As a rule, I hate remakes of things. Especially classic films of outstanding quality, but this case has put my ethics to the test.
Thanks to John fucking Carpenter, I now have to reason between these 2 masterpieces of not-really-scary horror thriller movie things.
Wolf Rilla (awesome name)’s original 1960 version is favorite among the cache of films i put on and pay no attention to. We have a vhs copy. It’s unbending British-ness is a perfect match for the slightly eerie storyline, where the dry calm of the general tone nods to the very timely progression of the film.
Also, Barbara Shelley is great (though not near the confusing splendor of Judith O’dea in the UNCOLORIZED version of Night of the Living Dead...that’s kind of an apples and oranges type of thing but...).
John Carpenter’s 1995 remake comes strapped with some pretty heavy elements, which make this a hard decision. First off, the idiot who you think is gonna be the americana protag gets killed right off the bat, then enters a chain smoking Kirstie Alley complete with Kirstie Alley attitude problem.
The story moves much, much quicker in this version...but it kinda works i guess. There are some rad-ass John Carpenter signature glow effects where the little white haired terrors’ faces light up to the point where you can see their skulls, and Christopher Reeves gives his final and most spectacular performance as the doctor, who kinda replaces the professor from the original, but not so well...but he is in love with the lady from all the Crocodile Dundee movies.
To top it off, the drunk guy from Back to the Future plays the drunk in this movie....
And we get to see Mark Hamill blow his goddamn head off! (though it wasn’t at all graphic):)
As much as I love all the stupid shit John C. does, I’ve gotta stick with the original. Ethics win...plus the kids look a lot cooler in the original.
Thanks to John fucking Carpenter, I now have to reason between these 2 masterpieces of not-really-scary horror thriller movie things.
Wolf Rilla (awesome name)’s original 1960 version is favorite among the cache of films i put on and pay no attention to. We have a vhs copy. It’s unbending British-ness is a perfect match for the slightly eerie storyline, where the dry calm of the general tone nods to the very timely progression of the film.
Also, Barbara Shelley is great (though not near the confusing splendor of Judith O’dea in the UNCOLORIZED version of Night of the Living Dead...that’s kind of an apples and oranges type of thing but...).
John Carpenter’s 1995 remake comes strapped with some pretty heavy elements, which make this a hard decision. First off, the idiot who you think is gonna be the americana protag gets killed right off the bat, then enters a chain smoking Kirstie Alley complete with Kirstie Alley attitude problem.
The story moves much, much quicker in this version...but it kinda works i guess. There are some rad-ass John Carpenter signature glow effects where the little white haired terrors’ faces light up to the point where you can see their skulls, and Christopher Reeves gives his final and most spectacular performance as the doctor, who kinda replaces the professor from the original, but not so well...but he is in love with the lady from all the Crocodile Dundee movies.
To top it off, the drunk guy from Back to the Future plays the drunk in this movie....
And we get to see Mark Hamill blow his goddamn head off! (though it wasn’t at all graphic):)
As much as I love all the stupid shit John C. does, I’ve gotta stick with the original. Ethics win...plus the kids look a lot cooler in the original.
