Some of the best horror movies are actually remakes of long-standing classics, bringing a terrifying concept up to modern standards with renewed energy. Scary stories have been around as long as human culture itself, meaning that older horror movies present a treasure trove of creative ideas that would be a waste to never return to again. Thus, many great modern horror movies have actually used older films as a template, re-imagining classic monsters with up-to-date special effects and scare standards.
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Many of these remakes of iconic horror villains include classic Universal movie monsters, such as the Wolf Man, Dracula, and The Mummy. Recent releases like Wolf Man have proven the enduring appeal of these characters time and time again. Other films simply take the premise of an older standalone film and upgrade it, overhauling the story for modern sensibilities alongside more advanced filmmaking techniques.
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The Invisible Man (2020)
Inspired by The Invisible Man (1933)
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Wolf Man isn’t Leigh Whannell’s first time directing a remake of an iconic Universal movie monster, with 2020’s The Invisible Man marking the start of his career adapting famous older horror films. The film follows a young woman who narrowly escapes an abusive relationship with a powerful optics expert who is shocked to later learn that her ex has died, leaving her his will. Things take an ugly turn when the scorned lover returns to stalk and harass her to the brink of insanity using an advanced form of invisibility.
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Rather than a chemical concoction, it’s a high-tech stealth suit made out of thousands of reactive cameras and projectors that creates the invisibility of the titular antagonist. Bearing little resemblance to the original villain from 1933 other than his last name, making Griffin an abusive ex-lover makes his scare factor far more potent. After all, no one will ever meet a real werewolf, but Adrian Griffins can and do haunt people in real life.
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An American Werewolf In London
Inspired by An American in Paris and A Werewolf of London
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Speaking of werewolf movies, An American Werewolf in London has endured for a long time as one of the greatest films to truly weaponize a fear of the famous folklore predator. Combining the stories of two different classic films from the 50s and 30s, the plot follows two American grad students living in London who run afoul of an ancient curse of lycanthropy. The hapless David is soon forced to make an impossible choice – End his own life and take the curse with him, or continue to endanger the lives of everyone around him.
The practical effects of An American Werewolf in London were particularly groundbreaking, changing the game in the horror genre with the painful-looking wolf transformation sequences. The bestial, hairy version of the Wolf Man that tramples through various densely-populated London locations is a rampaging hellion that puts Lawrence Talbot’s original curse to shame. It’s safe to say that An American Werewolf in London is the gold standard for all other werewolf movies.
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Nosferatu (2024)
Inspired by Nosferatu (1922)
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The king of period piece horror, it makes perfect sense that Robert Eggers took on the task of adapting a century-old horror movie for modern audiences. Like the original Nosferatu, the plot of the 2024 film of the same name loosely follows the events of the original Bram Stoker Dracula novel, albeit with changed-up German names, only to then diverge dramatically. After tricking her husband into selling her hand in marriage, the vile vampire Count Orlok gives the gentle Ellen three nights of terror before claiming her blood as his own.
Rather than looking like a rat-like goblin man, Orlok is a decaying corpse with vicious fangs and ravenous claws, draped in fine noble’s clothes befitting the era.
Bill Skarsgård is brilliant as the new interpretation of Count Orlok. Rather than looking like a rat-like goblin man, Orlok is a decaying corpse with vicious fangs and ravenous claws, draped in fine noble’s clothes befitting the era. From his haunting frame to his intimidating voice, the new Count Orlok is a fresh take on an ancient classic.
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The Blob (1988)
Inspired by The Blob (1958)
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A movie about a slowly-moving deadly ooze isn’t particularly exciting by modern standards, but director Chuck Russell does an amazing job making such a concept genuinely horrifying with the 80s remake of The Blob. This time around, rather than being an alien organism, The Blob is actually a government experiment. This helps update the Cold War-era fears of spreading communism The Blob originally represented into a more domestic threat in line with modern cynicism regarding the American government.
Seeping and creeping, The Blob is surprisingly terrifying as it grows larger and larger in biomass. The film’s excellent practical effects update the horror of the creature by showing it slowly suffocating and dissolving its victims until nothing but a skeleton is left. The eventual kaiju-sized tidal wave of goo the beast becomes makes for a nice threat progression, boiling over into a thrilling climax. The creature is also responsible for one of the greatest movie flamethrower scenes ever, earning extra brownie points.
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The Fly (1986)
Inspired by The Fly (1958)
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The Blob isn’t the only monosyllabic movie monster from 1958 to enjoy one of the greatest horror movie remakes of all time. Enter David Cronenberg’s The Fly, perhaps the pinnacle of the infamous body horror magician’s work. Dramatically overhauling the original story, 1986’s The Fly stars Jeff Goldblum as a scientist who makes a breakthrough with an experimental teleportation device, only to find himself slowly transforming into an insectoid creature after a literal fly in the ointment ruins his first attempt to pass through the device.
