It originally started off as a remake of Carpenter's version, but mid-way the producers were worried about the backlash and retooled it as a prequel.

Look up the definition of "everyone." I consider it a remake, there go, not everyone considers it a prequel.

You better not get in a fight with me, mutha fucker!

P.S.- I never really cared what anyone thought The Thing 2011 was. I just wanted people to stop talking about it because it's a horrible movie and not worth talking about.

That makes sense. I know a lot of people didn't like the flick.

Ringu is a much scarier and a far more unsettling movie. The way it goes about building suspense is expertly reserved and effective.
The Ring on the other hand overcooks the special effects and throws in needless quick cuts and other flashy editing to try and boost
the scares, which really just has opposite effect. The 'less is more' approach to Ringu really worked in the movies favour.
The climax of The Ring doesn't even hold a handle to the terrifying scene in the original.

I watched Ringu a few weeks ago and it scared the hell out of me. I watched The Ring a few days later expecting good things,
but to my disappointment the unsettling and scary atmosphere of the original was nowhere to be found.

Nobody, at least nobody who knows about movies, considers it a remake. Of course it retreads a lot of the same ground. It's an alien monster in the artic attacking a small group of essentially stranded people. Of course the story is going to be similar. What else could they have done with it ? It's the same monster and the same location. The story was extremely limited. They couldn't do anything that contradicted the original movie, as that took place, at least at the beginning, the very same day as the second movie.

Then you obviously have absolutely no idea about anything.

The only Thing keeping it from a remake is that little bit with the dog at the end. Otherwise it practically a straight remake.

The other proof that it's a prequel is the two fellows who are fused together into one thing creature...it's the same creature that the crew of the 1980's Thing found from the Norwegian base.

Look, whether or not it was originally conceived as a remake is moot.

It is a prequel. It's pretty straight forward about it. Arguing over this is ridiculous.

Plus it's the freakin' 'Thing' here. It's not high art.