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Horror Movie Remake Odds

John Benson

by John Benson in Entertainment

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

Hollywood’s penchant for remaking successful movies of all genres has been going on for near a century. This includes horror films ranging from Dawn of the Dead and My Bloody Valentine to The Village of the Damned and When a Stranger Calls.

Just last year, horror flicks Carrie and Evil Dead received the re-make honors.

Recently, we received a request from some horror movie aficionados for odds on which of their favorite flicks – including the likes of Rosemary’s Baby, Friday the 13th, The Shining, Nosferatu, Poltergeist, and a few others – would be remade next.

After sacrificing our favorite goat to Cthulhu and consulting the ouija board we keep in attic, we divined some numbers, which you can find below. (They better be right. We loved that goat.)

Without giving too much of our real process away, the way we see it, Hollywood is more likely to capitalize on titles that still have resonance with the masses. Hence, you’ll find some of the more universally popular titles – like Friday the 13th (3/1 odds) and The Shining (6/1 odds) – near the top of our list, and the more niche movies a bit lower.

Horror Movie Remake Odds:

The Top-Five:

  • Poltergeist: 2/1

Though there is an urban legend in Hollywood that the Poltergeist franchise is cursed, some money-hungry movie moguls are rumored to be running the risk of an early demise and rebooting this Tobe Hooper classic. It could be out as early as 2015.

  • Friday the 13th: 3/1

Jason Voorhees (no relation to Lark Voorhies) returned to cinemas with a 2009 remake. Even though that film was essentially a remake of the four original Friday the 13th movies, there is rumored to be another incarnation on the way. It’s not likely to be out in 2015, but, since the 2009 film did pretty well at the box office, we’re confident the new one will get done eventually.

  • Rosemary’s Baby: 4/1

The 2014 mini-series starring Zoe Saldana doesn’t count; we’re talking feature films here, people. But the name alone has so much cachet that some producer is sure to try, try again on the big screen.

  • The Shining: 6/1

Let’s be honest, no one has the chops to follow in Nicholson’s footsteps and play the soothing-yet-psychotic Jack Torrence. Does that mean Hollywood won’t try? Absolutely not. (Recall, for instance, that the woefully inadequate Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton were thrust into the shoes of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in the Charade-remake The Truth about Charlie.) Who could take the best stab – or should we say “slash” – at playing Jack? We like Ed Norton (think Primal Fear).

  • Deadly Blessing: 12/1

You might not be too familiar with Deadly Blessing. It bucks the trend of having the more popular titles near the top of the list. Why does it break through? First, because it starred Sharon Stone and was directed by Wes Craven (both of whom we think would be game for the re-make) and, second, because it has the greatest one-sentence synopsis around; per IMDb: “This film is set in Amish Country, at a local farm, where a woman’s husband is mysteriously killed by his own tractor!”

In the age of Sharknado, if that’s not a perfect candidate for a remake, I don’t know what is.

The Rest:

  • The Serpent and the Rainbow: 12/1
  • Monkey Shines: 15/1
  • Suspiria: 18/1
  • Kill, Baby, Kill: 20/1
  • The Flesh and the Fiends: 30/1
  • The Stuff: 35/1
  • Nosferatu: 50/1

With zombies waxing and vampires waning, we think that, if Nosferatu was going to be remade, it would have been done already.

Do you have any insider tips or extra-sensory information we should know about? Let us know in the comments.

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