10 Horror Movie Remakes That Were TOTALLY Different
5. The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of 1958's sci-fi horror The Fly touts the same basic premise, of a scientist being progressively transformed into a fly following an experiment gone wrong, but goes about it in a wildly different way.
The '50s film is a considerably more restrained and demure stab at George Langelaan's original short story, beginning with the protagonist's death and then going back to slowly unfurl the mystery of his demise.
It's certainly effective in its own right, but Cronenberg's remake ditches the distinct '50s creature feature B-movie vibe of the original for a full-on, nauseatingly grotesque body horror film that spares no icky detail.
Cronenberg lingers extensively on Seth Brundle's (Jeff Goldblum) increasingly disgusting transformation into a man-fly hybrid, serving as a commentary on human fragility, while the '58 film is considerably less objectionable content-wise and lacks quite the same depth.
The greater focus on romance in the remake, between Brundle and his lover Veronica (Geena Davis), also imparts it with far more emotional resonance than the original.
They're both very good films, but this is a rare case of a decades-later remake taking the core premise so much further.