When iconic horror flicks have been stylishly revisited!
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00:00As a sub-genre, the slasher fix which rose to prominence over the last 40 or so years
00:05have provided us with some of the best-loved horror movies of all time.
00:08In the 2000s, we have seen a significant number of remakes and reboots
00:13of some of the finest slasher movies ever made.
00:15So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture,
00:19here with the 10 best slasher horror movie remakes of all time.
00:23Number 10. Sorority Row
00:25A remake based on the house on Sorority Row,
00:28which told the story of a group of sorority sisters
00:31whose prank on the owner of the house they live in goes horribly wrong when she ends up dead.
00:36The girls decide to hide the body and cover up the disaster,
00:39only to be stalked and killed at their graduation party by someone who knows their secret.
00:44Sorority Row was directed by Stuart Hendler
00:46and expands on the premise of the original with a new backstory and prank gone wrong
00:51that ends the same way,
00:53before time-jumping eight months to the bloodbath graduation party.
00:56The movie clearly takes influence from I Know What You Did Last Summer,
01:00although that film itself undoubtedly owes a lot to the house on Sorority Row.
01:04There is a trashy blend of the 80s and 90s era to the movie,
01:08which unashamedly throws every sorority house cliche you can think of at the viewer.
01:13With plenty of sexual undertones,
01:15some pretty gruesome kills,
01:16and a whodunit vibe to the narrative
01:18that keeps you wondering who or what the killer is through to the reveal of the final act,
01:23this all combines to make Sorority Row an enjoyable modern popcorn slasher.
01:28Number 9. The Hitcher
01:30The Hitchhiker was an 80s cult classic
01:33that told the simple story of a young man driving across America
01:36who makes the mistake of his life when he picks up a psychopathic hitchhiker,
01:41superbly played by the sinister Rutger Hauer in one of his greatest roles.
01:45The 2007 remake was directed by music video specialist Dave Myers
01:50and produced by Michael Bay
01:51and places Sean Bean into the role of the hitchhiking serial killer,
01:56who this time terrorises Zachary Knighton's Jim and his girlfriend Grace
02:00in another thriller that hits the spot in just the same way the original did.
02:04The couple innocently help Bean's character out
02:07as he has seemingly broken down on a rainy night,
02:09but he soon shows his true colours
02:11and their horror begins as he pulls out a switchblade
02:14and holds it to Grace's eye.
02:16The inclusion of Grace adds an interesting dynamic to the remake
02:19and the movie faithfully recreates many of the key scenes from the original
02:23in what is a fast-paced and highly engaging movie.
02:27Number 8. Maniac
02:28Maniac was a dark and gritty, low-budget slasher movie
02:32directed by William Lustig,
02:34which told the story of Frank Zito,
02:36a psychopath who stalks the streets of New York at night.
02:40Frank spends his time killing and mutilating young women
02:42by scalping their corpses and displaying their hair on mannequins around his apartment.
02:47Achieving somewhat of a cult status,
02:50the macabre and visceral film was given a fresh remake in 2012
02:54starring Elijah Wood as Frank
02:56in what is unquestionably his most disturbing role.
03:00Much of the movie is shot from Frank's point of view
03:02with a demented voiceover
03:04as we see what he sees and hear what he's thinking.
03:07He is a calculated murderer who kills without remorse.
03:10The movie stands out for its sequences of fantasy
03:13as in his imagination,
03:14Frank's mannequins come alive
03:16and take on the personas of the women he has killed
03:18and whose hair they are wearing.
03:20With an 80s synth-heavy score,
03:22this is a remake which stylistically acts
03:24as a fine companion piece to the original.
03:27Number 7. Friday the 13th
03:29Friday the 13th was created to capitalise
03:32on the success of Halloween
03:33and audiences' fresh appetite for slasher flicks.
03:36It introduced the lore of Jason Voorhees,
03:39a child seemingly allowed to drown
03:41by counsellors at Camp Crystal Lake.
03:44It is a movie in which Jason's mother Pamela
03:46takes revenge on those she blames
03:48before she is beheaded in the final scene.
03:50From here the sequel snowballed
03:52into a long series of trashy movies
03:54before this 2009 Michael Bay-produced remake arrived,
03:58turning out to be a highly satisfying reboot,
04:01following the series having slowly hit rock bottom.
04:04Condensing the Pamela Voorhees storyline
04:06solely to the introduction,
04:08the redo jumps straight into Jason
04:10wearing a sack over his head,
04:11an homage to Part 2,
04:13and dispatching a group of young adults
04:15camping out in the woods.
04:16As might be expected,
04:17Jason soon attacks everyone,
04:19while also finding his trademark ice hockey mask
04:21in a movie which interestingly ties together
04:24different parts of the original franchise.
04:27Number 6. House of Wax
04:29House of Wax is a classic Warner Brothers horror,
04:31starring the legendary Vincent Price
04:33as a wax sculptor
04:35who specialises in creating historical figures.
04:38The film itself was a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum
04:41and it took another 52 years
04:43for the newest version to arrive.
04:45Loosely based on themes introduced
04:47in the original's narrative,
04:48the remake takes a fresh approach to the storyline.
04:51Here, the 2005 picture introduces
04:53a group of young adults
04:55who come across a strange and virtually deserted town
04:58after their car breaks down on a road trip.
05:00The film unashamedly wears the influences
05:02of both Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
05:05firmly on its sleeve
05:06and features some highly inventive
05:08and gruesome kill sequences.
05:10Number 5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
05:13When writer and director Tobey Hooper
05:15unleashed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
05:17he changed the horror scene forever.
