Platinum Dunes: A Blemish On An Otherwise Excellent Concept

[Cena's Little Helper]

Hey guys, I want to let you in a little secret: I EFFIN' love horror movies. According to my netflix ratings, I rarely give a horror film more than 2 out of 5 stars, but here's the truth: no matter how bad they are, I'd rather watch horror films over any other type of film. Also, when a horror film knocks it out of the park, I can watch that bad boy once a month for the rest of my life without ever getting sick of it.

Given my confessions, it should come as no surprise then that I love the idea of rebooting horror franchises. While novel ideas in horror are nice, they aren't necessary to make a great film (if you give me a solid director, a somewhat modified storyline, and a few imaginative and gory deaths to boot, I'll be good to go). However, although there have been some bona fide gems to come out of what I'll call the "Reimagination Movement," there have also been some disappointments and downright stinkers. In my opinion, why this is so has everything to do with Platinum Dunes, the producer of five of the seven horror reboots to be released in the last ten years.

As previously mentioned, Platinum Dunes has been the main force behind the Reimagination Movement; what follows is a list of the seven films that I would consider genuine horror reboots (Platinum Dunes's contributions are in red):

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
The Amityville Horror (2005)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Halloween (2007)
The Hitcher (2007)
Friday The 13th (2009)
A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

In my opinion, four of these films were solid (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Halloween, and Friday The 13th) while the other three ranged from serious disappointment to something I wouldn't take if it was given to me for free. While some of you may be wondering why I'm complaining about these films (seeing as how, according to me, there have been more good than bad reboots), I'd like to make three observations:

1) All of the films that I consider bad were produced by Platinum Dunes.
2) The two good films that Platinum Dunes produced were both directed by Marcus Nispel, a man that I would consider to be a legitimate horror auteur (why Platinum Dunes just didn't contract this man to direct all of their horror reboots, I'll never know).

Although still relatively new, should the Reimagination Movement continue with Platinum Dunes being its major purveyor, then I think it's inevitable that the bad will soon outweigh the good. Ultimately, I have made this thread to proclaim my fondness for a concept that could be ruined by a production company that should honestly have no business making horror films.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Hopefully they really come into their own when they're forced to remake some of the lesser known horror films. They were always going to come up short with A Nighmare On Elms Street. Kruger is the most iconic horror villain of the 80's, it was always destined to fail. Which is why it's a surprise the Texas Chainsaw Massacre worked so well.

The Hills Have Eyes & Friday The 13th weren't exactly great to begin. But while I thought The Hills Have Eyes was a lot better than the original, I thought Friday The 13th was awful. Maybe I'd been spoiled by purposely stupid films like Jason X.

Remaking Halloween was a silly idea, out of all of them it's an actual great film. It's enjoyable, but it'd have been better off as something original. And what made Rob Zombie qualified for that job in the first place?

 

[Mitch Henessey]

The 2003 version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre was actually pretty good. I was surprised because I thought that movie would be garbage. A Nightmare On Elm Street(2010) was a huge let down. That movie just looked like another generic Hollywood horror film, and The Hitcher(2007) was by far one of the worst movies I've ever seen. That movie had a terrible, terrible story, and the two main characters could not have been any more stupid.

I just think it's going to be hit and miss type of situation when it comes to remaking these legendary horror films. Some of these films have been decent or horrible, and as far as quality goes, I think the trend will continue to be VERY streaky.

Although, People will flock to see some of these movies because everyone is anxious to see how horror icons such as, Freddy,Jason, and Michael Myers will be portrayed in the remakes.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Hopefully they really come into their own when they're forced to remake some of the lesser known horror films. They were always going to come up short with A Nighmare On Elms Street. Kruger is the most iconic horror villain of the 80's, it was always destined to fail. Which is why it's a surprise the Texas Chainsaw Massacre worked so well.

The Hills Have Eyes & Friday The 13th weren't exactly great to begin. But while I thought The Hills Have Eyes was a lot better than the original, I thought Friday The 13th was awful. Maybe I'd been spoiled by purposely stupid films like Jason X.

Remaking Halloween was a silly idea, out of all of them it's an actual great film. It's enjoyable, but it'd have been better off as something original. And what made Rob Zombie qualified for that job in the first place?

What films do you want to see remade? To the best of my knowledge, there's a reboot of Hellraiser in development hell at the moment. Pascal Laugier, the director of Martyrs, was attached at one point, but he supposedly left over creative differences.

If Aja's any indication of what America can get when they import the French to helm their horror reboots, then I'm all for it. I have no clue what Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (the directors of Inside) are up to at this point, and I think Xavier Gens is filming some post-apocalyptic/nuclear holocaust flick as we speak.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

There's nothing in particular I want to see made. But when you're remaking films like A Nighmare On Elm Street they're going to have to be something pretty fucking special to become anywhere near as intresting, intense, memorable, iconic etc. The chances of them surpassing one of those films is minimal. But if somebody was to try and reboot something like House or Phantasm they'd have a much better chance of creating something that stands out over all of the other shit American horror films. The Tall Man is sort of recognizable but he's not a Freddy Kruger, a Michale Myers or even a Chucky. They could actually improve on that franchise. I don't think that anybody would say that any of the remakes so far have actually been better than the originals, with the possible exception of The Hills Have Eyes.