12 Movie Remakes That Completely Screwed Up Iconic Scenes

8. The Truck Stop - The Hitcher

The Original: A classic staple of 1980s horror, The Hitcher is a deliciously depraved B-movie best remembered for the terrifying performance of the titular maniac, played by Rutger Hauer. Easily the most memorable scene occurs when John Ryder (Hauer) kidnaps Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and ties her between a trailer and a truck he is driving.

The cops cannot shoot Ryder, because if his foot slips off the clutch, the truck will bound forward and rip Nash to pieces. Protagonist Jim enters the truck to reason with Ryder, who challenges him to shoot him. Jim refuses, and so Ryder removes his foot from the clutch, killing Nash. However, it's important to note that the screen promptly fades to black and we don't see a speck of blood.

The Remake: In the remake, however, the scene is nowhere near as bracing due to Sean Bean's tired, cliched performance failing to live up to Hauer's excellent portrayal, and the fact that for these filmmakers, the scene is really just a way to shock audiences with a gory money shot. We cared about Nash in the original, so seeing her be violently ripped apart wasn't something we wanted to see, whereas here, with the characters poorly developed and having their roles reversed (so Jim is tied up, while protagonist Grace looks on), it's all in the interest of a graphic shot of Jim being ripped in half, his bloody entrails splattering all over the floor. Believe me, I love a good gory kill as much as anyone, but this scene is meant to have real emotional impact, and instead it was diminished here to a "Holy s***!" moment.