Tag: Remake

“Carrie” (2013) Remake Brings New Blood to Familiar Story

Slasher Studios*31 Days of Horror

In the remake of the original Brian De Palma film, and based off of the novel by Stephen King, Carrie tells the story of young Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) who goes through life being tormented by classmates and teachers. The only person she feels close to is her religion-obsessed mother Margaret (Julianne Moore). After a cruel joke, one of the popular girls, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) decides to provide an act of kindness to Carrie by allowing her boyfriend to ask her to prom. But along the way, Carrie starts to develop telekinetic abilities that could bring disastrous results if she’s pushed too far.

I believe that to compare this remake with the original and say which is better would be completely wrong and impossible. Both films have very strong aspects of their own that make them both able to stand on their own. But to discuss this version as a remake itself, I would definitely have to say it was VERY well-done. The film really gets into the emotional side of the story, we really get to know Carrie and get a sense of her loneliness. This in part is due to an excellent performance by Chloe Grace Moretz in what I really think is her best performance to date. She portrays the emotions of Carrie with such ease that you really feel for the character and think of her as a real person. But when it switches gears and her evil side appears, Moretz provides a very chilling performance. We are also given Julianne Moore as Carrie’s mother. From the start of the film and until the very end, Moore shows just how unhinged Margaret White is, and she does it perfectly. Her performances leaves the viewer really unsettled with her dead and haunting performance. As for the effects, unfortunately this remake is filled with a lot of CGI. Does it completely ruin the film? No. But it does take away a lot of the effect. The prom scene for example, while much more violent (which I was pleased about), the CGI was really noticeable. But despite this, some of the effects combined with amazing camera shots is very well-done. One example being when two characters are involved in a car crash, the impacts in the crash were very cool (and slightly disturbing) to watch.

So overall, Carrie is a very well-done and perfectly modernized remake that lets us get in touch emotionally with our lead, plenty of bloody moments, and most of all, amazing performances by Moretz and Moore.

–Cody Landman

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Horror Movie Posters: “The Haunting” (1960) & (1999)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Movie Posters

Fourteen years ago today, “The Haunting” remake opening in theaters everywhere and was a huge box office hit making nearly $200 million worldwide. It stands to date as one of the highest grossing horror remakes of all time although many critics were less than impressed. Today we are looking at the posters from the original classic “The Haunting” and comparing them with the posters from the remake. Which poster do you like the best and do you feel that the remake deserves more respect than it originally received upon release?

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Original Cinema Quad Poster - Movie Film Posters

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Tim’s Slasher Tweet Reviews: “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Tweet Review

Today we bring you a brand new slasher review from our one and only twitter reviewer Tim Schilling. In the first review we bring you today, Tim will be looking at “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake. The film received mixed reviews but was a huge commercial success making over $80 million on a $10 million budget. Let’s see nine years later how well this remake holds up to the original classic.

Thoughts before the film:
The original #TexasChainsawMassacre is one of my favorite horror movies. I love the whole series too(3 is the only one I haven’t seen yet).

Thoughts while watching:
0:02 I liked the way they introduced the movie. Very different.
0:07 I want this guy’s van. They’re too freaking cool.
0:16 This old lady ain’t calling the cops.
0:22 That possum had to of been mutant or something.
0:26 This house was definitely a slave house in the past, no question.
0:31 I want pet pigs in my house! Wait I lied.
0:32 No other movie in this series could ever top seeing Leatherface for the first time like they did in the original
0:41 Oh no… Teeth. If I have nightmares about my teeth remember, I will sue.
0:45 Leatherface doesn’t give a crap about the house in every movie. It just gets destroyed all the time.
0:46 The car doesn’t start. Typical.
0:54 There weren’t any bullets in the gun, typical!
1:00 Holy crap, Leatherface is really creepy in this one when he changed faces.
1:01 At least he’s not a screeching transvestite anymore.
1:20 Going to a meat factory in a horror movie is just asking to die.
1:25 Leatherface gets messed up in this movie.
1:28 What’s with people not being able to explain what happened to them? A guy chased me with a chainsaw. Easy.

