10 Best Remakes from 2000 and Beyond
Matt Molgaard
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We don’t get good remakes very often. It seems that Hollywood and the studios that put these flicks together are more than happy to bypass quality while holding their hands out hoping for major coin to come falling in.
But every once in a while a gang of creative minds come together to give classic titles the love and care they deserve…
Excluding remakes released prior to 2000, these are the best of the best. Get your mental notebooks ready; nothing here is to be missed.
10 My Bloody Valentine (2009)
Often overlooked when discussing successful remakes, My Bloody Valentine made just enough unique maneuvers to feel fresh and new, but also played faithful enough to the 1981 original to win over fans of the first big Valentine’s Day slasher. This is the film that helped reignite the 3D craze, although that, too, is often forgotten. It’s relatively creepy, technically pretty solid and boasts some very cool kills, impressive performances and the strangest nude scene to be featured in a genre film in a mighty long time!
09 The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a little bit remake, a little bit reimagining and a little bit sequel. It utilizes a meta angle that caught many off-guard, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work surprisingly well. For my buck, the original is still the creepier of the two films, but this pic did proper justice to Charles B. Pierce’s 1976 effort, which went terribly underappreciated for years prior to the release of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s film. Gomez-Rejon’s movie successfully breathed new life into the brand, and we should all be thankful for that gift!
08 Maniac (2012)
If you caught William Lustig’s unflinching exploitation feature from 1980, you know this story is dark, horrifying and risqué in all the proper places. This is savage film, and we all groaned a bit when we learned that the film was tapped for the remake treatment in 2012. A remake couldn’t possibly be anywhere near as revolting as Lustig’s film… it just couldn’t. But it could! And it is! Thanks to Alexandre Aja and Franck Khalfoun, the movie is every bit as gruesome as the original, and it differs from most other modern remakes because it’s put together with no bells or whistles. It’s just a brutal examination of a lunatic with an affinity for human scalps and a plethora of mental issues to live with on a daily basis. Maniac isn’t pretty, and that’s a major reason it’s so great.
07 Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla is the kind of franchise that really had nothing to lose in being remade yet again. Some of the Godzilla flicks are amazing, some are decent and some are downright embarrassing. Gareth Edwards – who helmed the amazing Monsters – took to the director’s seat for this one, and he pretty much passed every test thrown his way. There are a few issues to be had with the film, but honestly, this is one of the greatest Godzilla films ever made.
06 Dredd (2012)
Dredd was everything I’d hoped to the cinema gods that Judge Dredd would be. Well, there was about a 17-year additional wait, but the Dredd we all deserved finally made his way to the big screen. General moviegoers didn’t seem to eat it up initially, but the film quickly picked up a cult following that would grow to respectable size. It all happened for good reason, as the picture – a blend of thriller, action, sci-fi and a small dash of horror – not only helped erase the sour taste of Danny Cannon’s campy picture, it also felt like an honest adaptation of some of the comic work to feature Dredd. It looked great, featured awesome sound design and proved absolutely relentless. It’s not a sleeper anymore; now it’s just a badass remake that has fans practically begging for a follow-up that studios seem determined to ignore.
05 The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Alexandre Aja’s picture will always hold a high position on lists of this nature. It’s a great but merciless piece of work that shows marked improvement over the great Wes Craven’s own 1977 film of the same title. It isn’t easy to outshine Craven, so when it happens, we’re all pretty stunned. All the greatness of the original has been ramped up a few degrees, and a few of the characters, while no more likable, are indeed a bit more memorable. It is fun, it is gory and it never ceases to entertain.
04 The Crazies (2010)
Without a doubt the least appreciated film in this entire lineup, Breck Eisner’s take on George Romero’s story is absolutely mesmerizing. It’s inventive in all the little places that allow the film to distance itself from the original, and it is mighty creepy. A number of huge sequences barrel viewers over, and once they do get going, on that damn baseball field, they don’t let up until the film has run its course. This may not be the most popular opinion out there, but The Crazies is a 2000-and-beyond, top five remake. If you missed this one, you’ve only done yourself an injustice.
03 The Ring (2002)
Ringu may generally be considered a darker, creepier version of The Ring, but that doesn’t mean this American remake didn’t deliver in a huge way. The film features one of cinema’s greatest jump scares, an amazing villainess and a video that’ll have you looking over your shoulders. You’ll probably dump all of your old OOP VHS tapes after watching this one – the movie has a serious impact, if you know what I mean. Gore Verbinski scored a huge hit here, and that was really evidenced by the flood of J-Horror remakes we saw arriving on the heels of The Ring. So, not only was The Ring an amazing remake, it was a front-running piece for a brief but dramatic change in horror scenery. Watch both versions of this film; you won’t be disappointed.
02 Dawn of the Dead (2004)
You knew this was coming, right? Zack Snyder’s feature-length debut also happens to be his greatest film to date. I know, his work has taken an incredibly strange turn, as Snyder goes bigger with each film he makes, and each film seems to be worse than the last. If you’re the man who makes Batman vs. Superman unwatchable, things aren’t panning out with your films, whether your pockets are fat or not. But let’s get back to what matters: this masterful retelling of George Romero’s timeless classic of the same name. The movie is arguably superior to Romero’s work, even if it does feel even more transparent from time to time. The performances are stellar, and the chemistry, all around, is damn organic. Loads of good zombie terror and atmosphere here, and if anything, Dawn of the Dead will leave you really wishing Snyder had kept it about storytelling rather than ridiculous visuals.
01 Evil Dead (2013)
The Evil Dead remake ranks right up there with some of history’s greatest remakes. It’s hard to even pretend to rival the genius of Sam Raimi’s original 1981 gem… hell, it’s hard to conceive of that timeless beauty actually being retold with any success. But Fede Alvarez wasn’t just successful in retelling the story, he hit it out of the park while managing to inject new and refreshing story elements. And the gore… sweet mother of god, the gore is brilliant. The cast is young, inexperienced and shockingly refined. The visuals never fail to impress, and they never lean on computers to generate terror. No, this is an old school film in a modern day landscape, and boy, does it shine. If you haven’t seen this one yet, you’re missing out on something absolutely amazing.
