8 Horror Movie Remakes That Are Better Than The Originals

2. Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead 2013 Movie
TriStar Pictures

Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead might be the most unintentionally funny horror movie ever made.

Over the years, the franchise has gained a reputation for being a horror-comedy, but that’s only because Raimi embraced the funny side of his universe in the sequels. The original was not supposed to be as silly as it is, and it’s genuinely painful to watch with this knowledge in mind.

The remake, on the other hand, is anything but funny. It’s sick, twisted, bloody - oh, the blood - and packed full of disturbing imagery from start to finish.

It retains that same-old Evil Dead story of five friends heading to a remote cabin, but adds several smart threads to flesh out that concept - for example, lead character Mia is taken to the cabin in order to halt her reliance on drugs, so when she starts telling her friends that they aren’t safe, they chalk it up to the effects of her detox.

The darker, more serious approach to the story ensures the remake works better as a straight-up horror, which is what Raimi intended his original to be. In that sense, this is the definitive version of The Evil Dead, and not only that, it’s a damn great horror movie in its own right.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!