By way of introduction, I think it fitting to point out that what this blog means to do has been done before. In fact, every time a remake is released, the critics don't even try to avoid comparisons to the original. And neither will I.The inspiration for this blog actually goes back to my college days where I joined some friends in starting a film club. A few times a week with the aid of a DVD player and projector, we would convert the science hall lecture auditorium into a fairly decent movie theater. Better than what they threw together in the student center, anyways. (Campus Life had nothin' on us.) I'm not certain the whole affair was entirely legal, what with copyright laws and all, but hey...
In order to get the club off to a rousing start, we kicked-off in October with a month of spooky double-features. We may have even provided refreshments, but I wouldn't swear to it. Of course, the horror genre is replete with remakes, which we sought to avoid at the time. Still, it was somehow decided to show the 1922 silent film Nosferatu against the 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. It was pretty stunning to see first-hand how director F. W. Murnau totally ripped off the source material and how, in turn, Tod Browning's legitimate production ripped off the rip-off!
Needless to say, I very much enjoyed the experience. For awhile, I tried to encourage a repeat of the remake double-feature, but I must not have been very convincing. But since then it has become a hobby of mine to compare original films to their remade counterparts. This blog is just the next natural step in that pastime.
Of course, films of every genre get remade, not just horror flicks. The focus of this blog is on remakes in general across all genres, in spite of the inspiration. Also, if you are looking for scads of embedded YouTube clips, you're in the wrong place. I may drag one up from time to time, but if you really want to compare film against film, I recommend popping a bowl of popcorn, sitting down, and watching them for yourself.
Enjoy the show!
The Management
