 All through January we’re doing to be going countdown crazy here at Film Gutter, serving up a series of top 5 lists to kick off 2021! And with this being the time of year for fresh starts and exciting new endeavours, I though that this one would be a suitable place to kick off… TOP 5 EXTREME HORROR FILMS WORTH A REMAKE I’ll say this before I begin – I’m no big fan of remakes, and all too often they do end up falling well short of the original. The US remake of Martyrs stands out as a particularly egregious example of not quite capturing the spirit and feel of the original. With that said, there have been a handful of Film Gutter watches over the years that have left me thinking ‘you know what, you could still do something really good with this today’. I suppose a common criteria running through is a story that would still say something – or maybe say even more – today compared to when they were originally released. I’m also presenting these in alphabetical order rather than any sort of numerical order, because they were rather hard to pull apart… 2LDK A remake of this one would probably be helped by the fact that the original is fairly little known, and this story of two actresses descending into a full on, extended, vicious brawl could still have relevance today. The movie industry is still as cut-throat as ever, and a US version of this could make a meaningful comment about the Hollywood system – just how far are you willing to go to ultimately land that role? Admittedly maybe there was a moment for those sorts of anti-Hollywood movies we’ve now past – think back to Starry Eyes, Eat, Maps to the Stars – but this one could probably be redone without too many negative comparisons to the original, and it would be a pretty cheap movie to make to boot. BASKET CASE I recently reviewed the full trilogy of this one, and it occurred to me that because this was an 80s movie initially it was far easier for Duane and Belial to hide. I think a 2020s remake could see the two becoming hounded by the modern press, and even social media trending with photos and videos of the pair as they try and find some relative security. I’d also add that while the effects of the original are OK for the time, there’s something in the idea of seeing a really sharply-realised Belial with top-notch modern technology that appeals to me too… COMBAT SHOCK This bleak, nihilistic tale of a Vietnam veteran trying desperately to survive after the horrors of war probably goes down as my favourite Troma movie, even though it doesn’t really feel like a Troma film in spirit or style. But the update for this one would be easy to see – our lead could easily be an Iran or Afghanistan veteran, and you could certainly say that the inequalities and the poverty at the bottom of the chain are every bit as stark now as they were when this one originally landed. In fact, of all the five, I think this is the one I’d love to see most. Oh wait, I promised not to rank them… SOCIETY OK, OK, hear me out, right? I think Society is brilliant, and was great for its time as a poke at the 80s upper class culture. But let’s be honest – has that ever really gone away that much? If anything, the 2020s sees an even sharper class divide and an increasingly uneven distribution of wealth. It’s possible that a remake could wind up ducking the issue a bit (a la Martyrs) but I could barely think of a movie I’ve reviewed that remains more topical than Society. In the right hands you could still poke at the views of the vastly wealthy and how they see the world around them – not to mention the many people they would see as being ‘below them’. It almost feels like the perfect climate to have a go, if you were ever going to. SUICIDE CLUB Again, another film that I really liked – so given that fact you might ask why on earth I’d ever pitch for a remake? Well, to many people this film is not all that well known, and when I think back to this I always feel the one bit that was maybe a bit undercooked was the computer/internet element. Well this is 2021 baby, and half the time it feels like we’re living in a science-fiction film because we have so much incredible technology around us. You could tell a story that remained faithful to the original but incorporated the latest developments to give it a fresh feel and style. As long as you do recreate shot for shot that perfect opening sequence, of course… We’ll be back next week with a look at the Top 5 Asian Movies we’ve reviewed at Film Gutter!   |
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