‘The Eye‘ (Gin Gwai) became ‘The Eye‘, and Jessica Alba couldn’t save it. And that’s just the start.
‘One Missed Call‘, ‘Shutter‘, ‘Pulse‘. All fantastic asian horrors re-made and reinvented as, well, pretty awful.
I only recently found out that ‘Ils‘ was a massive inspiration for the highly successful and well-regarded ‘The Strangers‘ in more ways than one, and it took a single line low down in IMDB to even know any credit was even given.
More worrying however, is the fact that there are already re-makes planned for ‘Oldboy‘, ‘Battle Royale‘ and ‘Martyrs‘ (here and here on IMDB respectively, Martyrs entry doesn’t exist yet), and although the details are at best minimal, the forecast may look bleak for those who love their foreign cinema… ‘untainted’.
But, there are those times when it can all work out for the best; I personally adore the re-make of ‘The Ring‘, and sometimes, shock-horror, I even think it’s better than it’s predecessor, ‘Ringu‘ (and this is a common opinion).
However, in it’s wake, it opened the door for endless asian horror re-makes; the best of which, ‘The Grudge‘, still spawned two sequels that were, at best, slightly irrelevant. It did help that Takashi Shimizu directed both the original and the re-make, though…
And this is a hugely important factor; when there is involvement by the original creators, whether it be in direction or writing, the film seems to stay true to it’s cinematic roots and doesn’t just stink of re-make.
But, this is rarely the case. Even ‘Let Me In‘ recently split audiences 50/50.
What do people think? Will ‘Oldboy‘, ‘Battle Royale‘ and ‘Martyrs‘ be ruined or reborn?
