The Best (and Worst!) Horror Movie Remakes of All Time
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From spooky scenes to slashers, here are our favorite good and really bad horror film remakes.
Hollywood loves remakes, especially when it comes to horror. Sometimes, updating a classic horror movie for modern audiences makes sense. As society changes, the things that scare people also change, and adapting classic monsters to modern times can create a thrilling new story. Oftentimes, however, the results are not so great. Here are some of the best, and some of the worst, horror movie remakes.
Related: Classic Horror Movies That Are Still Shocking Today
Best Horror Movie Remakes
Hellraiser (2022)
Though technically not a remake, Hellraiser (2022) is a new take on the franchise entirely. With a new Pinhead (Jamie Clayton) and an allegory for addiction, the Hulu film does the original justice in that it's a totally different approach to Clive Barker's source material while keeping elements like the Cenobites and the notorious puzzle box in tact.
Related: How to Watch the Hellraiser Movies In Order
It (2017)
Warner Bros.
This is a bit of a cheat, because the 2017 film was the first time that Stephen King's classic book It was adapted for the big screen. It was adapted, however, in 1990 as a somewhat infamous made-for-TV movie. While the '90s version has not aged particularly well, the 2017 film does a great job of bringing the Losers Club to life. While the sequel, It: Chapter 2, didn't live up to expectations (though it was still a great effort), the first film stands on its own and is one of the best adaptations of King's work.
Related: Stephen King Horror Movies Ranked
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Universal Pictures
The original 1978 film Dawn of the Dead is a classic and, aside from some weird zombie make-up, has withstood the test of time. The 2004 remake takes the basic concept of the movie (people hiding in a mall during a zombie outbreak) and goes in a completely different direction. While the original is a thoughtful commentary on consumerism, the 2004 is an adrenaline-filled thriller that introduced the world to running zombies. It turns out, this was a great idea and this movie was an early hit for both Zack Snyder and James Gunn.
Related: The Best Zombie Movies of All Time
Friday the 13th (2009)
New Line Cinema
If it's not broke, don't fix it. There's nothing particularly groundbreaking about this film, Friday the 13th (2009) is a solid entry in the long-running franchise. The story covers some of the events of the first three Friday the 13th movies, from Jason's mom going on a killing spree all the way to Jason getting his infamous mask. Aside from that, it tells a completely new story... sort of: It tells the story about a new group of teens visiting Crystal Lake and having a terrible vacation. This movie literally keeps everything that works about Jason Voorhees and just adds a modern sheen to it, which makes for a pretty enjoyable slasher movie.
The Thing (1982)
Universal Pictures
The Thing (1982) might be one of the best horror-remakes ever. The film is a remake of the classic 1951 horror movie The Thing From Another World. That movie was based on a short story called "Who Goes There?"
For the remake, director John Carpenter decided to stay relatively faithful to the short story, so instead of fighting an alien made out of plants, the 1982 movie features an alien that can shapeshift into any living organism and can infect others. The result is a tense story about how society breaks down when people can't trust each other. (Also, who wouldn't want to shapeshift into Kurt Russell?)
Related: Why John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) Is a Classic
The Mummy (1999)
Universal Pictures
Sometimes, it's ok for monster movies to just be fun. In 1999, Universal Studios released an update to its classic monster movie The Mummy. The new film starred Brendan Fraser and was more of an adventure movie with horror elements. Fraser is great as the lead character, and the mummy effects still look pretty freaky by today's standards. While some of the CGI doesn't quite hold up, the story is still exciting and proves mummies should really remain buried.
The Fly (1986)
20th Century Studios
The original The Fly is famous for the goofy image of a man with a giant fly head for a face. There's nothing silly about David Cronenberg's 1986 remake, however. This version is pure body horror and includes some truly disturbing scenes. Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a scientist who accidentally combines his DNA with a fly and finds himself slowly turning into a monster—and Geena Davis plays the heartbroken woman who loves him.
The Fly (1986) is a great movie if for people that want to see Goldblum demonstrate how a fly eats (spoilers: it's very gross).
Evil Dead (2013)
Sony Pictures
Considered a "re-imagining" of the Sam Raimi classic, Evil Dead (2013) reinvigorated the franchise and spawned the Ash Vs. Evil Dead TV series with the Evil Dead's original star Bruce Campbell. A sequel is slated for a 2023 release.
Child's Play (2019)
Orion Pictures
Recasting a classic horror icon like Chucky is no easy task. Brad Dourif voiced the killer doll in the original Child's Play series, and the character is an iconic part of horor movie history. Instead of trying to recapture Dourif's magic, the remake goes in a completely different direction.
