MovieChat Forums > Poltergeist (2015) Discussion > Worst remake ever.

Worst remake ever.

posted 9 years ago by mrbidangl
35 replies | jump to latest

As a fan of the original, and of horror in general, I was very wary of this even before I saw it. Some of the imagery caught my eye and I decided to watch it with halfway decent hopes. Man was I wrong.

The storytelling is absolutely nonexistent. Everything that made the original family likeable or at least halfway relatable was completely striped out. The only semblance of back story about this family comes in the way of an absolutely horribly awkward conversation with a real estate agent and the mother blaming herself for her son being scared of everything by telling us she lost him in a mall 3 years ago. The only human emotion I felt for this entire family was feeling like how much of a cocky jerk the father was. Don't even get me started on the paranormal investigators. What a joke of a plotline that was.

To boot, the pacing of this film is terrible, especially if you've seen the original. There is no buildup to anything as everything happens with no sense of time. It literally feels like everything happened within the course of the first 2 days the family moves into the house. There is no sense of dread as Maddie makes contact with the dead, and there is no sense of urgency even as the final act commences. Everything and everyone just seems so commonplace as things happen to them, especially when the guy setting up the cameras almost gets his face drilled into while his arm is being sucked into the other world. He literally just walks back downstairs like nothing happened.

All in all this was a terrible movie and should be considered blasphemous to the original. I don't even think Uwe Boll could have made a worse movie.

[–] gss2 9 years ago

You obviously haven't seen the remake of "The Fog".

[–] soco-81 9 years ago

Your post is perfect!

It's terrible as a remake of a classic. Then as others said, even if it wasn't a remake it's still a very lame movie. There was a sense of wonder, dread, and beauty in the original film and the actors were all able to convey it. Like you said everything is just very commonplace like, trees grab kids from their rooms every day. Let's have breakfast! :/

[–] vprice94 9 years ago

A 1 star rating from me, and I haven't even seen it.

[–] vonBlashyrkh 9 years ago

This was utterly dreadful, but not the worst remake ever. As someone else said, that has to be RocoCop with Evil Dead a pretty close second.

[–] davsny1 9 years ago

Dont forget Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, for me that takes the cake. It is truly the ultimate insult to the original film. Robocop, Evil Dead, The Wicker Man, The Haunting and Psycho pretty much are in the top 5 after that for me. This remake was an abysmal failure but I did like the drill scene in the closet, that was truly creepy. I thought with Sam Rockwell leadig this cast it may have had a chance. However, you can see that this was rushed in filming, ladened with cheap CGI and had no real energy. The film had no heart to it. Ironically, I am noding to the discorse in the original with that statement. It was shelved for a while, than sanitized by the studio and rinsed clean to be given the final generic PG-13 horror remake cliched seal of approval. They then green lit it for a random release date in May of all spooky months, I guess they figured April showers bring May flowers. The pointless shifting of the dialogue from the original film was unnecessary but ultimately the film wasn't unwatchable or the worst remake ever. It was just a typical, candy-ass reboot bereft of the character development and true tension that made the original and its sequels (yes I enjoyed the sequels) great. The actors just seemed bored in the film, but hey what are you going to do its a paycheck and a sad waste of potential. I expect nothing more or less from Hollywood these days with their pedestrian attitudes.

[–] libby2130 9 years ago

bad pacing, the whole story seemed like it all happened in 3 hours of one day....family is totally unlikeable.....guy almost gets his faced drilled and acts like nothing happened....

older daughter stuck in the basement grabbed by a hand coming out of black goo....forgotten about, all of a sudden she is in the living room with everyone, acting as if that part never happened....

I went in with an open mind...but so disappointed

the original movie is 40 minutes longer, that's why it probably feels so rushed

[–] gotmyorangecrush 9 years ago

I disagree. I would watch Tim Burtons Planet of the Apes all day long as opposed to having to watch this even one more time. I think Tim Burtons Planet of the Apes was pretty bad, but this film beats it in every possible way. At least the acting in PotA's was somewhat bearable. The acting in this was so god awful, I was literally in shock for half of the film. These were honestly some of the single worst performances acting wise I have ever seen. And the classic TV abduction scene was actually one of the worst scenes in the entire film. How they could trash such a classic scene is utterly beyond my understanding.

This is definitely #1 on my worst remake list. This film just has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Still Shooting With Film!

[–] Rena_Mahone 9 years ago

It is very much possible to make a good remake (horror or not) but this turd failed completely at doing so.

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[–] gotmyorangecrush 9 years ago

Gotta agree 100%. I certainly can't think of another remake I have seen that was worse than this. I wound up giving it a score of 3 and even that feels like its too high. Just a terrible movie is every possible way. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. They absolutely trashed one of the best ghost films ever made and basically smeared a total classic. This film should literally be burned and wiped off the face of the planet. Its existence is just an insult to quality film making.

Still Shooting With Film!

[–] Scribblenaut 8 years ago

My vote is still for Total Recall. Colin Farrell may be one of the most versatile actors on the planet, but even he couldn't save that turd. The original was a fun, trashy satire of sci-fi cliches and 80's commercialism. The remake was a brain-dead ripoff of Minority Report.

[–] FridayOnElmStreet 8 years ago

Nightmare on Elm Street is the worst.