To no one’s surprise, horror endures more remakes than any other genre. That may sound like a cry for more creativity, but movie do-overs are as much part of filmmaking as original ideas are. Without remakes, we wouldn’t have John Carpenter’s The Thing, Chuck Russell’s The Blob, or David Cronenberg’s The Fly. All three films are reimaginings of retro flicks originating in the colorless years.

So, as much as people want to avoid them, remakes sneak into our viewing habits more often than not. That’s largely because studios draw inspiration from yesteryears—a time when black-and-white was the norm. Since this era of horror remains a blind spot for so many of us, we might not realize these ten other horror movies are indeed remakes of B&W classics.

10. Cat People (1942) / Cat People (1982)

If you think jump scares are a newfangled invention of modern horror, then you think wrong. What is considered the first jump scare (or ‘Lewton Bus’ technique) can be found in the 1942 adaptation of Val Lewton’s short story The Bagheeta. Cat People follows an American man falling in love with a Serbian-born fashion designer, Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon). Much to his surprise, the man’s love turns into a panther when aroused. The film has enjoyed a retroactive turnaround in reviews.

Once written off as a mere B-movie, the 1942 Cat People is now deemed seminal for its themes and cinematography. Using creative shadows to suggest the supernatural feline is far more effective than actually showing it.

Forty years later, a remake starring Nastassja Kinski (To the Devil a Daughter), Malcolm McDowell (Rob Zombie’s Halloween), and John Heard (C.H.U.D.), was released. This time around, the erotic elements were more overt. Critics were divided about this update, but others were drawn to its provocative nature.

9. I Saw What You Did (1965) / I Saw What You Did (1988)

Deadly phone games emerged in silver-age thrillers like Dial M for Murder and Sorry, Wrong Number. The addition of young guardians added another layer—young women on the cusp of adulthood were imperiled alongside their charges. This trope has since become a staple in horror. One early example is I Saw What You Did, a 1965 suspenser starring Joan Crawford (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) and John Ireland (The House of Seven Corpses). When a pair of sisters and their friend randomly prank-call a man who has murdered his wife, the girls become the killer’s next target!

The tone of the original is admittedly uneven, but the 1988 TV-made remake is consistently serious. Returning to his roots, director Fred Walton (When a Stranger Calls) reminds us why he’s an expert on stifled madmen and telephone menace.

8. 13 Ghosts (1960) / THIR13EN Ghosts (2001)

Haunted houses were common in black-and-white talkies. And if there were promotional gimmicks tied to the film, you can bet William Castle was somehow involved. A special version of his 1960 haunter 13 Ghosts utilized ‘Illusion-O’, a technology that placed blue and red filters over the scarier footage.

Like its forerunner, THIR13EN Ghosts has an impoverished family inheriting a mansion with a spooky legacy. Because there’s always a catch, the new owners learn their abode is home to thirteen specters. Steve Beck’s remake was panned, but a cult following keeps this big-budgeted spectacle in rotation.

7. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) / House of Wax (1953) / House of Wax (2005)

Even when the title is a dead giveaway, a remake can be so disparate from its source material that you may not know you’re watching one. This is the case when viewing the 2005 slasher House of Wax, a movie that has little to do with either of its inspirants — Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) and House of Wax (1953). The 1933 picture and its 1953 mulligan are based on The Wax Works by Charles S. Belden. Both films concern nefarious activity surrounding a wax museum.

Jaume Collet-Serra’s House of Wax centers around six friends on their way to a football game when they have car trouble. As they seek help in a nearby town, they’re drawn to its biggest attraction—a wax museum. What follows has been likened to an overhauled reworking of Tourist Trap.

6. Carnival of Souls (1962) / Carnival of Souls (1998)

The granddaddy of horror twists lies within 1962’s Carnival of Souls, one of the best one trick ponies around. This atmospheric tale triggered a plot device that, when used today, most people roll their eyes at. To reveal the narrative quirk would spoil the fun. That being said, Herk Harvey’s revolutionary film follows a woman named Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) as she tries to rebuild her life after a car accident.

