10 Horror Movie Remakes That Were TOTALLY Different
8. The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing is a reimagining of Christian Nyby's 1951 sci-fi horror The Thing from Another World - or rather, a far more faithful adaptation of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella "Who Goes There?"
Beyond the obvious aesthetic differences of the '51 movie being black-and-white while the '82 remake is in colour, the original makes major changes to the novella by reimagining the Thing as a plant-like humanoid that requires blood to survive.
The shapeshifting aspect of the remake and Campbell's source material - where the Thing can mimic any living thing it contacts - is nowhere to be seen in Nyby's original film.
Also, the original has been widely interpreted as a thinly-veiled allegory for America's fear of Communism amid the Cold War, whereas the remake is often viewed as paralleling the AIDS epidemic of the '80s.
Beyond all this, the Carpenter film also touts considerably more elaborate and grotesque effects, while the original lacks this gnarly body horror element.
They're both solid films, but Carpenter's The Thing in a whole other league, and without question one of the greatest remakes ever.