October 12th, 2003"REMAKES GONE AWRY"
With the upcoming (and not quite anticipated by fans) remake of, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, on the way we've decided this grab bag to chose three remakes that stumbled, bumbled and completely lost the point of the original films. If you're up for an evening of unnecessary and misguided remakes then this is for you. Carnival Of Souls [1998] joins the Psycho remake of the same year as probably one of the most hated updates of a classic ever made. "Presented" by Wes Craven (meaning he really had little to do with it) this is very loosely based on the 1962 original and stars Bobbie Phillips as a young woman who is being tormented by visions of a psychotic clown (that murderded her mother years prior) and various other creatures. It all ends with a twist taken from the original (and its one of the few things apart from the title that is). I don't admit to being a fan of the original film but it certainly had more mood and more going for it than this feeble effort. Writer/director Adam Grossman has written a script that's so confusing it's hard to take and Phillips never seems in danger. The Haunting [1999] is a good example of good intentions not quite working out. This re-do of the 1963 original has doctor Liam Neeson gathering together a group of people at an old gothic house under the guise of insomnia research. It really turns out he wants to study fear and he gets his chance because the house just so happens to be haunted. This big-budgeter has some good points with good set design, steady acting and direction and some decent effects. The problem though is that the script isn't overly gripping and it seems like they wanted to trot out all these effects (like one character being beheaded by a stone lion head) and forget about the rich mood of suspense the original had. Thir13en Ghosts [2001] is the second of Dark Castle's William Castle remakes (the first being 1999's House On Haunted Hill) and while Castle was known for gimmickry his 1960 original as least had some camp on its side and managed to be an unserious time. Plus if you saw it in theatres you got to see it in "Illusion-O" an early 3D process that had the audience wearing glasses that could either "show" or "hide" the ghosts. Tony Shalhoub and family inherit a strange house from their equally strange uncle and find themselves victimized by the thirteen ghosts of assorted serial killers and psychos that inhabit the basement. Psychic Matthew Lillard is there to try and help them. This remake is totally from the MTV school of horror filmmaking. That means there's plenty of quick editing cuts, lots of decent make-up effects and generally little sense to the script. Plus the logic here is awful (the glass walls are covered in incantations which characters can remove to protect themselves but not to escape the house) and it hits its "lame" mark when characters are forced to wear special glasses (a homage to the original) to see the ghosts. Director Steve Beck would at least do the entertaining Ghost Ship next. |
