HOLLYWOOD—Oh, Hollywood when will you learn that sometimes a movie is a classic for a reason! There has been so much talk lately about the plethora of remakes that has transpired. First and foremost, just about any horror flick made in the 70s or 80s has had a remake people. There is just too many to go thru the list, just watch “Scream 4” and you will know exactly what I’m talking about. You have animated flicks getting the live version approach, which is another word for a remake in an attempt to “woo new audiences” as Hollywood coins.
The controversy with “The Little Mermaid” I don’t get and people need to get over it. It is all about race, people think Ariel should be White, but guess what, who the hell knows what the hell a mermaid looks like? So all the haters out there with the remake with Halle Bailey need to get over it. I’m going to give you an example just how bad remakes have gotten. We have 3, and I mean 3 versions of the horror flick “Halloween.” We have John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, the 2007 remake helmed by Rob Zombie and then we have the 2018 version which is a remake/sequel helmed by David Gordon Green. Guess what; they are all titled “Halloween.”
You then have the 1996 flick “Scream” and its remake/sequel from 2022 “Scream.” I wish we could just call the 2022 version “Scream 5” to prevent any confusion. “Planet of the Apes,” “The Italian Job,” “Psycho,” “The Lion King,” “The Jungle Book,” “Sabrina,” if you name a classic, there is a very likelihood that it has been remade people. That is the problem. Why? You cannot outdo a classic, so the notion of a remake is just absurd. Do you know why? So many remakes aim to capture those iconic moments from the original.
As a movie buff, I don’t want to see a movie that I already saw in a modernized version. I would just go and watch the original. There is a reason it’s deemed a classic; because it delivers a level of nostalgia that you cannot get with the remake. I mean “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” the 2010 version which was an absolute mess, tried to create that iconic bathtub scene, not to mention that staircase scene that Heather Langenkamp made iconic with a modernized version that just didn’t work.
If you’re going to remake a classic, the key is to elevate the movie by giving the audience something they haven’t seen before because it shakes the viewer to the core. They are caught off guard they are not expecting it. I do not want to see a copy and paste of a movie that came out years before. For example, it will be a travesty if someone attempted a remake with “The Godfather,” “Alien” or “Casablanca” or something epic like “Saving Private Ryan.”
Hell, I’m still livid we’re getting a remake/sequel of the 70s classic “The Exorcist.” Hollywood will keep churning out the remakes as long as the public consumes them up. In honesty, we’re in a world where I expect to see remakes of remakes real soon because once a trend begins in Hollywood it is never-ending, and that is quite scary to say the least. With the introduction of AI, and people using it for writing, there is only a matter of time before full-blown scripts are generated with subtle slices from the originals.
I know there is plenty of creativity out there; perhaps this writer’s strike is just what is needed to force Hollywood to consider another approach when it comes to movie making and original content. You can only churn out the same thing so much before people say enough already. Just look at “Fast X” as an example. It might be a sequel, but give it 10 years, and we’re seeing a remake of that classic flick in the first franchise very soon.
