Wow, another
remake made my list. I'm honestly as shocked as you are. As with "The Thing", though, Philip Kaufman's 1978 re-imagining of the classic 1956 film is as good as the original. Maybe the difference between remaking films then, as opposed to today, is a matter of respect, in this case, with the inclusion of Kevin McCarthy's character at one point in the middle of the film, making it seem almost like the original still matters and this is merely a continuation of the story.
Starting with "The Exorcist" and furthered by "Jaws", it seemed like every fifth film out of Hollywood in the 1970's was a supernatural thriller of some kind. Horror films were experiencing a resurgence and with each new one, new ground was being broken. You can nearly plot a clear path of development from one film to the next that end up with "Carrie", but, for whatever reason, "Carrie" stands out — even today.
There are two kinds of horror films: there are films that scare your pants off and then there are films that are just plain cool. John Carpenter already proved that he could be scary back in 1978, so this film, in my books anyway, is just plain cool. The goal of the film, whose very slim, yet fairly gripping storyline is that there is a shapeshifting monster among the inhabitants of an isolated Antarctic research station, is: just how many different ways can you make a dangerous weapon out of the human body?
A lifelong fan of the Universal monsters, Dracula has always been my least favorite. I guess it's something I've carried along since childhood; when I could choose from Frankenstein or the Mummy, why would I care about a so-called monster that just looked like this pale, creepy guy who didn't even have fangs (for Bela Lugosi's vampire, at least in the original 1931 film, never showed his teeth)? I have, however, carried the respect deserved to Mr. Lugosi and his portrayal, and his many classic monster movie portrayals after this.
Long before the time when zombies were decaying creatures gnawing at human flesh (purely a creation of George A. Romero and his friends, but we'll get to that in a later post), Producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur crafted this spooky, atmospheric tale, set in the Caribbean. This was their follow-up to 1942's "The Cat People" which cemented the team as masters of horror-noir. Lewton-Tourneur films stand out starkly against other B-movies of the era ...
