Horror Remakes

I'm not really big on remakes especially horror remakes. Too many remakes these days are being ruined with bad acting, to many cgi effects and not enough old school effects and changing the movie to the point of not going in the direction of the original. For instance, Dawn Of The Dead. They did not use any of the original four characters and even worse they had the zombies running. That worked for Return of the Living Dead but to screw with a Romero classic in this way just tastless.

I have seen a couple of remakes that do live up to the originals though, like Night Of The Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I'm not sure if anyone will agree with me on this but I think Night Of The Living Dead '90 in some ways surpassed the original. One reason I say this is because I like how they made Barbara's character stronger and not so whiny. It also helped that George Romero was involved with this remake and Tom Savini did a great job on directing. Tony Todd was an awesome choice for the role of Ben and had some of the coolest and most memorable lines in the movie. Patricia Tallman was another great choice as Barbara. And who could forget Tom Towels as Harry Cooper. He really made you despise his character.

But enough of my going on and on. What are your thoughts on remakes? Do you love 'em or hate 'em? What are your favorite remakes if any?

I'm as a rule, not a fan of remakes, basically, because if a film is already considered a classic, how can it possibly be improved upon? That being said, I'm a huge fan of the films from Hammer Studios, which I'm constantly reminded that these films were in fact, remakes of Universal films and while I agree, I do believe Hammer took many of the films they remade and made them just enough different that they were interesting and enjoyable.

I actually do enjoy the '90 version of, Night of the Living Dead for the reasons you give....it was great to see the role of Barbara as a strong individual, not shrieking and screaming and crying every minute. Tony Todd was also a brilliant choice for Ben and Romero and Savini, having worked together in the past did make for a nice team in this film.

Remakes in general are a bit hit-and-miss, but horror is a genre that suffers particularly badly. I don't think I'm being too cynical to suggest that these remakes usually have more to do with making a quick, guaranteed buck, rather than being a creative one.

I don't usually like remakes.
The didn't care much for the 90's Night Of The Living Dead. The acting was good, the make-up and FX where good, but I don't think it capured the same feel as the first. The first had a very personal, claustraphobic feel that the remake lacks. It seemed a little empty.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was o.k.
The Hills Have Eyes was the best remake so far.
Pschyo was the worst I've seen.

I dont mind remakes, I mean if they didnt we wouldnt have The Grudge or The Ring (which I liked)..

I have to agree thought the worst remake has too be Psycho.

I liked Dawn of the Dead,it didnt matter too me it didnt have any of the original characters, I mean the director even said this wasn't a remake per say.

The one Im not too sure about is the remake of The Hitcher... I loved the original so much till this day its still a great thrill ride, so Im not sure if I'll like the remake or not

This is probably good news (more or less), the Escape From New York remake is (this is from Carpenter) is supposed to be a prequel. I think everyone would still rather see Escape From Earth with Russel, but this could be interesting.