Keep repeating: it's only a remake, it's only a remake, it's only a remake...

This year's The Last House on the Left is universally making audiences going "meh" unlike the original which made audiences go "ugh, yeesh...meh", I thought it would be suitable the write the 1,294,005th film nerd blog entry on the subject of remakes.

I'm not an anti-remake person, David Cronenberg's The Fly is one my favourite films of all time, The Hill's Have Eyes remake is a fantastic little horror film. It can however get a little out of hand, especially with many of the other horror remakes are treating the actual film title as commodity and remaking it just because people recognise the title My Bloody Valentine/Prom Night without having actually seen the original film. And in the case of My Bloody Valentine, the original wasn't very good. It's a clash between two anti-remake arguments.

"Why remake that film? The original is perfect!"

or

"Why remake that film? The original is awful!"

Why remake a bad film? Why remake a great film? What about remaking an okay film with a premise that has the possibilty of being great?! Like Westworld!...Quick check.... Yes they're remaking Westworld. Could be great!

I'm losing my point here. The fact is films are good and bad some remakes are bad, some can actually be good, some original films can be bad though. And if there was some law stating that a story can't be made into a film if it's already been done, we wouldn't have Charlton Heston in Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, The Wizard of Oz, The Fly, Scarface, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, High Society... and if you really want to get persnickety, what if someone told George Lucas he couldn't make Star Wars because it was just a space version of Hidden Fortress? Whether you like it or not no Star Wars means no ILM means no Pixar means no Toy Story, Finding Nemo or any of the other hugely original imaginative films Pixar have made.

How many paintings of the crucifixion are there?

Don't get me wrong though, I'm a bit of a complainer too. Especially when I hear that Ehren Kruger, the guy behind Scream 3 and The Skeleton Key is writing a remake of Videodrome as an action sci-fi thriller. My hopes aren't high. But what's the worse that can happen? Either we have a new version of Videodrome that's good or maybe even better than the original (not bloody likely) or we have a terrible film thats all flashy style with none of the nightmarish chilling tone of the original (likely) and all it will do is make people revisit and appreciate Cronenberg's film all the more.

So frown on about remakes, chances are if you're a complainer of them you've probably paid to see them and will pay again in the future out of curiousity or wanting to be righteous in your complaining. Either way the film is making money and the studio doesn't care what stance you watching the film under, just that you're watching it.

At least they're not remaking Robocop... quick check....

NOOOOOOOOO-cool poster-OOOOOO!

Makes you feel old when you can remember the originals being released.