Well Horror Fiends, in the kicked-up dust from the successful "Dawn of the
Dead" ('04), the studios have made it abundantly clear that re-hashing the
past is a more solid bet than wasting time thinking of original ideas. The
latest 're-imagining' comes from the top; seems that Steven Spielberg and
Tom Cruise plan on teaming up for a remake of "War of the Worlds",
originally made in 1953. I should also mention that LOTR wunderkind Peter
Jackson plans on remaking "King Kong"...uh, great...
Other new films are taking themes from movies/literature and making movies
out of them ("Van Helsing"). Yet other ideas come from comic books, video
games (YEECH!), and even thrill rides! I've got nothing against these
endeavors in general; it's just that they seem to be dominating the
cinematic landscape at a time when horror really needs some original ideas.
I think "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Sixth Sense" were a good place to
start back in '99, but we've since seen an awful lot of non-originals
lately.
Just for the fun of it, I perused the last 3 issues of Fangoria and tallied
up the source material for each project, wondering just how many were taken
by original screenplays as compared to various other source material. Here
we go:
Cinematic Cover Tunes: "Dawn of the Dead" ('04; remake of Romero's '78
film), "2001 Maniacs" ('04; remake of the famous cult hit directed by HGL),
"House of Wax" (remake of the Vincent Price 3-D classic), "The Grudge",
"Dark Water", "The Amityville Horror", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "The
Haunting", "The Toolbox Murders", "Willard", "Salems' Lot" (TV)
Total: 11
From Literature/Movies/Rides/Games: "Van Helsing" ('04), "Alien vs.
Predator" ('04), "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Haunted Mansion", LOTR
series, "Alone in the Dark", "King of the Ants", "Dreamcatcher", "Spider",
"House of the Dead", "The Secret Window", "The Punisher", "Bubba-Ho-Tep",
"Kingdom Hospital" (TV)
Total: 14
From Comic Books: "Hellboy", "Spider-Man 2", "Man-Thing", "X-Men" series,
"The Hulk", "The Matrix", "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"
Total: 7
Sequelitis: "Blade: Trinity" , "Exorcist: The Beginning" , "Godzilla: Final
Wars" , "The Ring 2", "Anacondas" (Say it 'aint so!), "Resident Evil:
Apocalypse", "Seed of Chucky", "Ginger Snaps 2 & 3", "House of 1,000 Corpses
2: The Devil's Rejects", "Starship Troopers 2", "Final Destination 2",
"Beyond Re-Animator", "Freddy vs. Jason", "Jeepers Creepers 2", "T3"
Total: 16
Hey! Originals!: "Open Water", "The Village", "Godsend", "Darkness",
"Mindhunters" (Renny Harlin), "Cursed" (Wes Craven), "Underworld", "Darkness
Falls", "Final Destination", "Cabin Fever", "Wrong Turn", "28 Days Later",
"Identity", "Frailty", "May", "Sangre Eterna", "Love Object"
Total: 17
As you can see, original ideas wins with 17 entries, however if you add up
the other categories which were remakes or taken from pre-existing material,
they outnumber original material by far. Most big-studio movies are so
expensive to produce nowadays that companies feel they need a foundation of
familiarity among the moviegoing public for big money to be spent on most
projects. Sorry it had to come to this. Maybe some day soon we will see a
big studio collapse (like in the '60s/'70s), where horror-minded indies like
American International Pictures can take root & grow. Only time will tell!
"Oddservations" is ©2004 by Andy Lalino. The Oddservations banner is a creation of Andy Lalino. All other graphics (unless otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2004 by Nolan B. Canova.
Now in our fifth calendar year
