The Omen - Remake - Page 3

Amy Mormino · 06-08-2006, 09:09 AM

I haven't seen this yet, but enough people saw it on Tuesday to make it the highest-grossing Tuesday gross ever. When people complain why Hollywood keeps making remakes, remember that it is the public that is embracing movies like this.

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MattFini · 06-08-2006, 10:15 AM

I went to see The Break-Up on Tuesday night and my local theatre was literally PACKED, wall to wall with teenagers who were going to see The Omen. The theatre even had to turn away about thrity kids in line becuase it was sold out.

I really feel like the primary audience for these remakes is today's youth...the kids who don't give a rat's ass about a horror film made in 1976. I don't see many serious film fans paying to see this thing (please note that I said many...I don't want to offend anybody who did pay to see it) and Hollywood knows which audience is lining their pockets thanks to these rehashes. The Omen was aggressively marketed on MTV and MySpace and just look at the casting: two very young, recognizable leads who've been in many teen films in the past.

Hollywood knows what they're doing and they understand now more than ever that there's an entire youth culture that will eat up whatever garbage they remake and put in theatres.

Amy Mormino · 06-08-2006, 10:22 AM

I'm not sure that I agree that the only reason these movies make money is because of the youth market. Why do these recent youth-oriented remakes consistently make more money than youth-targeted original horror films?

Compare the gross for something like the When a Stranger Calls remake to Stay Alive. Either the name brand is attracting people or they are choosing past films with better concepts than today's writers can come up with.

MattFini · 06-08-2006, 10:52 AM

^ Amy, fair point. I will say one thing though. For whatever reason, Stay Alive's marketing paled in comparison to that of When A Stranger Calls. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony still hasn't broke even on Stranger thanks to their advertising. I remember that I couldn't watch TV without seeing an ad for that movie and there has to be some direct correlation between that and its box office. Stay Alive, I'm sure was promoted, but I saw very little of it (not saying that's why, just that more than likely, Stranger was advertised more).

Horror films have always appealed to youth, my biggest gripe is that Hollywood is taking the best stuff from the previous generations and dishing it out to today's teenagers without giving them many originals to call their own.

Inspector Hammer! · 06-08-2006, 11:44 AM

I don't get hung up on the idea that the youth are to blame for the state of today's cinema, i'm not one those guy's who complains that today's movies are all "junk" and i'm not against remakes, some are actually good if people would give them half a chance before judging them.

I don't let it bother me because the fact is there ARE good horror films that are made now and there ARE good movies in general made now, hell, there's a whole awards ceremony dedicated to those. Teens have been going to horror films since their inception, and they go because the movie looks fun, that's why they go, to have fun and that's how it's always been.

Kid's going to see The Omen today is no different than kid's who went to see The Blob back in the 50's. It's unpreductive to try to measure the cinematic intellect of the public at large by way of the attendance of youth to horror films.

The fact is, it's a different time, kid's are different now then they were 20 years ago and the films that we consider classics are not effective on them because they have been desensitized, that's just the way it is, it's useless to complain. In a nutshell, The Exorcist may be the scariest horror film of all time to us adults, but a teen today is more likely to find it slow and lame. It sucks, I know, but that's the reality.

MattFini · 06-08-2006, 12:59 PM

John, I can agree with most of what you said. I try and tell myself those very things all the time but I simply can't help but get pissed when I check horror news sites and see three or four remakes announced within a matter of days. I get worked up, I can't help it. It'll probably lead to high blood pressure very soon.

But speaking personally, my gripe is with the fact that I simply think these remakes are largely horrible films. With the exception of The Hills Have Eyes 2006 (a movie I fully expected to hate due to the fact that the original is one of my favorites), I think that all recent remakes play out as bastardized versions of the originals.

Also, I don't blame kids. Kids will flock to anything that looks scary or entertaining (which thankfully helped make Hostel a big hit). I blame the studios for going back to existing material again, again and again in recent years. As a fan I get frustrated. I understand that remakes have been around nearly as long as moving pictures have, I'd just like to see fewer old favorites rehashed for a generation with too few original classics to call their own.

Inspector Hammer! · 06-08-2006, 01:20 PM

I hear you, Matt, but speaking for myself, I just appreciate the good horror that we do get now and there has been some great one's in recent years IMO. Moviemaking is something that is beyond our control, the studios are going to make whatever makes them money, so it isn't worth worrying about something that's beyond our control because it'll only lead to grey hair.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

The only thing we can do is wade through the onslaught of endless remakes and bad horror until we finally come upon those one or two gems in the pile.

Remakes are hit and miss with me, I personally LOVED the remakes of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, and I also thought that the recent remake of The Poseidon Adventure was great.

As for The Omen, well, I will admit that I am mildly curious now that Ebert and Roeper have given it thumbs up, but it'll wait until dvd.

Blu · 06-08-2006, 01:23 PM

If anyone is sick of the remakes, just stop going to them.

If they don't get your money then eventually they will quit making them when they aren't profitable.

Lucia Duran · 06-08-2006, 07:06 PM

I haven't seen this film yet, so I cannot comment on it. I would like to comment on the whole kids and films today discussion.

The truth is we are always going to have the same argument about " well back in my day" or "When I was growing up".... it's a never ending cycle. Movies were too gory when I was growing up according to my mother and I'm sure her parents felt the same way. Of course now we probably all think that movies today are so "in your face" with gore and that todays movies are more violent and scary. Kids will always love going to scary movies, good or bad and they will always think that their generation of horror films are better or far superior (for the most part).

I think people tend to forget that movies are for fun and entertainment and not always about intellectual conversation and debate. Sometimes, you go just for the excitement of having something pop out of the dark and scare the pants off of you.

That said..... I like some remakes and dislike others. I am looking forward to seeing the Omen.

Tino · 06-09-2006, 11:06 AM

I saw it.

Completely unnecessary and inferior to the original in every way.

You may enjoy it if you haven't seen the original but I was pretty bored throughout.

Mikel_Cooperman · 06-10-2006, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy Mormino

I haven't seen this yet, but enough people saw it on Tuesday to make it the highest-grossing Tuesday gross ever. When people complain why Hollywood keeps making remakes, remember that it is the public that is embracing movies like this.

They are, which is ashame because often times the original is allot better but people dont want to see the original. Why would anyone want to see a movie, in this day and age, that is 30 years old.
I too agree with the people in this thread that think these remakes and gore fests often survive and gross lots of money because of the youth market.

Robert Ringwald · 06-10-2006, 02:08 PM

As a big NON fan of the recent remakes that have invaded the theaters... I must say I was surprised to find this wasn't bad at all. It wasn't particularly revolutionary nor did it do much to try to improve on the original. Richard Roeper pretty much sums it up..."It’s like hearing a great cover version of a classic rock song. They do such a great job. The art direction is gorgeous in this in its own haunting way."

I haven't seen the original in years, and while it's certainly a better film, they could have done much worse with this remake.

I agree, there really aren't any new classics for this generation... but think about past decades and the number of good original horror films from those ones... I'm sure we can all agree that those decades were riddled with countless imitations and pathetic rip-offs. The biggest difference with this current trend is that the rip-offs are flat-out remakes... even the post-Halloween runoff of slasher films tried to have an original concept...

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that THE OMEN is one of the few decent remakes to come out in recent years. Although I'm not a fan of the "loud booming music with a scary flash to scare the audience" technique, I'm happy to report that it happens very little in this one as well.