At this point, horror franchises are nearly as old as cinema itself. By the release of 1931s adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula the first with sound there was already a history of terrifying films in the silent era, especially among the geniuses working within the German Expressionism movement.The roots of horror films draw heavily from folklore, religion, and literature, which has meant many of the most enduring horror franchises are ones that existed far before film became a mainstream art form Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man. The Universal Monster franchise is a big part of this (and its many attempts at rekindling that magic), but horrors history is so present in human culture that it feels only natural the genre would develop this way in cinema.Thats not to say there havent been new entries to the canon of classic horror monsters the Alien franchises Xenomorphs, the Predator, Freddy Krueger, Ghostface. But theres something special about returning to the well of classic horror monsters, as weve seen recently with the success of Robert Eggers Nosferatu and the presence of Leigh Whannells Wolf Man.Inspired by those two recent releases, we thought it was a good time to run through some of the best remakes of classic horror movies. Were stretching the definition of classic a bit to include some of the latter additions to the horror monster canon, but we promise: All of these are a scary good time.The Thing (1982)Director: John CarpenterCast: Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley, Keith DavidWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWhere to watch the original: The Roku ChannelAny list of the best horror remakes is incomplete without The Thing. John Carpenters remake of 1951s The Thing from Another World eclipses the original in all respects, thanks to a terrific lead performance by Kurt Russell as a hardened helicopter pilot and practical creature effects by the legendary makeup effects artist Rob Bottin. The film landed with a thud at the box office, due in no small part to its proximity to the premiere of Steven Spielbergs E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but has since been vindicated as not only one of Carpenters best, but one of the best sci-fi horror movies of its era. Toussaint EganInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)Director: Philip KaufmanCast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard NimoyWhere to watch: AMC, MGM PlusWhere to watch the original: MGM Plus, The Roku ChannelPhilip Kaufmans 1978 remake of Don Siegels Invasion of the Body Snatchers transplants the films premise from the outskirts of rural California to San Francisco, following a small, unsuspecting group of scientists as they attempt to resist a mysterious extraterrestrial invasion that has abducted countless humans and replaced them with malicious duplicates. Starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum, the film is an eerie and unsettling drama with taut tension, captivating twists, and a chillingly memorable finale. As much a paranoid treatise on the perils of groupthink as it is a chilling sci-fi horror story, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a rich and layered movie that sticks with you from start to finish. TEThe Invisible Man (2020)Director: Leigh WhannellCast: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm ReidWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWhere to watch the original: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWolf Man wasnt director Leigh Whannells first effort at remaking a classic Universal Monster movie. That honor goes to The Invisible Man, a tense reboot of the 1933 movie led by an unsurprisingly powerful performance from Elisabeth Moss, playing a woman stuck in a nightmare of a relationship with a tech CEO. The adaptation uses new technology in very interesting ways to amp up the scares, aided by Whannells tight direction as a writer of the first three Saw movies, all five Insidious movies, and the director of Upgrade, he certainly has the bona fides for this kind of project. Pete VolkThe Fly (1986)Director: David CronenbergCast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John GetzWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWhere to watch the original: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduIn the 1980s, David Cronenberg dared to ask one brave question: What if a man was a fly who could fuck? The 1986 remake of Kurt Neumanns 1958 original casts future Jurassic Park star Jeff Goldblum in the role of Seth Brundle, a brilliant scientist on the verge of perfecting teleportation technology. After accidently splicing his DNA with an errant fly that gets caught in the middle of one of his experiments, Seth becomes increasingly more violent and erratic in his behavior. The practical makeup and special effects that go into depicting Seths gradual transmogrification into a grotesque human-fly hybrid are extraordinary and worth watching the film alone. TEThe Ring (2002)Director: Gore VerbinskiCast: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian CoxWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWhere to watch the original: AMC Plus, Criterion ChannelThe early 2000s were a fascinating time when studios were spending tens of millions of dollars on horror blockbusters. Among the best of these is the American remake of Ring, a Japanese movie about a haunted videotape that kills the viewer seven days after they watch its strange montage of images. While the remake lacks the empathy and scares of the original, The Ring is a wholly unique