05:19He created the most violent and realistic
05:21slasher movie audiences had seen at the time,
05:24a deeply dark film which was seeped in controversy
05:27and a disturbing and difficult watch for many.
05:30Inspired by the true crime events
05:31of serial killer Ed Gein,
05:33a cannibal who skinned his victims
05:35to create masks and other grotesque objects,
05:37The Texas Chainsaw Massacre introduced us
05:39to the demented, power-tool-wielding Leatherface,
05:42one of cinema's most horrifying maniacs.
05:45Producer Michael Bay rebooted the classic film in 2003
05:49with director Marcus Nispel at the helm.
05:52The remake pays homage
05:53to many of the original movie's key scenes,
05:56whilst also writing in many new scenes and story arcs,
05:59bringing a fresh feel to the story
06:00which enhances the viewing experience.
06:03But like its predecessor,
06:04this remains one slasher film
06:06that is certainly not for the faint-hearted.
06:08Number 4. Halloween
06:09John Carpenter's Halloween
06:11was certainly not the first slasher flick
06:13to hit our screens.
06:15However, it is one of the most important,
06:17as Halloween reinvigorated the slasher sub-genre
06:20and would go on to inspire a new generation of filmmakers
06:23in the following decades who would create a host of iconic movies
06:27influenced by this masterpiece.
06:29Halloween introduced one of the legendary slasher antagonists
06:32in Michael Myers and itself also became
06:35one of the most prominent franchises in horror
06:37with a whole host of sequels
06:39that ran throughout the following decades.
06:42In 2007, Rob Zombie,
06:44the industrial heavy metal shock rocker-turned-music video
06:47and horror filmmaker delivered his fresh reboot on the story
06:51and took the franchise back to the very beginning with his remake.
06:55Zombie's interpretation certainly split the fickle Halloween fanbase,
06:59but the final part,
07:00which mirrors and pays respectful homage to the original film,
07:03is unquestionably a superb recreation.
07:07Number 3. Child's Play
07:08Child's Play introduced us to the murderous children's toy Chucky,
07:13the infamous doll possessed by the evil spirit
07:15of a serial killer by way of voodoo.
07:17Child's Play would of course go on to become
07:19one of the best love franchises in horror,
07:22perfectly blending a dark humour into its narrative.
07:25Quality-wise, the series has, for the most part,
07:27remained relatively consistent
07:29throughout the majority of its sequels.
07:31In what is the most recent remake
07:33from the key franchises of modern horror,
07:352019's Child's Play is also one of the best,
07:39looking carefully at what worked well in the early films
07:42and blending into a new story.
07:43This redo modernised the original premise for a current market,
07:47with Chucky being able to log into the cloud of its owner's home
07:51and connect to all of their online devices.
07:53The humour runs deep again throughout this movie,
07:56and the story provides intrigue
07:57as we watch Chucky slowly evolve
07:59from a playful butter-woodent-melt doll
08:01into the murderous killer we know he's going to become.
08:04Number 2. A Nightmare on Elm Street
08:06A Nightmare on Elm Street really needs little introduction.
08:10It was a visionary movie created by one of horror's true masters
08:14in Wes Craven, which turned the genre on its head
08:17when it dropped in the mid-80s.
08:19It introduced us to the ultimate horror icon
08:21in the child-murdering dream demon Freddy Krueger,
08:24who was played exquisitely by Robert England.
08:26The franchise would go on to deliver
08:28one of the finest horror sequels of all time with Dream Warriors,
08:31before slowly descending in quality,
08:33with Krueger becoming a parody
08:35of the pure evil character he once was.
08:37The 2010 remake is a polarising film for sure,
08:41with many original fans of the classic 80s era
08:43immediately turned off by the thought
08:45of anyone other than England
08:46applying the grotesque burn make-up
08:48and knife-fingered glove of Krueger.
08:50But the reality is that Jackie Earl Haley does a fine job.
08:54His performance takes Freddy back
08:56to the very darkest side of the character,
08:58with the movie overall devoid
08:59of the unpopular direction of humour
09:01that we saw in the likes of Freddy's Dead,
09:03to the final nightmare.
09:04Paying a dark and gritty homage to the early films
09:07and with many faithful recreations
09:09of some of the most iconic kill sequences,
09:11this is a remake which was on a hiding to nothing
09:14with what it had to live up to,
09:15but is actually a far better film
09:17than many give it credit for.
09:191. Psycho
09:20To name Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
09:22as the most important film in the origins
09:24of the slasher genre as we would come to know it
09:27in the decades to come,
09:28would be no understatement.
09:30The legendary director shocked audiences at the time
09:33with the murderous themes in the movie
09:35and with the pacing and twists within the narrative.
09:37And its influence on horror and thriller films
09:40is evident throughout virtually every scene.
09:43In 1998, visionary director Gus Van Sant
09:45was tasked with remaking the original
09:48and controversially delivered a film
09:50which virtually mirrors Hitchcock's classic
09:52scene for scene and line for line.
09:54He recreated one of the finest thriller movies
09:56of all time with an intriguing new generation
09:58of actors in a film which this time
10:01presented in colour would appeal
10:03to a newer 90s audience.
10:05Faithfully adapting Psycho in this way
10:07and paying testament to a near-perfect film
10:09is a move that either makes total sense
10:11or seems like a big waste of time,
10:13depending on how you look at it.
10:15And that concludes our list.
10:16If you think we missed any,
10:17then do let us know in the comments below.
10:19And while you're there,
10:19don't forget to like and subscribe
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10:23Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there,
10:24and I can be found across various social medias
10:26just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
10:28I've been Ellie with WhatCulture.
10:30I hope you have a magical day
10:32and I'll see you real soon.