10 Film Remakes That Are Better Than The Original
4. The Thing From Another World (1951) & The Thing (1981)
The Original
Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) was the uncredited director of this early 50s sci-fi / monster mash. It’s an early foray into the cold war paranoia themes that would define a decade of sci-fi movies with a team of soldiers and scientists battling an alien beastie in the Arctic.
By no means a terrible film, it’s somewhat faded into obscurity, largely on account of…
The Remake
More a reimagining of the source novel, Who Goes There, the remake is eminently better on almost every level. Director John Carpenter (Halloween) turns the arctic outpost into a bleak, claustrophobically edgy environment and the perfect backdrop for the events which will unfold.
Relentlessly unsettling, the film shreds our nerves from the outset, building the paranoia and insecurity among the characters all the way up to 11. Before throwing in some genuinely shocking and potentially pant-ruining set-pieces.
A classic horror film, from a classic horror film maker.
Let’s just pretend the remake of the remake in 2011 never happened.