Mark Hamill voices this new version of Chucky, which is now a high-tech smart doll that malfunctions and begins killing anyone who threatens its "friendship" with a young boy named Andy. The film is a completely different take on the franchise, but is also darkly funny and definitely worth a watch.
Related: How to Watch the Chucky Movies In Order
The Invisible Man (2020)
Universal Pictures
The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss stars in The Invisible Man, a terrifying remake of the classical Universal Monster flick that takes it in an entirely different direction. What's so scary about The Invisible Man (2020) isn't anything supernatural—it's that the titular villain's crimes, alienation, rage and gaslighting are all too real for survivors of domestic violence.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Sony Pictures
Francis Ford Coppola went back to the source material to bring Bram Stoker's Dracula back to the big screen in 1992. The result is a truly weird film with some truly unique costume designs. While Bela Lugosi's Dracula was infamous for his intense stair, Gary Oldman's version will forever be remembered for having the strangest haircut in movie history. While Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder both struggle with their British accents, the film is well cast and shows off some impressive special effects work.
Related: The Best Vampire Movies of All Time
The Ring (1998)
DreamWorks Pictures
A remake of a 1998 Japanese horror movie, The Ring terrified audiences with a simple concept. The story is based on a VHS tape that curses anyone who watches to die seven days later. After watching the tape, the viewer will receive a phone call and on the other end, a voice will say "seven days" and then hang up. The simplicity of the of phone call, along with the creepy visuals of the ghostly Samara crawling out of the TV, makes this a horror classic all on its own.
The Worst Horror Movie Remakes
The Amityville Horror (2005)
MGM Pictures
Based on its claims on being a true story, the original The Amityville Horror became a horror classic. It tells the supposedly true story of the Lutz, who experienced supernatural events after moving into a house in the titular town of Amityville, New York. The remake, however, failed to recapture the magic of the original.
Ryan Reynolds stars of the patriarch of the Lutz family and delivers a genuinely creepy performance. Unfortunately, the movie around him just feels like a generic haunted house movie. It also didn't help that in the years since the original movie's release, the truthfulness of the Lutz's story has been called in question by multiple sources.
Related: See the Real-Life Amityville Horror House
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
New Line Cinema
Freddy Krueger, portrayed by Robert Englund, became a genuine pop culture icon in the '80s. Recasting him was going to be a difficult task, and Jackie Earle Haley does deliver a unique and scary performance in A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The problem is that the movie lacks the charm of the original. Also, bad CGI just isn't that scary. The main problem, however, is that this film turns Freddy Krueger into a child molester and adds a convoluted mystery to the story that just made audiences uncomfortable.
Related: The Best Slasher Movies of All Time
Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007)
Universal Pictures
It's generally accepted that Rob Zombie prefers to write villains as opposed to heroes. So that made him a strange choice to remake Halloween, a movie about a silent killer who stalks his victims from the shadows—Rob Zombie villains tend to give speeches, so maybe that's why this adaptation didn't work.
Zombie's movie also suffers from some bad pacing. The first half is an original story showing Michael Myers' childhood, while the second half is a condensed retelling of the first movie, only without the slow build tension and suspense that makes the 1978 original so memorable.
Related: How to Watch the Halloween Movies In Order
The Wicker Man (2006)
Warner Bros.
Everyone remembers The Wicker Man for Nicolas Cage's bizarre performance and him screaming about bees. The movie generally tells a similar story as the 1973 original, but with more unintentional comedy. The story is supposed to be a disturbing tale of an investigator uncovering a pagan cult that still practices human sacrifices. Unfortunately, Nicolas Cage gave one of the strangest performances of his career. While this movie is bad, it's become a cult-hit and is more well known than the original.
Psycho (1998)
Universal Pictures
People generally dislike remakes due to the changes they make to the original films. In this case, however, Gus Van Sant's Psycho has the exact opposite problem. The film is nearly a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece. The result is a movie that's just an inferior copy of the original. Vince Vaughn is fine as Norman Bates, but he's just copying Anthony Perkins' superior performance. There's literally no reason to watch this instead of the original, since both movies are basically the same thing.
