Soon to hit theaters is Invasion,starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig as two of the last people on earth who have not become unwilling hosts to an alien lifeform that takes over folks while they sleep and morphs them into unemotional drones. Sounds familar,doesn't it? It should,since it's yet another remake of the taken-for-granted classic,Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The remake trend in Hollywood has really gotten tiresome and in the horror/sci fi genre,it's becoming more lethal to creativity than a roving pack of rabid wolves. Almost worse than a slew of sloppy sequels and torture porn flicks(not by much),the needless updated versions of films that were done right the first time are killing the already suspect tastebuds of scary movie lovers everywhere.
I'm not saying that all remakes are unnecessary,but some just seem to be done just for the sake of doing them(not to mention a safe bet in terms of raking in the do-re-mi at the boxoffice). If you really want to remake a movie,you should ask yourself"Why? Do I truly have a new take on this story or can I just make the special effects look cooler than the original?"
Take a look at these trailers for the previous and current version of Body Snatchers,folks. Do you see any signs of progress here? Which one would you want to check out on a Saturday night?
DIG THOSE CRAZY FIFTIES!
SOMETHING EVEN MORE FRIGHTENING THAN THE FASHIONS IN THE SEVENTIES
NEW MILLENIUM,SAME OLD SPOOK SHOW
I'm more conflicted about Rob Zombie's upcoming remake of Halloween,which will be out by Labor Day weekend( quite the back to school movie there!). I liked The Devil's Rejects quite a bit (maybe not as much as Stephen King did) and the retro grindhouse look that he's giving to the new Halloween appears to be a true reinvention of the film but in the back of my mind,there's still that nagging voice that says"Come on,Rob! You don't need to go down the remake trail!"
Maybe I'm being too picky about this. Yet,I don't think that I am the only one who groans during the trailers as another all-too-familar storyline is trotted out,all dressed up in some fancy new clothes trying to charm me out of some money and time that could be better spent supporting someone with a fresh voice who really needs an audience to keep his/her career afloat.
Here's another trailer compare and contrast,for your amusement:
ROB'S NEW RIFF
CARPENTER'S CLASSIC CUT-UP
3 comments:
I knew Invasion seemed familiar. My husband pointed out that it was a remake. I never saw the original but I heard it was pretty good.
The original rocks and the 1978 version has some good creepy moments but I think this story has been pretty much done to death already.
I actually consider all 3 previous body snatchers movies to be horror classics (The original, the 1978 version and Abel Ferrara's 1993 Body Snatchers). So I'm wondering if the new remake can live up to the previous incarnations. Hopefully it will.
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