Remake vs. Original

[Andrew]

>  Are you referring to Day of the Triffids too? The gun they
> used in the movie shot spinning triangular blades and was
> used to slice the stalks of the triffids. Seemed like kind of
> a poor idea for a weapon to me, since the stalks were so
> narrow.

Triangular blades?  You would think that they would use a scythe or maybe a grenade launcher filled with herbicide.  Or, shades of the original movie: a flamethrower.

[The Other Andrew]

>
> Invasion of the Body Snatchers- 1956 or 1978?
1956, but the 1978 one is excellent in its own right. The 1994 version is pretty bad, though.

> Cat People - 1942 or 1982?
I don't care if there is full-frontal action on Kinski-1942

> The Blob - 1958 or 1988?
Torn between them both

> The Fly - 1958 or 1986?
1986

> Villiage of the Damned - 1960 or 1995?
1960

> Night of the Living Dead - 1968 or 1990? (tho i suspect
> nobody wants to commit blasphamy in this case)
1968

> King Kong - 1922 or 1976?
Yeesh, no contest-1932

> The Thing - 1951 or 1982?
1951

[Brian Ringler]

What about the peice of crap 30th Anniversary edition of night of the living dead where new footage was shot and added in?  And the version where people dubbed over the soundtrack?  Would those in any sense be considered remakes?  I don't think so but thought I'd throw them in on the NOTLD side.  Then there is the colorized version that makes the movie look like a live cartoon.  God, there are a lot of different versions of NOTLD.

[peter johnson]

out here in colorado, our local pbs affiliate is rerunning the british tv series.  defintely closer to the john wyndham book of the same name.  really gets the dramatic tension going.  the blade-shooting gun is actually quite a functional thing, though they have a wide variety of flame-weapons as well, including things that look like electrical tennis racquets-on-a-stick.  sure do burn 'em up real good, though!
john wyndham also wrote "the midwich cuckoos", the book upon which all the children of the damned/village of the damned films were based.  one hell of a goood read & scary as can be in that dry sort of british understated way that they can do so very well.
village of the damned, with george sanders, is one of my all-time favorite low-budget horror flicks.  the scene where the kids deconstruct the brick wall in sanders' mind & then turn in unison to the hidden bomb is simply one of those great little cinematic moments that cost nothing to shoot, yet blows away multi-million dollar effects-laden scenes that are neither tense nor scary.
i did see the modern remake & was surprised that it wasn't worse than it was.
peter j.

[John]

>out here in colorado, our local pbs affiliate is rerunning the british tv series

 I wish one of our PBS channels would show it. I think I originally saw it on A&E.

[Flangepart]

Triffids was a good read.
....The idea of a world gone blind was a chiller. And the Triffids were not the big, all devouring tree things in the early movie. They were poisonus, and the sting had to be contunualy clipped to keep it from growing back. They were man made plants, and the oils produced were profitable.
....The plants killed animals/people, and waited around till the body got nice and ripe. Ewwwww! It was the blinding of most of the worlds population that allowed them to become dangerious.
....Hope to see the remake someday.

[John]

>....The idea of a world gone blind was a chiller. And the Triffids were not the big,
>all devouring tree things in the early movie. They were poisonus, and the sting
>had to be contunualy clipped to keep it from growing back. They were man
>made plants, and the oils produced were profitable.

 I forget if they were man made in the new version of not. I do remember a triffid 'farm', and I think the main character, Bill, missed the meteor shower because his eyes were bandaged from a triffid sting.