Are Remakes Out of Control? Part One

After watching the trailer for Lussier's My Bloody Valentine, I am convinced that there are just too many remakes of horror films coming out. It's not the fact that I have only found a few horror remakes that have worked in the last few years i.e. Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Aja's The Hills Have Eyes, or Zombie's Halloween, but it's the fact that studios are trying to remake anything that had any significance in original.
I'm holding out hope that Nispel's Friday the 13th remake is going to blow my mind, but after seeing such guilty classics of mine such as, April Fool's Day, Hellraiser, The Brood, and yes, Evil Dead being remade or soon to be released, I'm not holding my breath. What does it take for studios to pull out of the remake sect of the genre? Have they lost all sense of creativity or are they completely out of ideas.
One director, Rob Zombie, has at least done something that has moved away from the predictable horror film, but at the same time, has kept sacred why people love horror films. Zombie's films have a throwback ilk to them reminding audiences of horror directing icons such as Craven, Cronenberg, Carpenter, and Romero. His first two films: House of a 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects were successful, in part to a sort of homage to horror films of the seventies and eighties like Craven's The Last House on the Left and Cunningham's Friday the 13th.
One film, in particular, has changed my mind over the last few years and should be considered separate from the original and that is Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. The only aspect that is tied to the original is that most of the film takes place in a shopping mall. Romero's film was a social commentary on materialism where as Snyder's film was a social commentary on human interaction. I was completely disappointed in the film because I was such a huge fan of the original, but I felt there was a lack of substance to the film. I have changed my mind on both fronts. I'll also add that Snyder's film isn't the first remake that has gone in a completely different direction than the original: Carpenter's The Thing. Carpenter took the short story the orginal and his film was adapted from and made it his own. Another film worth mentioning is the countless remakes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers which is not very hard to adapt to the times it's filmed in.
Coming Soon: Part Two

Teeth

I'm not sure why I've decided to do my first entry on Teeth after this long layoff, but it's a film that is not too popular where I work whether with coworkers or customers. I will admit that I was hesitant when I heard about the premise of the film, but the film also intrigued me and I have had luck in the past with going out on a limb with a few films i.e. Jonathan's Black Sheep, Andrew Currie's Fido, and Stephen Bradley's Boy Eats Girl. There's something about parody and the horror genre that is a seemingly great fit. Sure, there's always going to be the serious horror film like Moreau/Palaud's Ils a.k.a. Them, but after years of watching a maniac in a hockey mask or rotting corpses feed on a living person there seem to be a demand for a new type of horror film. Some can say that the horror parody can be traced to the late seventies with John De Bello's auteur Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Hell, the sequel starred of all people, George Clooney.
Today, parody can be attributed to Edgar Wright's masterpiece, Shaun of the Dead. It was not only a parody on the zombie genre that Romero started, but also a parody on the British reserve. Shaun was an instant cult classic and a retail phenomena. The film ushered in a new subgenre of horror film: the horror parody. The great thing about this new type of genre was that filmakers had loads of material to work from. Another film that shall not be overlooked is Scott Glosserman's Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon which was a genius film that drew on the slasher films of the eighties. BtM answered those questions we asked ourselves about Friday the 13th.
There are so many aspects about Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth that is so brilliant. One, the film, plays on such teen dramas like The Hills, Laguna Beach, and DeGrassi Junior High. Here's a brief synopsis of Teeth: Dawn is a teenager preaching teen chaste and is a rock star to young girls who believe in saving themselves until marriage. Dawn falls for the new boy in town who happens to seduce Dawn, but Dawn fights back in an unusual way. It's this defense mechanism that one has not seen in the horror genre. The film does draw a little bit of inspiration from Michael Lehmann's Heathers. Teeth does satire peer pressure in the teen genre much like the afternoon specials used to do in the eighties (by the way, I'm still waiting for a new afternoon special to come out on ABC).
The film does have a sense of irony that the film plays out like an afternoon school special. There is not a lull in the film at all. After the first "shocking" scene, then the film does take a dark turn and all bets are off. What is great about the character, Dawn, is that the actress: Jess Weixler has the "girl next door" kind of innocence to her. Her naivity showed in her performance as the audience lives through her. We don't know what is exactly going on as her character doesn't know what is exactly wrong with her. It's this kind of symbiotic character/audience relationship that made this film such a treat to watch.
The last scene shall remain a secret for those who have not had a pleasure of watching this film, but I will say that it was one of the most shocking and hysterical endings I had ever witnessed in a film. I'm including the ending to Neil Jordan's The Crying Game. I'm hoping that some of you who has scene this film before will watch it again with a different set of eyes or those who has not scene the film will take a chance on the film. I think Teeth is definitely in my top ten of 08'.

The Blog is Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry about the lag in my film blog. It won't happen again. I am going to try something different. I'm hoping to generate some interaction with the few readers I have on here. I'm going to post a link to this blog on my facebook and hopefully attract some new readers. I'm hoping that a few will read. What is the interaction you talk about Tobias? I want to know what you would like to read about filmwise. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to write about certain films I view, but I'd like to know what sort of topics you'd like me covering. I'm going to let you decide what you'd like to read in the next blog. Just send me an email to: tobias_lane@hotmail.com. I'm looking forward in hearing back from all of you.
Sincerely,
Tobias