PERTURE ‘TheNew Creativity in Kevin Welsh, Features Editor reviewer must also strive for objectivity. (But I don’t want to strive for objectivity—I want to “Predator begins like Rambo and ends like Alien, and in today’s Hollywood, that’s creativity’ —Roger Ebert, 1987 rant and stomp and throw a If Roger Ebert was bothered by tantrum. I want MY movies back!) Hollywood’s creative approach in 1987, I shudder to think what his reaction to current creativity is. It’s not easy being a horror, sci-fi, or fantasy fan—it never has been. There’s always been so much crap to Over the past few years, walking wade through before finding something with substance and merit, the diamond in the rough. That’s what makes MY movies so special—they were actually good. I want new good movies. Remakes happen, they always have. Some remakes have all my the Body Snatchers, The Thing, and David Cronenberg’s wonderful version of The Fly. However, I cannot condone the stature of this trend. Has Hollywood real- ly gotten this lazy? Have all the original ideas been accounted for? If producers are fighting over the rights to remake a Hollywood for everyone who loves The Baseball Furies, thinks the dog is the coolest character in The Aills Have Eyes, or that Westworidis ten times better than Jurassic Park. admiration, particularly Invasion of inal, the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre never stood a chance. However, as unsettling as the idea of remaking The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was, it was nothing compared to my reaction when I heard Dawn of the Dead was being remade. (NO! Don’t do this. Somebody stop them. Where’s George Romero? Is he that broke? Who remakes a sequel, anyways?) George A. Romero was always his own director. He worked independently, mak- ing movies with his buddies in Pittsburgh. He never really seemed to give a damn what the studio executives thought or what established genre conventions were. He just wanted to realize his vision. As a result, he made fiercely original and intel- ligent horror films, and Dawn of the Dead is his masterpiece. Made in 1979, Dawn of the Dead was the follow-up to his first film, the ground- breaking Night of the Living Dead. Set three many, if any, other gore films that can boast that. Fast forward to 2004; the new Dawn of the Dead is released. The new producers and directors plainly tried to make a qual- ity horror film. For the most part they succeeded—the film is rad. But that’s it— it’s a rad flick with zombies in a shopping mall. The only comment on rampant con- sumerism in today’s society comes via a few obvious nods in the direction of the original: a few lines of dialogue and the obligatory shopping scene. Since these scenes were done so much better in the original they succeeded only in making me want to watch Romero’s film again. That’s a shame, for this film deserves its own identity—and it easily could have had that if the action took place somewhere other than a shopping mall. From admirable, if not misguided, attempts at honouring (or cashing in on...whatever) these films, I should also through the New Releases section of my local video store has been like stepping into a time capsule—only things aren’t quite the same as I remember. These aren’t original films with original ideas. These are the remakes: Gone in 60 Seconds, Walking Tall, Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Get Carter, Psycho, Rollerball, Ocean’s Eleven, The Stepford Wives, and too many others to mention. For a connoisseur of films from the 1970s, this is an unsettling trend. It also goes one step further than anything Roger Ebert observed in 1987, for there is little evi- dence this trend is slowing down. Currently in various facets of production are remakes of The Warriors, The Hills Have Eyes, Logan’s Run, Suspiria, The Fog, Westworld, The Evil Dead, and The Wicker Man. How date they. Of course, any review of cultural or artistic trends is subjective, but the 18 | www.theotherpress.ca film like The Fog, which isn’t that good and has virtually no name recognition today, I have to wonder if they're ever going to stop. What’s next? Its Alive? Death Race 2000? A Clockwork Orange? Over Stanley Kubrick’s dead body, ?’m sure...or maybe I should stop before I give anyone any more bad ideas. Still, credit where credit is due. Many of the recent remakes haven’t been bad films. Taken as separate entities, they stand on their own two feet. The prob- lem is they will never really be taken as separate entities 7 because they’re not. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Remade? Sacrilege! Just make another sequel—at least nobody’s paying attention to those anymore. I was reluctantly impressed by the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was well made and well produced. It jacked up the vio- lence, gave us more gore, and delivered some scares. It’s a pretty good flick. What the new version is missing, though, is the stifling atmosphere and intensity of its namesake. Watching Tobe Hooper’s original is like being submerged in dread. When the teenagers in the origi- nal begin venturing out on their own into the stark, decrepit landscape, we all know they are doomed. But we also know, in our hearts, it’s not going to end in a “cool” death. It’s not going to be creative, elaborate, or even gross. For those kids, it’s simply going to end badly—plain and simple, unavoidable and terrifying, Going up against Tobe Hooper’s orig- point out that weeks after the original, the story revolves around four survivors who hole up in a shopping mall, establish a quasi- utopian consumerist society, and spend their down time shopping for themselves and sniping at zombies. Romero showed a lot of foresight by placing the action in a shopping mall. In 1979, malls were largely non-existent— they just weren’t built yet. Still, Romero knew what he was doing. He wasn't just lampooning a cultural trend. He was satirizing what he sus- pected would become a cultural staple. He also managed to do it with zombies, outlandish violence, and gore fly- ing hither—which makes it extra cool. In Romero’s film, zombies, violence, and supplement and sup- port the themes. There the gore aren’t May 11/2005