‘Rollerball’ Turned a 1970s Cult Classic into an Early 2000s Studio Disaster [Revenge of the Remakes]

In life, spewing hate comes easy; finding the good takes effort. That’s my mantra for “Revenge of the Remakes.” Get dirty and identify value where others hastily — maybe unfairly — laid harsh criticisms. Any remake, in any genre, faces biased outrage from peanut galleries who refuse to remove their nostalgia goggles. It’s easy to […]

The post ‘Rollerball’ Turned a 1970s Cult Classic into an Early 2000s Studio Disaster [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘Cube’ – Surviving the Canadian Original and Its Japanese Remake [Revenge of the Remakes]

I’m thirty-plus entries into Revenge of the Remakes and have finally reached an original/remake pair where neither is American. Vincenzo Natali’s Cube (1997) is a maple-scented product of Canada’s independent filmmaking scene, while Yasuhiko Shimizu’s 2021 remake hails from Japan. You’re free of rants about stale Americanizations and Hollywood’s sometimes shortsighted approach to horror remakes. […]

The post ‘Cube’ – Surviving the Canadian Original and Its Japanese Remake [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


How ‘The Crazies’ Reinterprets a Romero Classic for a New Generation [Revenge of the Remakes]

There’s a solid chance this month’s edition of “Revenge of the Remakes” ends up as one of my favorite column entries. George A. Romero’s The Crazies and Breck Eisner’s The Crazies inspire an exceptional case study about the peaceful coexistence between remakes and originals. Both filmmakers choose unique perspectives when dooming small-town America, even though […]

The post How ‘The Crazies’ Reinterprets a Romero Classic for a New Generation [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


Sadako vs. Samara – Why ‘The Ring’ Is Terrifying in Either Language [Revenge of the Remakes]

Gore Verbinski’s The Ring led the first wave of early 2000s horror remakes that partially defined the era’s landscape alongside Saw torture-porners and other reactionary post-9/11 subgenres. Granted, remakes have always been a foundational pillar that keeps horror reinventing itself decade after decade — but the 2000s were different. Production companies like Platinum Dunes and […]

The post Sadako vs. Samara – Why ‘The Ring’ Is Terrifying in Either Language [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


How the ‘Mother’s Day’ Remake Properly Updates a Low-Budget Troma Film from the 1980s

No Troma remake should attempt to match Troma at its revolting, boundary-demolishing, trigger-happy game. Take 1980’s Mother’s Day, for example. Troma Entertainment ringleader Lloyd Kaufman let his brother Charles Kaufman shoot a rape-revenge exploitation sleazefest no mamma would applaud. Darren Lynn Bousman’s 2010 remake abandons Tromaville signatures almost entirely for a mean-mugging reinterpretation rooted in […]

The post How the ‘Mother’s Day’ Remake Properly Updates a Low-Budget Troma Film from the 1980s appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘Funny Games’ vs. ‘Funny Games’ – One of the Most Curious Remake Experiments of Them All

Watching two Michael Haneke features back-to-back doesn’t sound all that outrageous, right? What if they’re Funny Games (1997) and Funny Games (2007)? You start with one of the more disturbing flicks in Criterion’s closet, then immediately follow it with an American shot-for-shot remake that relives the same nightmare. My inner masochist couldn’t skip on tackling […]

The post ‘Funny Games’ vs. ‘Funny Games’ – One of the Most Curious Remake Experiments of Them All appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


Why Fede Álvarez’s ‘Evil Dead’ Is a Gonzo and Gore-Soaked All-Timer

To credit Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead as the motivating force behind “Revenge of the Remakes” wouldn’t be an audacious claim. By golden template standards for reanimating beloved horror franchises, it remains a remarkable exemplification alongside titans like Maniac or The Blob. As an underworldly standalone feature, it’s one of the fiercest, scare-you-senseless releases since its […]

The post Why Fede Álvarez’s ‘Evil Dead’ Is a Gonzo and Gore-Soaked All-Timer appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘The Wizard of Gore’ – Only Crispin Glover Shines in 2007’s Herschell Gordon Lewis Update [Revenge of the Remakes]