The Fog (2005)
Columbia Pictures
After making Halloween, John Carpenter directed The Fog, a flawed but creepy movie about a seaside town besieged by a haunted fog. The 2005 remake tells a similar story, but without any of the low budget charm that the original had. The problem is the concept is pretty goofy, and the remake doesn't do anything to fix the inherent problems with the story. Instead, it focuses on Tom Welling and Maggie Grace as they both act bored while trying to solve a mystery that isn't that engaging.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Next Entertainment
Remaking one of the grittiest movies of all time as a slick, big-budget, major studio movie was an interesting choice. Jessica Biel leads a cast of attractive young people who come across a family of cannibals while traveling through Texas in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003). While R. Lee Ermey is great as the sadistic sheriff, he can't save the rest of this movie. The film's biggest problem is that Biel's character constantly makes terrible decisions that get other people killed, and she's supposed to be the hero.
The Haunting (1999)
Universal Pictures
Martin Scorsese considers the original 1963 The Haunting to be one of the scariest horror movies ever made. The remake, however, is mostly remembered for its bad CGI and confusing story. The film stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor as a group tricked into spending the night at a haunted house. The effects are generally too bad to be scary and, worst of all, the movie is mostly boring.
Thir13en Ghosts (2001)
Warner Bros.
Thir13en Ghosts actually hurts to watch. The original 1960 movie 13 Ghosts is mainly remembered for its gimmick of using 3D glasses to make the ghosts appear and disappear in certain scenes. The remake is known for bright flashes, loud bangs and way too many quick cuts, and viewers complained that it literally gave them headaches.
The movie does have a unique design, and the ghosts are genuinely creepy looking. Unfortunately, the story is convoluted and the movie has too many cheesy moments to make it worth it to deal with the pain of watching it.
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Dark Castle Entertainment
It's hard to take a movie seriously when the main character is doing a bad Vincent Price impression the entire time. Geoffrey Rush stars as a wealthy man who pays a group of people to stay at a haunted house overnight in The House on Haunted Hill. He also wears a goofy-looking Vincent Price costume the entire movie and looks completely out of place.
Chris Kattan stars in a serious role for which he was completely miscast. The movie isn't scary, the effects are bad and, worst of all, there's too many twists during the final act. Everyone is secretly betraying everyone else and it's just too much.
Related: The Spookiest Ghost Stories From Every State
Pet Sematary (2019)
Paramount Pictures
Sometimes, dead is better, and that's definitely true for this franchise.
While the original 1989 movie isn't a masterpiece, it's a fairly creepy movie with some genuine scares. The 2019 Pet Sematary remake, however, is just generally boring. It generally tells the same story as the original movie (and the Stephen King book it's based on), where a desperate father uses a magic burial ground to bring his dead child back to life. Unfortunately, what comes out of the ground is evil. Unfortunately, the remake makes some strange changes to the story which ultimately undercuts the horror and the end result is easily forgettable.
Related: The Scariest Movies on Netflix
The Omen (2006)
20th Century Studios
Damien, a young boy who is probably the antichrist, terrified audiences in 1976's The Omen. That film spawned several sequels and remained a cult hit among horror movie fans. In 2006, 20th Century Fox remade the movie, hoping to recapture the horror of Damien (and capitalize on the 06/06/06 release date). Unfortunately, the new version doesn't do much to update the story for modern audiences and ultimately just feels like an inferior version to the original.
Carrie (2013)
MGM
Sissy Spacek nailed it as Carrie, the titular character in the 1976 horror movie based on Stephen King's first published novel. The film tells the story of a young, sheltered girl who is bullied at school and abused at home. When she develops psychic powers, she ends up getting revenge on the school in a truly iconic scene. The remake cast Chloe Grace Moretz as the titular character and, unfortunately, she couldn't live up to Spacek's performance. While the original actress was perfect for the role of a shy, innocent girl trying to escape her tormentors, Moretz came across as too confident. Carrie (2013) isn't terrible, but anyone looking for a scare should just watch the original.
The Mummy (2017)
Universal Pictures
After successfully remaking The Mummy in 1999, Universal hoped to repeat the same trick in 2017. This time, however, the studio planned to use The Mummy to launch a connected film universe similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only with monsters instead of super heroes. This version of The Mummy is a confusing mess that's part supernatural horror, part action thriller. It features a team of secret agents led by Dr. Jekyll (played by Russell Crowe) and also rips off elements of An American Werewolf in London. Not surprisingly, the Universal monster-verse didn't continue past this movie—at least not with Tom Cruise.
The Wolfman (2010)
Universal Pictures
Universal loves its classic monsters. In 2010, Benicio del Toro stepped into the unfortunate shoes of the titular The Wolfman. The film had a troubled production, which saw multiple delays, massive reshoots and multiple cuts of the movie. When the film finally released, audiences generally ignored it and bombed at the box office. Sadly, the movie isn't particularly good. While del Toro gives a solid performance, along with Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving, the story is muddled and the film just isn't that scary.
