Horror remakes and sequels

Horror and thriller films have a terrible habit of rising from the dead and coming back to haunt us as sequels and remakes are constantly floating in and out of the cinema.

It’s enough to make you scream really…not the content but, the concept; it seems sometimes that filmmakers just don’t know when enough is enough and when a horror or thriller should be laid to rest.

So what am I talking about exactly? Well, let’s take the SAW series for our first example.

When SAW was released in 2004 it took everyone by storm; everyone was talking about it as they were both repulsed and intrigued by the idea of it. When Saw II and III came out in 2005 and 2006, we all wanted to see how the gore could progress…naturally. Then SAW IV hit our screens in 2007 and it started to feel like the series was being stretched a bit too far, although this sequel did give us an insight into the methods behind the madness. When SAW V was announced, it all started to seem a bit ridiculous; Jigsaw and his accomplice were both dead so where could the story possibly go now? Well the studios managed to push it even further and I have no doubt we haven’t seen the last of the SAW sequels yet.

In 2007 we witnessed the train crash that was psycho Michael Myers gracing our screens once again in the remake of Halloween and now we are facing another possible remake gone wrong as Friday the 13th brings Jason back to the cinema next month (though I’ll reserve judgement on this one…for now) and we have just been enlightened with the re-imagining of My Bloody Valentine in 3D, which was just laughable as a slasher horror.

Sometimes the remakes work but, they really are in the minority. The Ring (2002) was a decent remake of the 1998 Japanese original and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) was a gripping rehashing of the original 1974 version (though I’m sure critics would argue the original is better) but, these really are lost amongst the majority of poor remakes and sequels.

Horror’s and thriller’s are usually really good the first time around, we can just look at the Hammer Horror classics to see that but, the problem is that all too often they get overdone and then the audience gets bored. We’re in a modern age now and so we need modern horror films with the ability to scare us, it’s just no good rehashing all the old stuff because we’ve seen it all before.