New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Max Braden: Like some other institutions, if you think about it objectively, even in a worst-case scenario a remake does nothing to lessen the quality of the original work. As long as we have access to watch the original movie, we can still enjoy it and come out agreeing that it's still the superior version. Gus Van Sant's Psycho is actually a good example of how even trying to photocopy a work of art just won't cut it - you almost knew in advance that the 1998 Psycho project was going to fail, but you still had to make it to further prove that the original was a classic. In the best case scenario of remaking a good classic, you might get to see your favorite new actor work with your favorite old material, or see a twist on the old material with better production quality. I'm not sure there are a lot of theatre audiences asking "Why are they doing Hamlet again this summer? We just had performances of it last year and the 200-400 years prior." Maybe some new audience member seeing a remake might inspire them to check out the original and enjoy it the same way you did.

That's the objective analysis. My subjective reaction to remakes is still to whine about them. For one, the career of a performer or filmmaker is very short and fragile. Any time or expense they were putting into a remake could have been put into some original project instead. And it bugs me when movies are updated but nobody really made the effort to make it fresh or interesting. If you're not going to do anything different with the plot or dialogue or cinematography, why am I bothering to watch when I could just go back to the original? And I get worried that a younger audience will allow an inferior remake to become imprinted on them because it was the first one they watched, and then reject a superior original because maybe the effects aren't good enough or the cuts aren't fast enough for their modern taste.

Horror isn't really my thing, so I'm biased against being moved too much either way about remakes. Plus I tend to have enjoyed really lousy ‘80s horror like Rawhead Rex and Critters. Remake those if you want, I'll still hold on to my memories.

Kim Hollis: Generally, I don’t mind remakes, but I’ve been really grumpy about this Evil Dead remake. I admit that I was in a very different place when the first film was released 30-some odd years ago. I loved horror movies then and I probably watched The Evil Dead (1981) more than a dozen times. I just can’t watch the realistic horror of the 21st century. It troubles me.

Continued:       1       2