Once Old, Now New Again

Remakes. Yes, the most contested movies in all of moviedom. A lot of people online just love to hate them. They whine, moan, complain, harass people who are excited for them, and frankly can't resist speaking up every single time one or even the thought of one is mentioned. Except for the fanatic insistences and blind hatred I say good on them for sticking to their guns. As we looked at last time out people complain if a movie is similar to a previous one and isn't a remake so there's really no winning. Except... there is one remake that almost no one complains about. That would be John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). Whether you like it--and its distasteful subject matter--or not Wes Craven's acclaimed first outing The Last House on the Left (1972) is pretty much a remake of The Virgin Spring (1960)--apparently the Virgin Spring's scriptwriter based it off of a ballad of all things. Craven himself cites the Virgin Spring, though some debate if that truly makes a remake.

Within remakes there is another subdivision called the reboot. All reboots are remakes, but not all remakes are reboots. To start, a reboot denotes a franchise, meaning a movie with sequels. While there are close remakes and loose remakes--The Thing and Last House on the Left are varying degrees of loose--reboots tend to change something within the story. Again the significance of the change varies. A prime example of a reboot is the remake of Friday the 13th (2009). Its first significant change is that it revolves around Jason, whereas the original first Friday the 13th movie did not. Other than Jason there are next to no other characters from the original film. There aren't even camp councillors. In contrast the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) while different in several aspects does not feel like a reboot despite the different additional characters. It added elements to the original, but not in a way that changed anything.

The adding of elements and expanding upon the ideas in the original is what makes for a great remake. A perfect example is the remake of The Hills Have Eyes (2006). It takes most of the original and then adds to it immensely, and in a way that feels natural. It also modernises the story without actually changing the timeframe (at least as far as I noticed). What it did was make more sense in the story's end, and as a good remake does it removed traits from the film that didn't age well and would make it dated. On the other hand it seemed like some of the addition was very close to a different unrelated horror movie, which itself borrowed from something else altogether. Another great remake that adds to the original is the remake of The Amityville Horror (2005). What it added to the film was in some parts new and in others elements present in the original novel that did not make it into the first film. I think this Amityville is the best remake of the new millennium yet.

Mood: stoic.
Music: Big Man With A Gun by Nine Inch Nails and (Ghost) Riders In The Sky by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes.

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Bad Comparison Claims

I wanted to talk a little bit today about movies, in specific the complaints about them revolving around one movie ripping off another. There are some pretty out there comparisons.

For instance someone described Darkness Falls as a rip-off of the Friday the 13th movies. You know that a flying old dead hag wearing a white mask who can't enter the light for fear of bursting into flames is exactly like a movie about a guy who eventually dons a hockey mask, becomes undead, and throughout life, death, undeath kills people for being naughty. Pretty broad comparison there if you ask me.

Someone making one of the documentaries about the original Halloween decided that Evil Dead is a Halloween rip-off because you know, people trapped in the woods fighting demonically possessed people and corpses is exactly like a movie about a guy in a mask killing babysitters. Never mind the fact that Evil Dead is actually to some degree an homage to Night of the Living Dead and not a rip-off of that even.

The other day I saw another ludicrous comparison. The Manitou is a rip-off of the Exorcist because you know that a woman with a tumour on her neck that's actually an embryo of a reincarnated Native American medicine man bent on destroying modern day white people is exactly like the story of a girl suffering from demonic possession. Wow, the similarity is just uncanny. Come on people.

Don't let these baseless accusations slide. No one likes a mean dismissal of their thoughts, so kindly and gently educate if you see something outrageous like this. As smart places on the web say, don't address the poster, don't make it personal, just state the big differences in these movies. Remember, only you can prevent flame wars.

On the other hand don't be afraid of pointing out the really close ones like say (and I cannot recommend anyone actually watch this movie) The Astronaut's Wife, which is very similar to Rosemary's Baby. I'm not even saying that closeness is itself an issue, just that unlike the other examples it's pretty clear. My issue with the movie is what I consider it's lack of quality, which is neither here nor there, and some people may like it.

I hear recent The Roommate is much like Single White Female from years back. So what. I don't have a problem with that. It's just this idea that everything is a rip-off and thus bad and should be, I don't know, blocked, banned, or burned that gets me--of course compounded by blatant mistakes in the similarity. I guess that's all I have to say about this now. Next time, my take on remakes.

Mood: spleeny.
Music: The Ripper by Iced Earth and Let Me Hear You Scream by Ozzy Osbourne.

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Friday the 13th and the Bikers

Happy Friday the 13th everybody. That special day that only comes one or twice a year is upon us. Being summer, the usual 13th ballyhoo is larger than when it falls in cooler weather, not that today is all that hot outside. It seems rather nice out if a bit windy. Not the weather some would have liked, certainly not weather for ogling Ontario's topless swimmers. Though when the wind drops its warm.

What am I talking about you ask? You don’t know what goes on every Friday the 13th around where I live? Well let me tell you. Every Friday the 13th thousands upon thousands (says the news) of motorcyclists descend upon a town call Port Dover for a big gathering. It's been going on now for twenty-one years, counting the earlier date this year, and today. Bikers from all over Canada, and most of the US—especially in summer—come out for this often bi-annual event. I can only guess maybe it's an especially lucky year if there are three Friday the 13ths on the calendar.

What do all these bikers do over there at Port Dover? Other than carouse and get together with people they haven't seen since the last time I have no idea. One might suppose it's not the safest gather to snoop on. Probably a silly misconception, but one that's there nonetheless. Actually they are all well behaved or someone would have tried to put some kind of stop to it by now. People in Port Dover report they don't get much sleep, the bikers stay over the night and ride around the countryside for hours on end. A few hundred go by throughout the day here and we're twenty or more kilometres away.

Addendum: It was reported that 150,000 people (not just motorcycles, since some ride two people) descended upon Port Dover, a town/area of normally 6,000 people!

Mood: happy.
Music: Rainmaker by Iron Maiden and Wild Child by The Scorpions. Today's music is the 13th studio album by each of the bands.

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