To say Herschell Gordon Lewis‘ and Jeremy Kasten‘s respective The Wizard of Gore releases pushed me to my limits is correct for all the wrong reasons. My choice to stack the 1970 original and 2007 remake back-to-back stands as one of my least favorite Revenge of the Remakes double-bills thus far. I’ve no objection to […]

The post ‘The Wizard of Gore’ – Only Crispin Glover Shines in 2007’s Herschell Gordon Lewis Update [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘Willard’ – An Inferior Remake Despite the Dream Casting of Crispin Glover [Revenge of the Remakes]

The producers of 2003’s Willard chose to nix “remake” from the film’s marketing vocabulary, but 2003’s Willard adaptation is irrefutably a remake of 1971’s furry social outcast chiller. At the forefront of 2000s remake trends, Glen Morgan‘s Willard features altered themes and a deeper thirst for suspense, going the “darker and grittier” route displayed by […]

The post ‘Willard’ – An Inferior Remake Despite the Dream Casting of Crispin Glover [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘Halloween’ – How Rob Zombie Made a Horror Classic Entirely His Own [Revenge of the Remakes]

In discussions about slasher infamy, all roads lead to Haddonfield. The Halloween franchise has amassed a convoluted franchise canon since the late 1970s, filled with retcons and redos as recently as Halloween Ends — including Rob Zombie‘s universally divisive 2007 remake. Countless horror screenwriters, including Josh Stolberg (no stranger to “Revenge of the Remakes”), attempted […]

The post ‘Halloween’ – How Rob Zombie Made a Horror Classic Entirely His Own [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘Goodnight Mommy’ – The Kind of Remake That Gives Remakes a Bad Name [Revenge of the Remakes]

Anyone who’s kept pace with “Revenge of the Remakes” here on Bloody Disgusting knows I’m a rather outspoken advocate for horror remakes. They’re inevitable, serve multiple purposes, and aren’t the poison to filmmaking culture some claim. That said? Matt Sobel’s American remake of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s Goodnight Mommy exemplifies everything you hate to […]

The post ‘Goodnight Mommy’ – The Kind of Remake That Gives Remakes a Bad Name [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘The House on Sorority Row’ and ‘Sorority Row’ Fulfill Different Horror Cravings [Revenge of the Remakes]

Mark Rosman‘s The House on Sorority Row (1982) and Stewart Hendler‘s Sorority Row (2009) feel shoved aside in their respective horror classes. Titles like Pieces, Black Christmas, and The Dorm That Dripped Blood get more frequent mentions when discussing pre-90s sorority or dormitory slashers. Remake debates rarely include Sorority Row in their reassessments of unfairly […]

The post ‘The House on Sorority Row’ and ‘Sorority Row’ Fulfill Different Horror Cravings [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘The Hills Have Eyes’ Took a Horror Classic and Made It Even Better [Revenge of the Remakes]

Wes Craven‘s The Hills Have Eyes is a seminal “Sunny Scary” horror flick renowned for its cannibalistic hilltop clan, but it certainly presents as one of Craven’s earliest works. The sorely missed master of horror went on to hone his craft as a writer and director, tidying visions and coaxing stronger performances. Craven’s 1977 The […]

The post ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ Took a Horror Classic and Made It Even Better [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


‘Fright Night’: A Remake So Good It May Outshine the Original Classic [Revenge of the Remakes]

Tom Holland‘s Fright Night has cemented itself as a crucial pillar in ’80s vampire canon. There’s an embrace of bloodsucker mythologies in addition to cheeky commentaries about how vamps are perceived in the media (using the character of Peter Vincent). It’s a tale as old as Dracula between eternal lust and pointed fangs that sometimes […]

The post ‘Fright Night’: A Remake So Good It May Outshine the Original Classic [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading


How ‘Firestarter’ Fails to Clear Even a Low Bar for Stephen King Adaptations [Revenge of the Remakes]

There’s a thin, blurry line between remake and adaptation. Keith Thomas’ Firestarter is both an adaptation of Stephen King‘s incendiary novel and a remake of Mark L. Lester‘s 1984 adaptation with the same name. Any crossover depends on how screenwriters take creative liberties with King’s source or how strictly each title follows the horror author’s […]

The post How ‘Firestarter’ Fails to Clear Even a Low Bar for Stephen King Adaptations [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Continue reading