20 Surprisingly Great Horror Movie Remakes

Remaking a horror film as iconic, even genre-defining as Friday the 13th is a basically thankless task, and yet it was always going to happen eventually.

In 2009 it finally came out, and though the remake failed to make a dent with critics, the reception from fans was considerably more favourable - and has only grown over time.

Sensibly, Friday the 13th 2009 isn't a listless rehash of the first film - which, if we're honest, hasn't aged spectacularly - but functions instead as a remix incorporating elements from the first four entries in the series.

And so, rather than raking back over the mystery element of the original film, we get a hulking, full-bodied Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears) from the jump, some absolutely insane kills, and a few of the series' most memorable characters.

Nostalgia may be a hell of a drug, but this remake is stylish as hell, creatively gory, and largely dispenses with aspects of the original that wouldn't translate decades later.

As such it's all the more a shame that, despite its box office success, rights issues prevented a sequel from ever being produced.