The 1998 remake may be more of a case where you didn’t realize it existed in the first place. This obscurity was executive produced by the late and great Wes Craven and directed by Adam Grossman (Sometimes They Come Back… Again). The only things it really has in common with Harvey’s movie are the title and twist. The story focuses on a woman (Bobbie Phillips) and her sister (Shawnee Smith) confronting childhood trauma as adults. It’s a heavy yarn marred by limp direction and routine scares.

5. My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) / Dead of Winter (1987)

My Name Is Julia Ross is a 1945 film noir based on the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert. In this gas-lit mystery, Julia (Nina Foch) is desperate for work and accepts a position as a live-in assistant for a wealthy widow. After moving into her new quarters, Julia wakes up in a different house and is told she’s the widow’s son’s wife, Marion.

The 1987 loose remake, Dead of Winter, has Mary Steenburgen playing a struggling actress named Katie. In hopes of replacing his movie’s lead actress, a man (Roddy McDowall) invites Katie to audition at his secluded home. He finds she’s the best of the lot and hires her. Unfortunately for Katie, the role she’s about to fill has nothing to do with a movie.

Neither of these films are incredibly well-known, but each was praised by critics. My Name Is Julia Ross for its pacing and production, and Dead of Winter for its cast’s ability to go with the flow.

4. Night of the Living Dead (1968) / Mimesis (2011)

Although Tom Savini remade George A. Romero’s groundbreaking zombie film in 1990, Mimesis is an unorthodox reimagining. So much so that it can’t even be considered an actual remake. Even so, its innovation in a well-worn subgenre is still worth mentioning.

In Mimesis, a group of strangers is thrown head-first into what appears to be a reenactment of Night of the Living Dead. Seems like a fun idea until the participants learn the ‘zombies’ aren’t playing around—they’re out for a pound of flesh.

3. Castle of Blood (1964) / Web of the Spider (1971)

Castle of Blood (or Macabre Dance) is significant for being a black-and-white movie later remade in color by the same director. After the first film performed poorly at the box office, Antonio Margheriti helmed a remake in 1971 called Web of the Spider. The 1964 movie and its successor both regard a writer interviewing Edgar Allen Poe about the authenticity of his stories. The writer is then challenged to spend one night in a haunted castle where ghosts tell him how they each died.

The general consensus is that Margheriti didn’t need to remake Castle of Blood and that Web of the Spider is not a patch on the original.

2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) / The Invasion (2007)

Don Siegel’s 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers is so important that it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry. Its not-so-subtle themes about cultural integration are undeniable, even by today’s standards. Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers has led to several official remakes, but his novel’s influence is pervasive throughout all of horror and science fiction.

Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Invasion boasted a big budget and household names like Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Star power and lofty production values had little sway over the harshest of reviewers, though.

In 2019, Netflix premiered another Body Snatchers retelling called Assimilate. This adolescent interpretation has been compared to The Faculty.

1. The Innocents (1961) / The Others (2001) / The Turning (2020)

To this day, literary enthusiasts still debate if there really was a supernatural element in Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw. That eldritch vagueness has lent itself to a number of cinematic adaptations, starting with the 1961 movie The Innocents. It wasn’t long before James’ story suffused itself in all forms of media—film, television, radio, and plays.

One modern film thought to be — but not officially — based on The Turn of the Screw is The Others. In this psycho-horror, Nicole Kidman plays a devout mother protecting her children from a malevolent threat during World War II. The similarities between The Others and the novella are unmistakable, according to some critics.

Most recently, the Bly estate was visited in another big-screen presentation called The Turning. On television, the upcoming season of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House is based on James’ Gothic tale.

Apparently, every good Turn of the Screw deserves another.

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