UKingdom

Looks like Hollywood can't come up with good ideas themselves. Almost every popular Asian horror film is being remade! Funny thing is how lots of Americans think they're original US works.

Here's the trailer for the latest Asian import remake, Dark Water starring Jennifer Connolly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott and John C Reilly. The director is Walter Salles (Motorcycle Diaries) so the talent is definitely there. Overall the talent behind all the Asian horror remakes has been quite good, which is one of the reasons why I think these films have been so successful.

Another thing that impresses me is Hollywood letting these foreign directors (I don't even think a lot of them are fluent in English); direct the remakes with American cast members. I dunno how much freedom they were given, but by and large they seem to be faithful to their original works and have given American audiences a taste of a different type of horror.

So far the emphasis has been put in the right place in terms of getting the story right and making quality films. Almost all the remakes have had A-list American actors too. When the best original horror we can come up with is "Seed of Chucky," I guess it's easy to see why we're heading overseas to find talent, and why our best actors want to act in these films.

Let's hope Hollywood doesn't mess it up by churning these films out without thought.

1) The Ring (remake of Ringu); Dir Gore Verbinski, American

2) Ring Two (original story); Dir: Hideo Nakata (directed the original Ringu in Japan, and the ORIGINAL Dark Water)

3) The Grudge (remake of Ju-On); Dir: Takashi Shimizu (director of the Japanese originals)

4) Dark Water, Dir: Walter Salles, Latin American (taking over for Nakata)

Next?

The Eye (I forgot when comes out but Tom Cruise is producing this Hong Kong remake)

A Tale of Two Sisters (Remake of Korean horror hit)

I know I'm missing others as well, feel free to add. There will be probably a ton of "The ____ " movies coming out soon.

In an aside, "The Others" or "Los Otros" was an original Spanish work by Alejandro Amenabar but also often goes unrecognized for being a foreign work by a foreign director. And "Infernal Affairs," while not horror, is another Hong Kong thriller being remade, this time directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leo Dicaprio and Matt Damon.

To me the trailer looks pretty decent, but it was rumored that the movie didn't test well (cause it wasn't scary enough; the original relied more on sublety and atmosphere) and now they're going to add more Hollywood bullshit cheap scares into it for a hopeful summer release. I suppose this thread could expand into an entire discussion about foreign film remakes (or just remakes in general) but as I continue to write (and edit) this post the topics for discussion just keep expanding.


http://www.incinemas.com.au/trailers...kwater_480.mov

Dark Water "revolves around a mother and daughter who escape a custody battle by retreating to a run-down apartment building. There, they are haunted by the ghost of a former resident

LiquidSky

Well, it could be worse. What if there were PG-13 rated American re-makes of "Ichi the Killer" starring Tom Hanks or "Audition" starring Sandra Bullock?

Seems a bit odd that there is going to be a remake of "The Eye" since the original seemed somewhat derivative of so many other films to begin with.

I recentlly saw "A Tale of Two Sisters' and really liked it.

FinkPish

I think it can be a good thing that these films are being remade. The original movies would otherwise be destined never to be seen by American audiences. Now they usually get a DVD release during the theatrical release of the remake.

jaeufraser

Yeah, and can you really blame them? Ring and especially Gryudge which cost like 10 mil are massive hits, hugely profitable. And, at least for the Ring (never saw Grudge) it was one of the better remakes I've seen, to be honest.

Anyway, the horror genre at the moment seems to be nothing but remakes. But hey, better than nothing.

RichC2

The Ring made a good deal and has a good reputation.

The Grudge made a shitload without the reputation, but was hugely profittable.

Dark Water (the original) was okay - it wasn't particularly scary nor interesting - but did have a few hints if brilliance, I would have hoped they would exploit the brilliant bits, but alas that could be a tough thing to do. There was on incredibly good scene and some great ideas, though.

The Ring also, apparently, didn't test so well.

