Remember When Michael Bay Was Obsessed With Remaking Horror Classics?

Remakes are sometimes thought of to be a creatively fruitless endeavor, however the horror style has proven that taking a second stab at beforehand current supply materials isn’t all the time a mistake. It’s straightforward to overlook that most of the most beloved horror movies of all-time, similar to John Carpenter’s The Factor or Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Physique Snatchers, had been really remakes that had improved on their predecessors. Though remakes can usually give horror filmmakers the possibility to reinterpret supply materials from a unique perspective, it is more difficult when the unique movie is already a traditional. Remakes similar to 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath, 2005’s The Amityville Horror, 2009’s Friday the thirteenth, 2007’s The Hitcher, and 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Road felt like poor recreations of movies that didn’t have to be up to date. Mockingly, these movies all got here from Michael Bay and his manufacturing firm, Platinum Dunes. Though Platinum Dunes began out doing nothing however remakes, the manufacturing firm discovered success when it moved right into a extra artistic course.

Platinum Dunes Began Off Remaking Beloved Horror Classics

Platinum Dunes was based by Bay, Andrew Kind, and future Hannibal collection creator Brad Fuller in 2001. This was throughout a artistic excessive level in Bay’s profession; though Pearl Harbor had been a artistic misstep, its reputation prompt that he was turning into probably the most highly effective administrators within the business. Steven Spielberg had risen in reputation within the Eighties by producing movies that he didn’t direct, like Again to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and there was no purpose why Bay couldn’t do the identical. Platinum Dunes set its ambitions excessive with a remake of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath slated as its first challenge. It was the primary movie within the slasher collection to hit theaters since The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath, and the primary of their collection of remakes based mostly on traditional horror movies.

Directed by Marcus Nispel, 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath basically retold the identical story as Hooper’s 1974 authentic movie of the identical identify. Sadly, the remake didn’t actually perceive why Hooper’s movie was so scary within the first place. Though Hooper’s movie isn’t as violent as its title suggests, the notion that the movie’s occasions had been loosely based mostly on a real story made it very chilling. Nispel’s The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath additionally didn’t do very a lot to distinguish itself from the opposite movies throughout the collection; whereas Hooper’s underrated 1986 sequel The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath 2 succeeded by spoofing the unique, the remake provided extra of the identical. Though The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath remake was hardly a artistic achievement, it grew to become a monetary success when it grossed over $100 million.

The success of The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath signified to Platinum Dunes that audiences had been invested in new variations of traditional horror movies. Whereas 2005’s The Amityville Horror was really based mostly on the 1977 novel by Jay Anson, it was intently related to the 1979 movie of the identical identify that had impressed a horror franchise that merely wouldn’t die. Though The Amityville Horror remake was additionally a monetary success that grossed over $100 million, Platinum Dunes struck out when it tried to convey again Leatherface yet one more time. 2006’s The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath: The Starting earned solely half of its predecessor’s gross, and was seen as an pointless prequel that gave Leatherface a disappointing origin story.

Platinum Dunes Couldn’t Maintain Its Franchises

The underperformance of The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath: The Starting signified that Platinum Dunes was not able to sustaining franchises. As a substitute of creating extra The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath sequels or a continuation of The Amityville Horror collection, Platinum Dunes as an alternative started creating remakes of the traditional horror movies The Hitcher, Friday the thirteenth, and A Nightmare on Elm Road. Whereas The Hitcher was extra of a cult hit than a blockbuster, the unique Friday the thirteenth collection and A Nightmare on Elm Road franchise had been among the many hottest horror sagas of all-time. Each franchises had been returning to the massive display for the primary time since Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees had confronted off in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason.

Though the Friday the thirteenth remake made a splash on its opening weekend in 2009, it suffered probably the most important second-weekend drops in horror movie historical past. Friday the thirteenth did little to innovate the franchise’s iconography; as an alternative of taking the collection in a brand new course, the remake basically mixed parts of the primary 4 films right into a streamlined narrative. The identical may very well be mentioned of 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Road, which stripped away Freddy Krueger’s extra ridiculous parts for a darker, mean-spirited tackle the franchise.

Platinum Dunes shaped a primary look cope with Paramount Photos in 2009 that prompt that the studio might look past horror movies by rebooting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise. Whereas the primary movie was profitable sufficient to generate curiosity in a sequel, 2016’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was such a monetary disappointment that it pressured Bay and his collaborators to rethink their priorities.

Platinum Dunes Succeeded by Creating New Franchises

Though the frustration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows had signified that reboots of pre-established franchises now not had the identical worth for audiences, Platinum Dunes had already moved on. Platinum Dunes landed two main hits with 2013’s The Purge and 2014’s Ouija, each of which had been based mostly on authentic ideas. The Purge impressed 4 extra movies and a tv spinoff, and provoked dialogue over its topical political and social themes. Whereas Ouija was not a artistic success, it impressed Mike Flanagan to create the wonderful prequel movie Ouija: Origin of Evil.

Platinum Dunes’ pivot in the direction of authentic movies was solidified when A Quiet Place grew to become their largest hit up to now in 2018. The success of John Krasinski’s science fiction thriller confirmed that the studio was able to creating daring, emotional horror movies that didn’t rely on nostalgia. With the spinoff movie A Quiet Place: Day One movie set for launch in 2024, Platinum Dunes has fortunately set its days of endlessly remakes behind it.