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remakes

4 stories
Horror Fuel

We Need To Talk About Michael

News of Jamie Lee Curtis’s return to the long-running Halloween franchise almost broke the Internet a few weeks ago. Some online posts were akin to The Beatles US arrival or the announcement of The Force Awakens. Blumhouse has taken the reigns and hopes to run with it. Part of this Cynema post asks, “to where?” There is nothing wrong with what Blumhouse is doing. Films get made, they get sequels, they get remakes. Hats off to any franchise that lasts forty years and remains relevant. However, there are a number Cynema-like elements to this. While everyone gushes about what this means to horror, I am going to look at just what this means to horror. Fan Reaction Details trickled in not long after the initial euphoria. Would this new film ignore the events after Carpenter’s original ’78 film? The news of Judy Greer joining the new film as Laurie Strode’s daughter sent a new wave of concern among online nerd-dom.

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Oct 7, 2017
Horror Fuel

Ten Horror Films Actually In Need Of A Remake

The list of really good to near-perfect horror flicks that have been given the remake treatment in the last two decades is staggering, and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘The Fog’, ‘Halloween’, ‘Fright Night’, and so many others have been remade, reworked, or rebooted for a modern audience, nearly always resulting in a film inferior to the original. This abhorrent trend must stop, I say! Here are ten far-from-perfect movies that, unlike the aforementioned examples, could actually use a solid remake. ‘Ghoulies’ (1985) – One subgenre of horror sorely missing these days is the “small creature” movie. With the ‘Gremlins’, ‘Critters’, ‘Munchies’, and ‘Ghoulies’ series of films, creepy little creatures were everywhere in the 1980s and early 1990s. While ‘Gremlins’ is a masterpiece, and ‘Critters’ is really good, aside from cool creature design and an excellent poster that terrified many an eighties kid in the video store, ‘Ghoulies’ is pretty terrible,

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 28, 2017
Horror Fuel

Universal Studios Adds Exciting New Titles To Its Dark Universe

I am more than thrilled to be able to announce that Universal Studios has added more titles to their upcoming ‘Dark Universe’ collection. Through my life I have always been drawn to the truly tragic characters in horror…the monsters who were almost forced to become that way due to their situation – or were simply misunderstood. The top three on my monster/villain list are Frankenstein’s Monster, Quasimodo, and The Phantom of the Opera. In fact, I drew so many pictures and read so many stories about these three tragic characters that my parents legitimately started to worry. We already know that Javier Barden will be playing Frankenstein’s Monster, but I cannot hide my excitement at the announcement of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ being added to the ground-breaking collection of redone horror films. Both have been played to perfection by the legendary Lon Chaney and his silent performances will be tough to beat, but

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 7, 2017
Horror Fuel

NOT A REBOOT. NOT A REMAKE. IT’S A REPACKAGING

The Summer of the Dinosaur Dinosaurs clobbered the combined super hero talents of The Avengers. They also handed Schwarzenegger his T-800 ass. Interestingly all three films are bred from the same cynical experiment that might have started in JJ Abrams’s lab…repackaging. Cynema has evolved or been upgraded much like Arnie’s T800 at the end of the latest Terminator franchise. My definition of Cynema says that a movie is made deliberately bad even if the filmmakers have the means to do it better. In the case of Jurassic World, Terminator Genysis and Star Trek: Into Darkness they are beautifully produced films, but all the more deceptive. These films all lack a central thing: a well done script. All three of these films are not unfolding stories, but rather set pieces stitched together with basic dialogue and character development to push things toward the next set piece. The argument could be made, that in a few years, the need for directors and

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Aug 12, 2015

More from remakes

Horror Fuel

We Need To Talk About Michael

News of Jamie Lee Curtis’s return to the long-running Halloween franchise almost broke the Internet a few weeks ago. Some online posts were akin to The Beatles US arrival or the announcement of The Force Awakens. Blumhouse has taken the reigns and hopes to run with it. Part of this Cynema post asks, “to where?” There is nothing wrong with what Blumhouse is doing. Films get made, they get sequels, they get remakes. Hats off to any franchise that lasts forty years and remains relevant. However, there are a number Cynema-like elements to this. While everyone gushes about what this means to horror, I am going to look at just what this means to horror. Fan Reaction Details trickled in not long after the initial euphoria. Would this new film ignore the events after Carpenter’s original ’78 film? The news of Judy Greer joining the new film as Laurie Strode’s daughter sent a new wave of concern among online nerd-dom.

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Oct 7, 2017
Horror Fuel

Ten Horror Films Actually In Need Of A Remake

The list of really good to near-perfect horror flicks that have been given the remake treatment in the last two decades is staggering, and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘The Fog’, ‘Halloween’, ‘Fright Night’, and so many others have been remade, reworked, or rebooted for a modern audience, nearly always resulting in a film inferior to the original. This abhorrent trend must stop, I say! Here are ten far-from-perfect movies that, unlike the aforementioned examples, could actually use a solid remake. ‘Ghoulies’ (1985) – One subgenre of horror sorely missing these days is the “small creature” movie. With the ‘Gremlins’, ‘Critters’, ‘Munchies’, and ‘Ghoulies’ series of films, creepy little creatures were everywhere in the 1980s and early 1990s. While ‘Gremlins’ is a masterpiece, and ‘Critters’ is really good, aside from cool creature design and an excellent poster that terrified many an eighties kid in the video store, ‘Ghoulies’ is pretty terrible,

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 28, 2017
Horror Fuel

Universal Studios Adds Exciting New Titles To Its Dark Universe

I am more than thrilled to be able to announce that Universal Studios has added more titles to their upcoming ‘Dark Universe’ collection. Through my life I have always been drawn to the truly tragic characters in horror…the monsters who were almost forced to become that way due to their situation – or were simply misunderstood. The top three on my monster/villain list are Frankenstein’s Monster, Quasimodo, and The Phantom of the Opera. In fact, I drew so many pictures and read so many stories about these three tragic characters that my parents legitimately started to worry. We already know that Javier Barden will be playing Frankenstein’s Monster, but I cannot hide my excitement at the announcement of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ being added to the ground-breaking collection of redone horror films. Both have been played to perfection by the legendary Lon Chaney and his silent performances will be tough to beat, but

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 7, 2017
Horror Fuel

NOT A REBOOT. NOT A REMAKE. IT’S A REPACKAGING

The Summer of the Dinosaur Dinosaurs clobbered the combined super hero talents of The Avengers. They also handed Schwarzenegger his T-800 ass. Interestingly all three films are bred from the same cynical experiment that might have started in JJ Abrams’s lab…repackaging. Cynema has evolved or been upgraded much like Arnie’s T800 at the end of the latest Terminator franchise. My definition of Cynema says that a movie is made deliberately bad even if the filmmakers have the means to do it better. In the case of Jurassic World, Terminator Genysis and Star Trek: Into Darkness they are beautifully produced films, but all the more deceptive. These films all lack a central thing: a well done script. All three of these films are not unfolding stories, but rather set pieces stitched together with basic dialogue and character development to push things toward the next set piece. The argument could be made, that in a few years, the need for directors and

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Aug 12, 2015