8. Ole Bornedal - Nattevagten (1994) / Nightwatch (1997)
Another near shot-for-shot remake, director Ole Bornedal remade his Nattevagten, a genre picture which sees a student take a night-watchman job at a morgue to then become implicated in a series of murders, for American audiences, armed with a much bigger budget and a stellar cast including a post-Trainspotting Ewan McGregor, an as-always manic Nick Nolte, Patricia Arquette, and a very young looking Josh Brolin. Naturally, this makes the remake a much glossier affair - even more so when you take into account the fact that Steven Soderbergh shares a screenplay credit with director Bornedal - but it's probably the original that stands as the better film of the two. Nattevagten was a huge success in Bornedal's native Denmark - even playing Cannes - and its cult status is not diminished by the Weinstein-backed remake. As with Funny Games, though, there really is little to choose between the two, the director using the same basic outline, the same set-pieces, and the same archetypal characters. Preference for which version of Nightwatch you'll enjoy more will likely come down to whether you prefer foreign-language or American fare.
