11 Horror Movie Remakes Coming In 2017

For whatever reason, the horror genre is particularly fertile ground for remakes and reboots. But if past efforts prove anything, it’s that a horror remake can be a risky operation with films running the gamut from the brilliant, like Gore Verbinski’s retake on Japanese horror The Ring or John Carpenter’s superior version of The Thing for example, to the downright awful. That means you, Psycho and Cabin Fever.

Horror remakes are a kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation for filmmakers. On the one hand, attempting to remake an acclaimed horror is often met with outrage that anyone would even dare to try and better a classic but on the other, remaking a horror that was never really that scary or well-received to begin with asks the question: why bother?

Of course, there’s the argument that directors and studios are simply paying homage to bygone horrors or trying to engage new generations of horror fans with the chillers of yesteryear. It's more likely they're hoping to make a quick buck. But considering the glut of horror remakes winding their way to cinema screens next year, it seems more like the genre is suffering a distinct lack of originality.

Due in part to a failure to properly protect Night of the Living Dead by copyright, the film has technically been in the public domain since its 1968 release. This has spawned a whole host of remakes including, but by no means limited to, the Tom Savini directed and George A. Romero written 1990 remake, a 3D interpretation made by Jeff Broadstreet in 2006, and James Plumb’s Wales set take, Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection.

The latest director to take on the film is Michael A. Isaacs – whose other credits include post-apocalyptic TV miniseries Deaderfied and horror short Bubba-Blue – in an independent, crowdfunded project featuring a cast of relatively unknown actors and produced by Necrocity Entertainment. So far, it seems to pretty much follow the storyline of Romero’s original, though the iconic character of Ben originally played by Duane Jones, seems to be swapped for a female incarnation of the role.

We’ll reserve judgement for the time being, but given the quality of the majority of Night of the Living Dead remakes, we’re not pinning our hopes too high on this one.