8 Movies That Were Secretly Remakes Of Remakes

1. The Thing

The Original: The Thing From Another World (1951)

The Remake: The Thing (1982)

The Remake Remake: The Thing (2011)

2011's The Thing was an insult to any fan of John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece. Throughout shooting director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. made a big point of how he was using real puppetry in the spirit of the original, but buckled to studio pressure in post and replaced it all with shoddy CGI. Bigger than that though was how flimsy its prequel badge was; while it did ostensibly tell the story of how the alien was discovered and destroyed the Norwegian camp glimpsed in the original, it was for the most part a beat-for-beat retread of Carpenter's film (right down to a "tense" test sequence), evidenced by the highly unimaginative title.

There's something quite ironic about that, because The Thing is itself a remake of The Thing From Another World (technically a readaptation, but Carpenter's fascination with the film is what drove the project). The basic set-up is very much the same - Antarctic research base, group of scientists torn apart by monster - but the nature of the creature (it's vegetation-based in Another World) and the psychological effects are rather different.

Are any other famous movies actually remakes of remakes? Share any more down in the comments.