and worthwhile experience on its own and feels completely different from the horror movies of any other era. With a blockbuster budget and gorgeous direction from Gore Verbinski, this remake is somewhere between a ghost story and a mystery-thriller and relies more on its worlds excellent sense of haunting dread than direct scares. Austen GoslinSuspiria(2018)Director: Luca GuadagninoCast: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia GothWhere to watch: Prime VideoWhere to watch the original: PlexEvery remake on this list is transformative to one extent or another, but few of them approach that transformation as thoroughly as director Luca Guadagninos 2018 remake of Suspiria. The original film is a classic of 70s Italian horror cinema. Directed by the legendary Dario Argento, Suspiria is a bloody, colorful, and absolutely gorgeous film about a young American dancer who moves to Freiberg, Germany, to attend a dance school, only to discover that its run by an ancient witch whos feeding off the youth of the students. Each student slowly falls victim to various horrors inside the school one by one, all set to one of the most incredible and vibey soundtracks of all time.Guadagnino takes this supernatural slasher-ish premise and turns it into something far darker and more profound. His remake of the film still follows a dancer who moves to Europe from America to attend school, but this time the school is set in divided Berlin immediately after World War II. He uses this setting to engage directly with questions about arts relation to tragedy, and whether its the responsibility of an artist, in a time of tragedy, to create pleasant art that stands against the times or art that reflects the pain of its contemporary moment back at the world. The Suspiria remake is as thematically ambitious as any movie made so far this century. Guadagnino uses the springboard of Argentos classic as a shorthand way of establishing this universe of dancing and witches, and turns it into something larger and more complicated that stands beside its predecessor as an equally excellent but very different film. AGFright Night (2011)Director: Craig GillespieCast: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Imogen PootsWhere to watch: Prime VideoWhere to watch the original: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduThe 2011 remake ofFright Nightstars Anton Yelchin as Charley, a nerdy teenager living in a suburb on the outskirts of Las Vegas with his single mom, Jane (Toni Collette). When Jerry (Colin Farrell), a handsome and brooding stranger, moves in next door, Charley soon learns that his new neighbor is in fact a vampire on a rampage and killing people all around town. Enlisting the aid of Peter Vincent (David Tennant), a flamboyant Vegas Strip magician with an interest in the occult, and his girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots), Charley is forced to face off with Jerry and his sired underlings in a desperate bid to save his town. Farrell delivers a fantastic and unsettling performance as Jerry, and the late Anton Yelchin is charismatic as the films leading man.TEDawn of the Dead (2004)Director: Zack SnyderCast: Sarah Polley, Jake Weber, Ving RhamesWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWhere to watch the original: Available to rent on AmazonThis 2004 remake of George A. Romeros horror masterpiece about a group of people stuck together in a mall during a zombie apocalypse is as straightforward a remake as anything on this list. It borrows the same premise with almost no alterations, and only really adjusts the details of the story to keep the movie feeling thematically fresh 26 years after the original was released.And that was probably the right call. Romeros thinly veiled metaphor about the dangers of excess consumerism was no less relevant in 2004 than it was in 1978, all that really needed adjusting was the clothes. Of course, this being the feature film debut of director Zack Snyder also meant that the gore needed an update, too, but even in that regard, Snyder keeps the brutality of the film close to the spirit of Romero in a way that feels both like an homage and an evolution at the same time. And sometimes thats exactly what a reboot should be. AGNosferatu (2024)Director: Robert EggersCast: Bill Skarsgrd, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose DeppWhere to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and VuduWhere to watch the original: Prime VideoTheres no shortage of Nosferatu films, and the fact that the original story is just a thinly veiled version of Bram Stokers Dracula brings the tally up even higher. But what makes Robert Eggers 2024 version of the story so special is actually the way it positions itself in the modern landscape of movies not just how it relates to the previous versions of Nosferatu. In that context, Eggers film feels more like a demake than a remake.It isnt an attempt to modernize a classic, but rather to reemphasize that the horrors of yesteryear havent left us entirely. Everything about the film, from Eggers rigorous commitment to lighting scenes using only candles to his vision of Orlok as a mysterious, unknowable, but thoroughly human-adjacent evil, feels like it comes from another era of filmmaking. The remake resists the urge to distort the Dracula story into something vague and metaphorical, and instead forces us to confront it simply as a story of an ancient evil coming to haunt us. Hes perfectly willing to let you read into that evil however you please, which feels very casually revolutionary given how many horror films today are more metaphor than movie. AG