I’ll be the first to say that a remake of “Night of the Demons” is pointless. While it is considered a mild classic among horror geeks who remember the video age, that’s about as far as we can go from calling it a classic. It’s a fun party movie. This inane 2010 remake is more brand name exploitation than a remake. Sure it’s called “Night of the Demons,” and features some rather forgettable nods to the original (Diora Baird does a memorable variation of the lipstick-nipple scene, though), but it’s not entirely a remake. In the end though even admirers of the original 1988 horror film (all five of you!) may be able to gladly place this as a companion piece to the original and have some fun with its eighties trash horror comedy style that is never afraid to poke fun at itself but is also never above creeping the audience in to submission.
Tag Archives: Remake
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Much like almost every horror fan out there, I’ve seen “Night of the Living Dead,” and had my cherry busted by it when I was five. Since being in the public domain, Romero’s movie has been open to many, many re-workings, one of which occurred in 1990 when his protégé Tom Savini got the wild idea to remake “Night of the Living Dead,” and you know what? It wasn’t bad. In fact his remake stands as one of the better remakes of a Romero film to date, and Savini enlists much of the same dread and horror and instills it with a bleak tone of greens and dark blues to invoke a film that’s quite gritty, bleak, and hopeless even in spite of changing a lot of character actions and increasing the tension. It also helps that he enlists the talents of special effects guru Gregory Nicotero to turn the walking dead in to shambling harbingers of death that I still have difficulty looking at to this day. The song is almost like what you’ve heard in the original.
Mike Schneider Gets "ReAnimated" with "Night of the Living Dead"
The latest iteration of “Night of the Living Dead” is not a remake, but a re-visioning, the same classic zombie film from George A. Romero except seen through the eyes of dozens of graphic artists, animators, and the like, all of whom have come together to form a moving painting and ode to George A. Romero and his lasting legacy of a zombie epic involving a group of mismatched survivors in a farmhouse one fateful night trapped wall to wall with the walking dead anxious to feast on their flesh and guts. Combing the talents of many people, Mike Schneider is an artist and curator who speaks about this latest project that brings a new dimension to Romero’s film.
Night of the Living Dead: ReAnimated (1968) (DVD)
Since George A. Romero’s seminal 1968 independent horror film was released without a copyright, the horror classic we know as “Night of the Living Dead” has been in the public domain for literal decades. Since then it’s been remade, re-released, re-dubbed, re-edited, restored, colored, chopped, extended, spoofed, satirized, animated, prequelized, sequelized, novelized, sampled, and so on ad nauseum. Much to Romero’s chagrin, “Night of the Living Dead” has been the Mr. Potato Head of the horror world upon which independent film directors can switch and mix without worry of a lawsuit.
Clash of the Titans (2010): Combo Pack Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital
It should have been a no-brainer. A Greek myth about a hero being called upon to battle the gods while also fighting with various creatures is a concept begging to be made in to an amazing movie. “Clash of the Titans” is the Harryhausen movie that fans continue to love but also secretly wanted to see remade… only for a curiosity. We wanted to know what it would look like, but we didn’t want it to happen. And then we were given the bright idea by Warner to not only remake the Harryhausen opus but turn it in to a franchise.
Galaxy Quest (1999)
In the late nineties, Tim Allen was pretty much at the top of his comedy game. The man was ending a long run on one of the most beloved family sitcoms of the nineties, he was known as the iconic Buzz Lightyear thanks to starring in one of the most revolutionary Disney films of all time, and he was appearing in anything he could get his hands on. One of the more adult related titles he starred in managed to be one of his highest grossing yet low key film to date that signaled an inevitable slump in his film career. But in spite of that descent in to becoming a third rate comedy star bouncing crotch shots off of a bloated brother of a comedy legend, “Galaxy Quest” is one of Allen’s most entertaining films, and continues to be a favorite of mine years subsequent its release in theaters. “Galaxy Quest” is a fantastic science fiction comedy, sure, but many years since its release, it’s managed to be a rotating title on my short list of absolute favorite films.
The Last House on the Left (2009)
Let me preface this review by declaring my sheer utter hatred for Wes Craven’s original “The Last House on the Left.” I don’t care how influential it is or has become, since watching it about four years ago I couldn’t believe my eyes. Here within this seventies grindhouse flick was a truly nihilistic gem hidden beneath an utterly ridiculous sub-plot involving two of the dumbest cops I’ve ever seen. “The Last House on the Left” in spite of its impact on cult filmmaking is one of the worst movies I’ve ever laid eyes on. So with that did I support a remake of it? No. Why? Because for one thing, Craven ripped off “The Virgin Spring” with his film, so it was a remake already, and two this could have been its own film without the tag. Nevertheless with its great cast and atmosphere I approached this with an open mind and guess what? I loved it.