The Best Horror Remakes

People like to bitch and moan about remakes coming out, but sometimes a remake is beneficial. It can take what was an okay or decent film and expand on it, and thus achieve something that most purists would say is impossible and achieve a status of "better than the original".

This doesn't happen often, but trust me it has happened.

Here's a list of the best horror movie remakes.

The Fly

Cronenberg tackles this remake of the 1958 film of the same name, and he delivers. Who doesn't love Jeff Goldblum? With the gore and effects turned up to 11 it really makes this film memorable. The flick has an incredibly well crafted screenplay with awesome performances. The Blu-ray is available from amazon for less than $10, if you like horror flicks (and why wouldn't you if you're reading this blog) you should buy this.

The Hills Have Eyes

If you've seen the original Wes Craven flick, it hasn't aged like wine. The Alex Aja remake is visually much more interesting to look at, while still being faithful to the original's story. The effects are better and the story is more coherent with the modern day retelling. A great flick, and an excellent sophomore effort from Aja. Plus it's only $7 on amazon: The Hills Have Eyes (Unrated Edition)

The Blob


Written by Frank Darabont (Does he really need an introduction on a horror blog?) this is WAYYY better than the original. The actual blob itself looks great (when compared to the original) and the creative deaths in it make it a god tier remake. And only $6 on Amazon.The Blob

Peep the trailer here for a look.

The Crazies


We've already established that I love Timothy Olyphant, he is as I said in a comment this generations Clint Eastwood, and he doesn't short change in channeling Clint for his performance in The Crazies. If you've seen Romero's original you know it's cheesy and ridiculous, and the remake is SCARY. I don't say that a lot, but this flick is very unnerving. There aren't a lot of zombie flicks made in "small towns" like this one, and it portrays (in my opinion) how it would all go down in a rural town. The Bluray is actually 50 cents cheaper than DVD on amazon.


Piranha 3D

Alex Aja gets the honor of being the only one to make two flicks on this list. The original Piranha is not scary, and all footage of the fish is stock footage (probably used in a documentary on the amazon). Now the remake pays tribute to the original in that it's very silly campy nature for most of the flick but gore and deaths are AWESOME (and you've probably heard of the underwater naked ballet scene, that should be enough to peek your interest). Piranha [Blu-ray], come for the boobs, stay for the gore, kills and Christopher Lloyd.

And the best horror remake?

The Thing.

Did you really expect something else? Carpenter took a cheesy scifi movie and turned it into one of the best horror movies of all time. The special effects in this movie are practical effects at their absolute finest. Wonderful wonderful movie, I can't say anything else about this movie that hasn't already been said except that you need to watch it.