Plus, I don't mind remakes at all - they're fun. I've seen the originals, and always find it interesting to see reinterpretations of material, especially when the emphasis changes. I'd gladly take a remake of A Tale of Two Sisters with a slightly more "graceful" ending (solid as it was, it could be better) - or hell, identical or less graceful - than have another weak original like say.. They or Darkness Falls.

Oh, and The Others was originally in English, and produced by Tom Cruise...who is also producing the remake of The Eye.. he likes his horror derivative (Alejandro Amenábar's only English film)

Oh yeah, as for the new Dark Water. Looks okay, stilted dialogue, but I can deal with that - especially after The Grudge. Seems to stick true to the original, but I wonder how much of the original custody battle will be in it.

RyoHazuki

Skinny, non-nude Jennifer Connelly = No sale.

DVD Smurf

Films made in US are becoming more and more like the CTRL+C function...

Charlie Goose

Exactly. How many people heard of Ringu before The Ring was made? Not many. After the success of the remake, I'm sure a lot of folks were intrigued enough to check out the original.

PopcornTreeCt

I had, but I used to frequent a Horror Movie forum a lot. This reminds me I saw Ju-On at Target today, wow, how mainstream these movies have come. We don't even sell Dr. Strangelove at Target.

LorenzoL

Has anybody seen this movie yet? Is this movie worth seeing in the theatres?

Patman

I thought this was an average film, it never transcends the genre, and it's not that it's predictable, but rather it's just mundane and boring. The final scenes just go on and on and on (a la "The Return of the King"), I welcomed the credits by the time the final roll of film was through.

If you must watch Jennifer Connelly for a few hours, do it at a matinee, it's not worth the price of a night time ticket.

I give it a C-, or 1.75 stars.

Dr. DVD

I can break down all Japanese horror re-makes right now:

Something (an object or dwelling) is cursed...
Stupid people unleash the horror...
A creepy kid shows up and makes crazy faces...
We discover the kid or whatever is haunting was wronged at some point in its life...
The good guys correct the wrong and the creepy ghosts are gone.....until the last minute of the film!!!

maingon

i wanna check it out cause i love ghost movies

LorenzoL

Thanks for your review Patman.

Will you consider this movie to be better than the North American remakes of the Ring and the Grudge?
I enjoyed the Ring and didn't care for the Grudge.

Patman

Dark Water is in 3rd place over the other 2 remakes, but I didn't much care for The Grudge all that much either. The Ring was okay, its sequel was definitely a case of going back to the well one too many times.

clemente

I'm not saying you're wrong, but its simply a new horror template that the studios can play with...and need to play with since their old hack and slash templates have gone stale and don't sell tickets anymore.

filmerp

To qualify my opinion, I loved the Ring. Thought Ring 2 had some wonky logic but still was a great fright. The Grudge was flat out terrible, save for the girl-sans-jaw shot.

So... Dark Water. The story wasn't terrible, just stretched a bit thin. I feel it would have worked very well as a 20-minute short film. As a feature, not an extraordinary amount happened. Jennifer Connelly is one goreous woman though.

Jackskeleton

Actually, Dr. DVD was pretty much dead on with the Japanese horror forumula in this case.

Is it a bad thing? no. Is it a sign that hollywood is dead? No, it's easy money.

rkndkn

I thought it worked pretty well as an atmospheric, creepy film but it will disappoint those looking for outright scares and horror. It's more like a drama with supernatural elements. Jennifer Connelly was really good, and John C. Reilly's character added some levity as the fast-talking rental agent.

What disappointed me was that certain key scenes in the trailer (which I must have seen 10 times at the theatre) were NOT in the film.

eXcentris

The Ring remake was good, The Grudge remake sucked, Ring 2 sucked, and this Dark Water remake sucks. I fully expect this suckiness to continue on the next batch of Asian film remakes.

Dr. DVD

Judging from Dark Water's performance this weekend, this stuff doesn't sell tickets anymore as well.

In terms of hack and slash not working anymore, none of those were ever blockbusters in their initial days.