The original monster in 1958’s The Fly is quite tame by today’s standards, being simply a regular human man with the head and arm of a giant fly.
Cronenberg’s version is far more compelling and gross, showing “Brundlefly” slowly shedding his humanity as his skin sloughs off to reveal evermore insectoid features. Another premium achievement in the world of practical effects, the stomach-churning visuals of 1986’s The Fly are worthy of commendation in their own right.
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The Thing
Inspired by The Thing from Another World
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Perhaps the absolute magnum opus of famed horror director John Carpenter’s filmography, few people even realize that The Thing was based on a 1951 horror movie, The Thing from Another World, which was in turn inspired by a sci-fi novella titled Who Goes There?. Both films tell a loosely similar story of an isolated polar scientific research expedition which is beset upon by a mysterious alien invader. In John Carpenter’s version, the creature in question is much more accurate to the source material.
Rather than being a monstrous humanoid plant creature trapped within the ice, John Carpenter’s Thing is a shapeshfiting mass of intelligent organic matter capable of totally rewiring the DNA of any living organism it infects on the fly. This results in some jaw-droppingly amazing scenes of gruesome body horror, including the infamous “spider head” scene. There’s a reason that The Thing has completely eclipsed its progenitor film in pop culture relevance over the years.
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Suspiria (2018)
Inspired by Suspiria (1977)
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One of the most underrated horror remakes ever is the 2018 re-interpretation of the Italian supernatural classic, Suspiria. Though the details of the two films’ narratives diverge quite heavily, they follow the same general premise of a promising young American ballerina who travels to Europe to study at a prestigious ballet academy, only to discover that the entire operation is run by a coven of evil witches. Both films feature the head witch, Helena Markos, also known as the Mater Suspiriorum, in various forms.
In the original Suspiria, the Mater Suspiriorum is simply a decrepit corpse of a woman, terrifying enough on her own accord. But Tilda Swinton’s version in the 2018 remake cranks things up a notch, appearing as a melting creature of sloughing flesh complete with sharp claws, fluid-leaking tumors, and an eerily pulled-back grimace of a scarred visage. Few modern interpretations of older horror movie monsters are as frightening as this brilliant performance trapped beneath layers of incredible makeup.
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Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Inspired by Dawn of the Dead (1978)
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These days, director Zack Snyder might be better known for his infamous attempts at comic book movies and science fiction franchises. However, more respect needs to be put on Snyder’s name as a visionary of the zombie movie, crafting some of the finest features in the genre. Standout among his work is the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, an interpretation of the 1978 George A. Romero film of the same name. Both movies center on a handful of zombie apocalypse survivors eking out a living in a shopping mall.
Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead was a huge step in the evolution of zombies in cinema. Rather than being the typical slow, shuffling corpses that could easily be dispatched, the 2004 Dawn of the Dead zombies are fast and ferocious, making a horde of them all but impossible to escape from without suffering from at least a bite or two. Even if 28 Days Later technically did running zombies first, Dawn of the Dead refined them to a razor’s edge of sophistication.
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955)
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Like The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a classic 50s sci-fi horror movie that served as a metaphor for the dangers of communism at a time in which fear of the spreading ideology ran rampant in American culture. Rather than a creeping mass of gooey flesh, the monsters of Invasion of the Body Snatchers were creepy aliens that slowly captured human beings and replaced them with the eerie “pod people”, lookalike clones born from massive plant-like seeds. The film received a great remake in 1978 that extrapolates on the creatures further.
The additional details of their pink, amorphous original forms and the extrasensory abilities they’re implied to have serve to make the looming threat of their silent infiltration all the more unnerving.
The 70s remake is responsible for adding enduring touches to the pod people, such as the ear-splitting shriek they emit upon spotting a human infiltrating their midst. The additional details of their pink, amorphous original forms and the extrasensory abilities they’re implied to have serve to make the looming threat of their silent infiltration all the more unnerving. Even if the changes made to the pod people in the 70s remake make them more obvious to spot, it’s hard to say that they aren’t more intimidating as horror movie villains.
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Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Inspired by Dracula (1931)
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Of all the Universal horror movie monsters, few have gotten as many terrifying movie and TV incarnations as Dracula himself. One of the scariest movie vampires can still be found within Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which, like the 1931 Universal classic, tells a straightforward adaptation of the original novel. However, one notable difference in Bram Stoker’s Dracula is how far back it goes in Vlad Dracula’s personal history, showing how he originally became a profane creature in the 1400s.
Gary Oldman is brilliant as the Count himself, setting the character apart from Bela Lugosi’s iconic version with his own unique spin. His demonic copper armor and intimidating spires of hair are unforgettable visuals that perfectly compliment Oldman’s chilling performance. It’s hard to find a horror movie monster that’s been as perfectly refined as Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
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