:: ORIGINAL vs REMAKE ::

[deleted]

To start off I do find the orginal better. And I did watch the japanese version first.

Trying to watch the remake without no referance or critising to the jap is truly hard. When first watching the jap version, what scared me the most was my own imagination. What I say to people about the jap version is that there is only thing to be scared of ..... the ending (You know what I'm taking about). Everything else before that is the build up of creepiness and a thought of "is this next part gonna be scary". All that build up of creepiness and parinoia soon was let out right at the end of the film. This style of scare is also used in Dark Water which the American remake failed as well in potraying.

What the remake fails is where it tries to hold on to that built up scare. It lets you scream it out a few times in the film which makes the last scare not as frighting. The last scare is suppose to catch us by surprise (Oh we went to well, we are no longer gonna die, everything is all right). But they messed it all up with kids speach about how it was wrong to set her free.

The quality of the remake was good but suffers from the standard American problems.
The use of the creepy kid was not needed and is a cliche. The general obsession with the film makers trying to hand the whole story to the viewers on a plate. Trying to scare us with graphic images (The victims faces).

What i didn't like about the remake. The horses.....enough said. The fact the girl speaks and trys to be creepy. The creepy boy that seems to know all and draw pictures as way to scare you. The exicution of the last scare.

To be honest the remake is good. But it totally changed the whole feeling and pace of the film. The remake tries give out more shock scares while the jap version gives out a slow pace of creepiness. In the end it depends on what type of horror film you like. Do like the shocks and jumps of horrible images and death? Or do you prefer slow atmospheic creepiness which sends chills down your spine?

I will end this with a talk about remakes. I dont like them.
There are only a few real reasons for somebody to remake a film.
*If the orginal is a really old film and at this present time you have something to offer it (King Kong-CGI)
*If the orginal wasn't that good to begin with and you are remaking it to give its full potential.

I really dont like these remakes of asian films especially since the orginals are not that old and the fact that they are great films already. Setting it in English and throwing more money at it does not justify a reason for a remake. The fact that a great film like Infernal Affairs with a great budget and actors was remade into The Departed (which was a great film) and won all those awards and praise is just an insult. Just think of how people would feel if a great film like the Godfather or Star Wars was remade and won more awards and critical phrase than the orginal.

Im American and I saw The Ring before Ringu, and there are pluses from both ends. I think the American version had a creepier tape, Samara was creepier than Sadako, Ryuji's death lacked the impact of Noah's, and I didnt care for the ESP background story in Ringu.. however..

I think Ringu's a better film and a better horror movie. The cast does a better job in Ringu, the cinematography is better, its much less "Hollywood"ized, and its overall more frightening. Watching Ringu left me feeling like I had watched an experience instead of just a movie.

The American version is superior, anyone who disagrees is either a japanophile or wants to appear cool and hip for watching foreign movies.

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"Most Hollywood re-makes are basically just the exact same film as the original, but over-simplified and over-glamorised for the benefit of their 15-20 year old demographic. The original isn't a great horror film, but it IS vastly superior as both a mystery and a thriller, in the respect that it presents the viewer with a series of questions and then supplies the answers in a way that allows the audience to think for them selves.

With the Hollywood version, everything becomes bigger. Bigger scares, bigger shocks and bigger plot points; but it's all entirely disposable! As others have said; there's simply no depth to it. So it's all gloss with nothing beneath the surface.

The fundamental problem with all mainstream American horror cinema is that it attempts to explain the unexplainable, completely missing the point that the reason things are seen as scary or disturbing is because we don't understand the "why" and "how" of the situation. The more we know, the less frightening it becomes. This is the reason why the remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was so unmoving when compared to the original, why Hannibal Rising will never be as scary as The Silence of the Lambs, and why the eventual Halloween re-make will be an undoubted, unmitigated failure."
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Couldn't agree more. This is partly because I dislike remakes generally, but maybe most because I like being kept in the dark. Don't explain everything to me! I have a brain and I like to use it, even if I'm watching a film. Now, generally remakes are bad copies, no matter who makes them. However, I do feel that The Ring kept much of the general theme of the original even if it became too polished and too explained.

It's odd however that the first good and non-conformity horror film coming from Hollywood in years had to be a remake of a Japanese film. Maybe it says something about the general lack of ideas in Hollywood?

Ringu was better, but The Ring was by no means bad.


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Top 5: Jaws, Shrek, Fucling Åmål. Add more if I find any top movies

REMAKE