story angle for an unsettling look at what could be lurking in the hellish regions of our nightmares. The remake borders somewhat on torture porn, and while that makes for a no less scary good time at the movies, it doesn’t have quite the influence of the first manifestation of this flesh-wearing psychopath.

And the winner is: The Original.

The Thing: 1951 vs. 1982

1951	1982
The Thing

The Thing, or as it was known in 1951 The Thing from Another World, is a tense and claustrophobic thriller, a classic monster movie in every sense of the word. But when matched against its 1982 counterpart, it’s hard to pick the original in anything else but a nostalgia contest. John Carpenter, often heralded for his 1978 slasher film Halloween, turns in what is quite possibly his best film with this slick and bloody remake of the Christian Nyby original, which itself had been adapted from writer-editor John W. Campbell Jr.’s short story. Campbell had quite the resume before his death in 1971 having launched the career of such noted authors as Robert A. Heinlein. He was in his early forties when Nyby’s film released. He did not live to see Carpenter’s far superior effort that involves a team of scientists hunted by a nasty alien organism that slithers its way inside of a host only to break out into some weird bloodthirsty nastiness when in contact with heat. Unfortunately for our heroes, they’re stationed at an arctic post!

And the winner is: The Remake.

My Bloody Valentine: 1981 vs. 2009

1981	2009
My Bloody Valentine

Harry Warden was thought dead in a mining tragedy. When a rescue team found him, they discovered that Harry had been able to survive for days on human flesh. It would be the following Valentine’s Day before they discovered another little secret about Harry. Since the accident that trapped him had occurred due to Valentine’s Day carelessness on the part of some co-workers, Harry had a vendetta—one that he would carry out with a pickaxe if the town ever held another Valentine’s Day dance. In 1981, George Mihalka had to fight the MPAA tooth-and-nail over the excessive violence in his film. Director Patrick Lussier got away with a lot more in his 2009 remake. He also procured a better cast. But something about the proceedings look far too slick and polished. And when you view the original with all the cut footage spliced back in, the graphic gore and violence still holds up pretty well. Watch the uncut DVD, and you’ll agree…

And the winner is: The Original.

The Hitcher: 1986 vs. 2007

1986	2007
The Hitcher

A rainy desert road is the setting for this horror classic—as long as you’re talking about the original version with Rutger Hauer. In 2007, director Dave Meyers tried to recreate the magic with Sean Bean in the role of psychopath John Ryder. He also tried to switch gender roles of the protagonist. Instead of an uncommon male figure as in Eric Red’s screenplay, he went with the traditional female, effectively turning 2007’s attempt into a standard, gory, hacky horror movie that broke no new ground in its telling. The first film delivers enough gore and violence to satisfy modern sensibilities, but it exercises enough restraint to muster true suspense. The truck scene with Jennifer Jason Leigh stretched out between two semis is still a hallmark of terror, and the gritty showdown that closes out the film makes for a wonderful marriage of action and horror. The later effort is too by-the-numbers to be remembered.

And the winner is: The Original.

The Blob: 1958 vs. 1988

1958	1988
The Blob

To commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the classic Steve McQueen-Aneta Corsaut sci-fi thriller, Hollywood produced a remake that stayed true to the spirit of the original while also delivering a heaping helping of the gory stuff for fans in need of more visual stimulation with their horror movies. Starring the beautiful Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon and directed by Chuck Russell, this effort is a textbook example of how to remake a classic and bring something new to the table. That’s not to say it’s the best version. The 1958 classic is still the quintessential exploration of cold war fears and scientific speculation. From the Big Red Menace threatening small town values, which, at that time, were the representation that America chose to embrace as its own, to the alien life form from the far reaches of space, The Blob is a movie filled with horror, wonder, and fun. Fifty years and two versions later—not to mention the 1972 sequel Beware! The Blob—you will still have a good time with this one.

And the winner is: The Original.

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