Film
Revuews BEAUTY SHOP (12A) 105mm 00
y" I if‘ ' ' . Ht‘ 3' ill" I" ‘ I '1» .(\:l)" ‘ll I .1 M“, i ' "x rm 1' .v H il'.‘ " " ' (i l 1'“. J4 ’1“. H t t! i: l' .il 4' 2 ~. "it llvl~ ' 1: ~ :‘f' .~ ' « . ol 7, Kim, ' l .1’th'lt , " i l L\i".'1l‘3.:< ‘1 i Mun”. .' ‘v\: ‘ 1m T'i ‘: {Ml-v :. ;;\ (f l "1".“ l .I 1}" l A .l'll".~"-~"f ...'.:.:~» l\:~' lfit’t‘. .31."! v “Jilit‘yit‘ C RSED
(15) 97min 0.
\ t/ ‘ . v \ "v ‘. '. ewllu .\‘ . .1 t. .- Hi \I . \I \ W1” .
46 THE LIST ‘-'- .:~ -'«z '
OH, THE HORROR
With a new version of AMITYVILLE HORROR in cinemas. scary movie obsessive Henry Northmore contemplates whether all these remakes are such a great idea.
There’s a long, bloody history of remakes in the horror world. Just look at the seemingly infinite versions of Dracula. Hammer Horror built a studio on the back of ‘remaking’ the famous monsters of filmland with added Technicolor gore. The Amityville Horror is part of the new breed, using hi- tec FX and modern film techniques to reinterpret and reinvigorate the classics, reaching back only as far as the 705 and 805 for inspiration (the original hit the silver screen in 1979).
The late 805 were, in my mind at least, a golden era for horror: Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels were pulling in huge box office numbers and the audience was hungry for more product. The Blob was one of the first big budget remakes, with the special FX of 1988 taking the movie in directions the 1958 original could only dream of. Original director George A Romero’s special FX guru Tom Savini took up the directing reins for a 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead. Reimagined for a splatter-hungry audience, it retained a certain charm and macabre atmosphere, Savini’s respect for the source material probably being the key aspects in this inferior but still highly watchable movie.
But 1999 was a dark year for the horror remake, with Jan de Bont's CGI- heavy version of the slow and subtle terror of 1963’s The Haunting being the prime offender. House on Haunted Hill wasn’t much better. The noughties, however, have been far more kind. Romero was plundered once again for Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead, a slick, fast-paced beast of a movie with enough innovations of its own and kinetic energy to see it through. Still, it could never match up the original, the Citizen Kane of zombie movies.
Marcus Nispel made a fair stab with his reinterpretation of the definitive exploitation flick The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the first third a tense heart stopper before descending into the usual maniac on the loose with a Black & Decker on full throttle. Tobe Hooper himself (best know as the director of the first TCM back in 1974) reached backwards for inspiration with Toolbox Murders, a shameful, unpleasant slasher movie, to come up with an equally shameful disjointed mess. And of course there’s the recent glut of Japanese horror remakes (Ring, Ring Two and The Grudge, for example).
For Hollywood execs it’s a sharp move, exploiting the loyalty of horror fans. Minimal story development is required (in particular with the US remakes of Japanese films) and they can’t resist capitalising on a brand until all its market value has been sucked dry. Fortunately, most directors love the original material and aim for a true homage to some of cinema’s most notorious imagery. It can’t be denied that horror is having something of a renaissance and whether it’s remakes or new material, fans are just happy to see blood splattered across our screens once again.
I Avaw/Ie Horror IS on general release from Ffl 75 Apr. See rewew, page 49.
OU'ESS WHO?" (12A) 105 min 0
THE“ HITOHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (tbc) 110 min 000
t 1,4,1)" (. f 1/ 4 r t ' r 1 ‘ r I 1': ' 1‘ 1:3) I .4 It, 2; 1 “'1‘ l v y ,4 r‘ r0 .’ r t 7(, r{ i‘lr