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Wow. Just, wow. This movie is ten times better than it has any right to be. In all fairness, it has been probably fifteen years since I have seen the original and I only remember broad strokes from it along with a few specific details, but there is no doubt that the original is a classic of the genre; a real watershed film, much like Night of the Living Dead was. So when I heard they were doing a remake, and it was being produced by Michael Bay, well I was just plain horrified (and not in a good way). But dang it, the trailer actually looked good....
The remake begins pretty much the same way as the original, with a narrator and grainy footage of the aftermath. The narrator is John Larroquette, by the way. I didn't recognize his voice, and just about fell out of my seat when I saw that in the end credits. So the movie begins pretty much the way I remember, with the intro and then the five friends driving in the van coming across a woman staggering down the road. Then the movie takes a very abrupt and surprising turn, and is off and running.
The most important thing this movie got right was that the characters inhabited a real world, and the chain of events makes sense. As it all unfolds, you can begin to believe how this sort of thing could happen (as opposed to House of 1000 Corpses, which looked great but never once felt real). The suspense is genuine, the scares are real scares, there is absolutely no clever nod-and-wink self-referential humor (the bane fo the post-Scream horror filmscape). I was on the edge of my seat for the entire movie, thoroughly sucked in and entertained. All of the iconic details I remember from the original were there, even if the execution differed. It seemed as though the director had a great love and reverance for the original, and at the same time had his own unique voice with which to tell the story. Bravo. If more remakes were like this, I wouldn't dread them so much. Is it gory and painful? Oh yes. Oh dear god, yes. Not cartoonish buckets of blood, but very real and jarring violence. This is not a movie for the squeamish, but then anyone who goes to see this should have figured that out already anyway.
Oh, and there was one moment in the movie where I laughed out loud. Nobody else in the theater caught the joke because it's not funny if you don't recognize the cameo. I would never have recognized it if I hadn't met the man myself. All I can say is, watch for Harry Knowles (of Ain't It Cool News) to make a very brief appearance in the film. Fortunately his part required absolutely no acting skills, what with being just a decapitated head and all.
The remake begins pretty much the same way as the original, with a narrator and grainy footage of the aftermath. The narrator is John Larroquette, by the way. I didn't recognize his voice, and just about fell out of my seat when I saw that in the end credits. So the movie begins pretty much the way I remember, with the intro and then the five friends driving in the van coming across a woman staggering down the road. Then the movie takes a very abrupt and surprising turn, and is off and running.
The most important thing this movie got right was that the characters inhabited a real world, and the chain of events makes sense. As it all unfolds, you can begin to believe how this sort of thing could happen (as opposed to House of 1000 Corpses, which looked great but never once felt real). The suspense is genuine, the scares are real scares, there is absolutely no clever nod-and-wink self-referential humor (the bane fo the post-Scream horror filmscape). I was on the edge of my seat for the entire movie, thoroughly sucked in and entertained. All of the iconic details I remember from the original were there, even if the execution differed. It seemed as though the director had a great love and reverance for the original, and at the same time had his own unique voice with which to tell the story. Bravo. If more remakes were like this, I wouldn't dread them so much. Is it gory and painful? Oh yes. Oh dear god, yes. Not cartoonish buckets of blood, but very real and jarring violence. This is not a movie for the squeamish, but then anyone who goes to see this should have figured that out already anyway.
Oh, and there was one moment in the movie where I laughed out loud. Nobody else in the theater caught the joke because it's not funny if you don't recognize the cameo. I would never have recognized it if I hadn't met the man myself. All I can say is, watch for Harry Knowles (of Ain't It Cool News) to make a very brief appearance in the film. Fortunately his part required absolutely no acting skills, what with being just a decapitated head and all.