10 Unnecessary Changes In Horror Remakes

Many horror movies have gotten remakes at some point, and while there have been some that improved upon the original version, many made unnecessary changes that affected the entire movie. Remakes inevitably carry a lot of pressure as, more often than not, the movies getting this treatment are successful and popular ones, praised for their quality or became cult classics as years went by. Because of this, remakes often fail to surpass or even match the success and quality of the original movie, though there have been cases where they improved upon the original.

In the horror genre, remakes have a bad reputation due to many failed remakes over the years. Various horror classics have gone through the experience of being remade, and as mentioned above, not all of them succeeded. In many cases, these remakes failed due to unnecessary changes made to the characters, their individual stories, and the plot in general, which only made the audience appreciate the original movies even more and added to their legacies.

10 Kathy’s Nightmares In The Omen (2006)

Kathy’s nightmares took the mystery away.

Richard Donner’s The Omen got a remake in 2006, which seized the opportunity of being released on June 6, 2006 – however, what it didn’t seize was what the original movie did with the story and the mystery around Damien and the Thorn family. Although at many points John Moore’s The Omen is almost a shot-by-shot and word-by-word remake, at others it’s too different due to unnecessary additions made by the production team.

The Omen follows the same premise as the original movie, but instead of building up the mystery and tension of what’s really happening with Damien, it completely gives it away by giving Kathy Thorn (Julia Stiles) nightmares about her “son” in which it’s very clear that there’s something supernatural going on with him and that she’s in great danger.

9 Andy Is Older In Child’s Play (2019)

It’s hard to believe this Andy would be carrying a doll around.

In 2019, Tom Holland’s (the director, that is) 1988 horror classic Child’s Play got a remake. In the original movie, six-year-old Andy Barclay is given a Good Guy doll for his birthday that turns out to be possessed by serial killer Charles Lee Ray. In the remake, however, Andy (Gabriel Bateman) was changed to be a 12-year-old, hearing-impaired, lonely kid who is given a corrupted Buddi doll. Chucky helped Andy make friends and protected him, but it was hard to believe that a 12-year-old would be carrying around a doll, as impressive as the toy was.

8 The Tape Is Overexplained In The Ring (2002)

Another example of taking the mystery away.

Various Japanese horror movies have gotten American remakes, and among the most notable ones is The Ring. Both movies follow a reporter racing to investigate a mysterious cursed videotape that kills whoever watches it seven days after doing so. While both versions eventually solve the mystery of who are the people in the tape and how to avoid death after seven days, the American remake explains every scene in the deadly tape, not only taking the mystery and suspense away but also making it quite tiring and unexciting.

7 Ellie Dies Instead of Gage In Pet Sematary (2019)

Gage’s death is what made Pet Sematary so tragic.

In both Stephen King’s Pet Sematary novel and the 1989 adaptation, what triggers a series of tragic events for the Creed family is the death of their two-year-old son Gage. His father, Louis Creed, buries Gage at the title pet cemetery so he can be resurrected, but Gage comes back as an evil child. The 2019 remake changed this and, instead, Gage’s older sister, Ellie, is the one who is killed. Ellie’s death in Pet Sematary 2019 is also quite exaggerated and thus hard to believe, and while her death is also tragic, Gage’s death had a bigger and more painful effect on the audience, and he was a lot scarier when he was resurrected.

6 Michael Myers’ Backstory In Rob Zombie’s Halloween

Michael Myers’ backstory didn’t need to be explored.

John Carpenter’s Halloween was remade in 2007 with Rob Zombie as director and writer, and while he kept the premise of the original movie, he made a bunch of additions that were, ultimately, detrimental. A big part of what made Michael Myers so scary in Carpenter’s classic is that it isn’t explained why Michael Myers killed, simply saying that he was the embodiment of evil. Zombie’s remake, however, spent its entire first act exploring Michael’s backstory, establishing him as a psychopath whose first murder wasn’t that of his sister, trying to make him a sympathetic character when he shouldn’t be.

5 Freddy Krueger’s Crimes In A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

Freddy Krueger’s backstory was retconned.

Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street got a remake in 2010 that not only changed Freddy Krueger’s design (in a failed attempt to make him look more “realistic”) but also his backstory. In Craven’s original movie, Krueger was killed by the parents of the children he killed, but in the remake, his crimes were a lot more horrible. In the remake, Krueger was made into a child molester, whose favorite was Nancy (Rooney Mara), and was now looking for revenge against the now-teenage kids for revealing his abuse, whereas in the original movie, he wanted revenge on the parents by killing their now-teenage children.

4 Billy’s Backstory in Black Christmas (2006)

Too much explaining backfired.

1974’s Black Christmas left the mystery of who Billy was and why he killed the sorority sisters, but the 2006 remake gave him a backstory – and not only that, but a tragic one that also turned him into a victim. In it, Billy was born with severe jaundice due to liver disease and was abused by his mother for years, but the last straw was when she raped him to conceive another child as her boyfriend was impotent. Just like with Michael Myers, the audience doesn’t need to feel sorry for the villain, and that’s exactly what Black Christmas did with Billy’s unnecessarily tragic and disturbing backstory.

3 Everyone’s Possessed In Evil Dead (2013)

At least not everyone died.

Either a remake or a re-imagining, Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead took the setting and premise of Sam Raimi’s 1981 horror classic and made unnecessary changes that weren’t exactly for the best. Instead of Ash Williams, this version had Mia Allen (Jane Levy) as the Final Girl, but unlike Ash, she was the first one to be possessed by the evil forces released through the reading of the Naturom Demonto. Mia wasn’t the only one who went through that experience, as the rest of the characters in the cabin (except Mia’s brother, but he dies in an explosion) were also possessed, but none of them survived.

2 Chris Is A Psychopath In Carrie (2013)

Chris went from villain to complete monster.

Brian de Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Carrie is regarded as one of the best Stephen King adaptations, but the same can’t be said for the 2013 remake. Among the worst changes made in it is how the character of Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday) was handled. In the novel and the first adaptation, Chris is a “mean girl” and bully, as well as the one responsible for the pig blood “prank” on Carrie, but in the remake, she’s a total psychopath, turning her into a real monster rather than an antagonist.

1 The Peephole Scene In Psycho (1998)

The Psycho remake made this scene unnecessarily gross.

Despite being considered one of the greatest films of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was remade almost shot-by-shot in 1998, with one unnecessary and gross addition. In Hitchcock’s film, Norman Bates spies on Marion through a peephole, but the remake added that Bates was pleasuring himself while spying on her. Bates’ voyeurism didn’t need to go to those lengths, as proven by Hitchcock’s film, and it was a big part of why the Psycho remake was a critical and commercial failure, with critics and viewers agreeing that it was an inappropriate and unnecessary addition.