Hollywood has gone crazy with the remakes. So many horror movies coming out are either a remake, a reboot, a sequel, a prequel, a spin off, an adaptation, a rendition, a reimaging, or more specifically, a remake of a Japanese one. It’s almost annoying how rare original works are these days. But remakes aren’t always bad. Sometimes they serve another purpose other than just making the studio money by piggybacking off of someone else’s work. Sometimes they’re actually good.

5. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This film may not be the best remake, but because of being such a crowd favorite, it has ended up on this list. It’s hard to compare this film to the original, mainly since they are both very different movies. The only real similarity between these two films is the fact that they both take place in a mall during the zombie apocalypse. Another connection is that Ving Rhames’ character Kenneth had a strong resemblance to Ken Foree’s Peter in the original 1978 “Dawn of the Dead”. The only direct reference is the classic quote: “When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.” Other than that, Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” is really its own movie. It features a talented cast, laughs, scares, gore, violence, and haunting scenes that you’ll never forget.

4. Night of the Living Dead (1990)

The original “Night of the Living Dead” was the first zombie movie ever made. At least the zombies that we know now. George A. Romero created the modern day zombie, as well as the entire zombie genre. There have been several official sequels and remakes. But there have also been tons of unofficial sequels and remakes. It’s not unheard of for a remake to be better than the original. But it is rare when the original is such a classic and held at such high of a praise as George Romero’s innovative masterpiece. A possible reason could be that this film is written and produced by John A. Russo, Russell Streiner, and George A. Romero, the creators of the original film. It is also directed by legendary actor and effects artist Tom Savini who is known as “The King of Splatter”, longtime friend to Romero, and starred horror legend Tony Todd as the classic hero Ben. This film takes the original and revamps it. It also adds a shocking and memorable ending, taking the original film’s ending to a whole other level.

3. Poltergeist (2015)

A good remake should have two things. It should have things that are better than the original, and things that aren’t as good. Of course there should be things that are better. But you also want things that aren’t. There’s a reason they’re remaking the film to begin with. Because it is a great movie. So of course the original will always have something over the remake. In the 2005 “Poltergeist”, the general story was the same as the original, even though the pacing is different. It centers on a family living in a haunted house whose daughter is sucked into the ghost dimension through her closet and communicates with her family through the television. Every character in the remake has a different name, and some characters are removed. The dad in this film became an out of work jokester, and the mom a struggling novelist. Instead of Zelda Rubinstein’s Tangina Barrons, the clairvoyant little person, she was replaced by Jared Harris’s Carrigan Burke, who is a psychic reality show star who fights the paranormal. Burke may not sound that original, but Jared Harris is a phenomenal actor. In this film, he plays a bad-ass who’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the day. Plus Tangina Barrons was pretty creepy at times. Craig T. Nelson was incredible in the original, but in the remake, Sam Rockwell gave him a run for his money. The “They’re here!” line was a bit anti-climactic in the remake. They also replaced the scene where the guy rips his own face off with him being attacked by a drill, which is a bit easier to watch. The “Poltergeist” remake was nowhere near as good as the original, but as far as remakes go, it’s definitely worth watching.

2. Fright Night (2011)

People would say it’s blasphemous to say that the 2011 remake is better than the original. The original has such a huge cult following that a lot of people were upset when the remake was announced. The original 1985 film was written and directed by horror legend, Tom Holland. Tom Holland also wrote the story to the remake. The one thing that this film has over the original is the cast. First of all, when saying that this film has a better cast, this is excluding Roddy McDowell and Chris Sarandon. Colin Farrell was a perfect choice. And David Tennant did a great job. But Roddy McDowell and Chris Sarandon are irreplaceable and are the reason the original film is as classic as it is. The remake has proven that the rest of the cast was not as irreplaceable. Anton Yelchin, who had just recently passed, has had an impressive legacy that will never be forgotten. William Ragsdale seems to have lead a fairly mediocre career. Imogen Poots has several films in production right now, as well as an impressive resume behind her. Amanda Bearse’s only other claim to fame was “Married with Children”. Toni Collette is an Emmy winner and an Academy Award nominee. Dorothy Fielding’s career hasn’t existed since 1998. Christopher Mintz-Plasse will forever be the iconic McLovin. Stephen Geoffreys’ career got so bad that he ended up doing gay porn under the alias Sam Ritter. To defend the original, it was good enough to have a sequel. The 2011 “Fright Night” was followed by “Fright Night 2: New Blood”, which was straight to DVD and wasn’t even a sequel. It was just a poorly made remake that had nothing to do with the first two movies.

1. The Thing (1982)

This remake is such a classic that people refer to this as the “original”. Not many people realize that this bloodcurdling film by John Carpenter Is a remake of 1951 film “The Thing” (later changed to “The Thing From Another World” to differentiate the films) which was actually featured in John Carpenter’s “Halloween”. John Carpenter’s version of “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. follows the source material truer than the earlier version, which may be a reason why some people may not consider this a remake. The 1982 film is more acknowledged into culture especially since it was given a prequel of the same name in 2011, as well as a video game sequel also of the same name. “The Thing” (1982) captured true horror with a malicious villain and a hauntingly isolated setting. The gore in this film was like no other. And you can never go wrong with the classic team up of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell