It's Deja Vu All Over Again

It's no secret that horror remakes (or any remakes at all) rarely deliver the goods. Fan outrage, CGI weariness, and confusing retconning have ruined more than one classic slasher flick, to say nothing of all the lovably cheesy haunted house films of the 50s and 60s. We could blame the studio system for this, but in reality, the reason these remakes get made lies with us. Maybe not the core horror community, but certainly the movie-going public at large.

There are three solid reasons why horror remakes don't live up to the original. The first is that it's near-impossible to make the hardcore fans happy. Even if the new film was good, it would get torn apart because the director who created the story wasn't involved. We all know that the Star Wars prequels were gigantic wastes of celluloid, but prior to the release of The Phantom Menace, anticipation was huge. Do you think the fanboys would have been anywhere close to that excited if Lucas wasn't at the helm? A good remake is a rare and wonderful thing, but there will always be enough nerds around to convince us that it's not as good as the first one. And they're almost always right.

Knife To The Eye, I Love That Bit

It's a great time to be a fan of horror comics. While things are still hit-or-miss at the movie theater, those of us who read the funnies are being treated to some of the most entertaining, disgusting, and inventive creepfests since before the Code cracked down on the genre back in the 1950s. Mike Mignola has been expanding his Hellboy universe, Batman is getting back to his Gothic roots, and all kinds of new characters and stories are invading the comic shops. When Marvel makes Spider-Man a flesh-hungry monster who's eaten his Aunt May, it's difficult to wonder how things can get much better. Of course, those mentioned above are well-established heroes with respectable fanbases either receiving a fresh bloody twist or just getting deeper into their weird world. Where's the truly original stuff?