Final Verdict:
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake) wasn’t that bad I don’t think. By the end it got repetitive, but I thought it was a different but good take on the simple story of the original.

To follow Tim on twitter: https://twitter.com/schillingt
To follow Slasher Studios on twitter: https://twitter.com/slasherstudios

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Tim’s Slasher Tweet Reviews: “Rob Zombie’s Halloween” (2007)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Tweet Review

I’ve often felt that Rob Zombie’s remake of “Halloween” is the cream of the crop when it comes to horror remakes. He was both faithful to the original while giving the material his own innovative twist. Today we have our Twitter reviewer Tim Schilling with his take on the misunderstood remake. Will he be a fan of this remake or feel as though this is one film that should have been left alone?

Thoughts before the film:
Giving this movie a second chance. The first time I saw it I hardly payed attention. #Halloween

Thoughts while watching:

0:02 Wait that’s a lie. I saw this again recently. The beginning makes me so sad.
0:05 This is the last movie I would think the kid from Spy Kids would be in.
0:07 One thing I LOVE about Zombie’s version is that he shows Michael as a kid, and why he turns into a killer.
0:12 For only making like 4 movies, Zombie sure is pretty stylish.
0:19 Good, kinda glad you’re dead Robbie.
0:27 Hi, I’m Michael Myers!
0:29 I totally forgot the uncle from Spy Kids was in this movie!
0:30 Black is a color. Shut up dr. Loomis.
0:42 Dr. Loomis is a drama queen.
0:49 Not sure how I feel about Michael killing the Spy Kids guy, if he didn’t it would show he still had a nice side.
0:49 But since he did it shows he’s a crazy lunatic who kills people who even helped him.
0:53 Obligatory black guy death.
1:07 Sid Haig runs a graveyard in this too? What if this is in the same world as NOTLD 3D? HAH.
1:08 I wanna party in a haunted house.
1:17 Zombie’s Halloween mask > Carpenter’s Halloween mask.
1:27 Danielle Harris is pretty damn hot.
1:46 Gah I hate the eye gouge thing. It’s painful to even watch.

Final Verdict:
Complain all you want about remakes, but Zombie makes a great looking movie no matter what. Besides the movie looking awesome, you can’t really compare it to the original. The movies are completely different and each does their own thing that makes BOTH of the #Halloween movies good. I think Zombie’s will be remembered as much as the original eventually.

To follow Tim on twitter: https://twitter.com/schillingt
To follow Slasher Studios on twitter: https://twitter.com/slasherstudios

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Nightmare Redux: “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010) Review

Slasher StudiosNightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
What I liked:
* The back story. Trying to figure out if Freddy really did the things he was accused of.
*The ending. Loved how the mom died.
*The relationship between Nancy and Quentin.
*The preschool stuff and the “class list”.
*Freddy’s lair and “the box”
*Freddy torturing Jesse.
*All of the stuff at the pharmacy.
*The “micro naps”

What I didn’t:
*The opening scene. Yawn.
*Pretty much everything before Kris died.
*The scenes that were in the trailer that weren’t in the movie (tunnel, Kris as Freddy, the pool opening, the peak-a-boo Freddy).
*The bad CGI.
*The awful acting by the parents.

Overall: Worth a rent and definitely not as bad as some fans have made it seem.

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Wax? Paris Hilton? What’s the Difference? “House of Wax” Review

Slasher StudiosHouse of Wax

In 1974, a woman is making a wax head in the kitchen while her son eats cereal in his highchair. Her husband enters carrying a young boy who is shouting and kicking. The boy is forced into a highchair and strapped in place by his father. After being strapped and taped to his chair by his mother, he scratches her hand. She then slaps her child across the face.

In 2005, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) with her friend Paige (Paris Hilton) and Paige’s boyfriend Blake (Robert Ri’chard) are on their way to a highly anticipated football game in Louisiana. Eventually, Carly’s delinquent twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray) and his friend Dalton (Jon Abrahams) also join them. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until Nick smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, Carly and Paige go exploring, Carly falls down a cliff and lands in deer remains and sees a fake hand. Wade’s car’s fan belt is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester (Damon Herriman), who offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game.

The two arrive at Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town. Unable to find an attendant at the auto mechanics shop, they wander into the church, disrupting a funeral. There, they meet a mechanic named Bo (Brian Van Holt), who offers to sell them a fan belt after the funeral. While waiting for the services to end, Carly and Wade visit the wax museum, which itself is made of wax and is the central feature of the town. Afterward, they follow Bo to his house to find a proper fan belt. While there, Wade is crippled and stabbed by a long-haired man with a wax facemask named Vincent. Bo grabs Carly, super glues her lips shut and locks her in a cellar. Dalton and Nick arrive in Ambrose to look for Carly and Wade. Vincent meanwhile strips and shaves Wade, then puts him in a chair with a metal contraption on his head which pins his eyes open. Vincent pulls a couple of levers which showers the immobile Wade with hot wax.

Can Wade escape? Will Paris die? Are any of them safe? Oh please…House of Wax isn’t really big on plot. It’s got your normal set-up that deals with extremely attractive boys and girls ending up in a bad situation. Some live, some die. If you’ve seen a horror film in the last 30 years, you know how it goes. The movie is slow going and a bit choppy at the beginning but still with it. Even after watching countless horror films over the last few years, I’ve gotta admit that I’ve become jaded and can smell things coming a mile away.

So the production team decided to go with that idea and jack it up a notch and tell the audience, OK, you know what’s going to happen next, but we’re going to make it ugly so you’ll jump out of your seat. And casting Paris Hilton was a stroke of genius because for the first time that I can recall a hot female character that people still wanted to see die. And, she did a nice striptease down to her underwear before the bad stuff happened to her. When things get bad, it gets really bad in a hurry. In fact, all the death sequences were quite horrible to watch, yet I couldn’t help but feel that the horror movie geek inside of me was very, very satisfied.

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Just Hang Up: “When a Stranger Calls” (2005) Review

Slasher StudiosWhen a Stranger Calls (2005)

On one side of town, a babysitter and the kids she is watching are brutally murdered. The police are disgusted as it is implied that the murderer used his bare hands to rip them to shreds. The film then changes to teenager Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle). She is going through average teenage crises, having her boyfriend, Bobby (Brian Geraghty), cheat on her with her best friend Tiffany (Katie Cassidy), and going over 800 minutes on her cell phone, for which her dad, Ben (Clark Gregg), is making her babysit for a rich family to pay the debt. This causes her to miss a school bonfire, which her friend, Scarlett (Tessa Thompson), is attending. She arrives at the exquisite and elaborate Mandrakis House, perched upon a lake with a maid and a greenhouse built in the center.

The parents (Derek de Lint and Kate Jennings Grant) show her around and tell her their numbers, stating that they won’t be back until midnight. The kids are upstairs asleep and it should be an easy night for Jill. Jill begins the night by snooping and trying on Mrs. Mandrakis’ jewelry, in other words, being a bitchy teenage brat. She then starts receiving anonymous phone calls; she first dismisses them. The calls soon to be too much and poor Jill is threatened with her life. Will she make it out of the night alive?

Once in a great while I will watch a movie that completely surprises me. One that comes out of nowhere to be a bit of rousing entertainment. One that is pure fun from beginning to end. Well folks, “When A Stranger Calls” is NOT that movie. It is an unbelievably stupid and far fetched remake of the much better 1979 horror camp classic. Our lead heroine Jill is forced to babysit after going over her cell phone minutes and is harassed by telephone calls from a mysterious caller. Every cliche in the world is used here from the stupid cat-jumping-out-of-a-hidden-spot to the car that won’t start. This movie is bad…not even bad in a “so bad it’s good way” more in a “so bad it’s boring way.” Skip this godawful film and save your movie for something else. You’ll thank me later, trust me on this.

Buy it here…if you dare: When a Stranger Calls

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