10 Underrated Horror Movie Remakes

Thirteen Ghosts is a lot more fun than you remember...

13 Ghosts Matthew Lillard
Columbia Pictures

Remaking a film is never easy. You have to find the right balance of picking things to keep from the original entry, and then building upon them to either elevate them to superior levels or reimagine them into something entirely new yet brilliant.

The horror genre is never short of remakes and in the case of series like Friday the 13th, you can argue most of the films in the franchise are merely loose remakes, following the same basic structure with mildly differing assets.

It's a terribly difficult thing to get right as if you change too much you stand to alienate fans of the first entry, and if you change too little then there isn't much point in the final product. With a crowd as passionate as the horror community, you better make it worth their while.

These are movies that were either dismissed as inferior to the originals and as punishment were cast into obscurity or ridicule for all time. Or they irritated people with just how they reimagined things, seemingly for the worse and serves only to frustrate anyone looking forward to a return to their respective series.

However, they have been unfairly maligned by unforgiving audiences that relish failure, and these are 10 severely underrated horror remakes and deserve another look now the heat from their releases have died down and we can judge them with fresh eyes.

Warning: There will be light spoilers ahead...

10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

13 Ghosts Matthew Lillard
New Line Cinema

One of the most infamously hated remakes on the list, the Michael Bay produced Texas Chainsaw' is mostly seen as a less scary, studio ordered version of the much-praised original. However, it does so much different from the 1974 film this comparison is unfair, and in some areas, it really surpasses it in terms of sheer panic.

R. Lee Ermey is unbelievably terrifying in this version as Sheriff Hoyt, being intimidating to a fault and has a chilling backstory of gaining a taste for flesh during the Korean war.

Leatherface is also a force of pure anxiety rather than the clumsy child-like brute from the original, as he charges into the movie randomly and raises hell.

Many complained about this version containing blood when the original was so stripped back, but the violence is actually very carefully done to show just enough disturbing imagery to imbed in your brain without being gratuitous.

It's a very slick looking movie as well, setting it apart from the low-budget original to allow viewers to see every ugly detail of the psychotic hillbilly household and its inhabitants.

The introduction of Leatherface in this remake is still an insane rush of adrenaline no horror fan should miss out on.

It's a film that switched things up to give a reimagined take of Texas Chainsaw' that gets a lot more hate than it deserves, and is the best entry into the franchise besides the original by a mile.

Contributor

Crazy fan of MMA who also loves his films.