10 Remakes Of Classic '80s Movies That Bombed Terribly
4. The Thing
The Original: John Carpenter’s retelling of The Thing From Another World (itself inspired by a John W Campbell story) is very different, replacing the man-in-a-suit monster with Rob Bottin’s jaw-dropping practical effects, which still stand up more than 30 years later. A box office disappointment on release, the movie has since acquired cult status and several famous fans including Robert Rodriguez and James Gunn.
The Remake: The filmmakers actually claim this is a prequel, which is odd considering it follows Carpenter’s movie beat for beat. Once again, an arctic expedition discovers a creature in the ice and again they’re picked off one by one, but this time the transformation scenes are accomplished with crummy digital effects that don’t even look good after 27 beers.
In fact, the effects are so poor that they were blamed for the film’s underwhelming box office returns. On a $38 million budget, the film could only drum up $26 million worth of business worldwide.