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Updated August 21, 2019 1.9k votes 498 voters 33.3k views
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In the early 2000s, there was a boom of Asian horror remakes in America, particularly of Japanese (J-Horror) and Korean (K-Horror films). It all began with The Ring in 2002 and, from there, Hollywood started gobbling up Asian horror films and spitting them back out, oftentimes at the detriment of the remake. Most of these remakes lack the same sense of dread and menace found in the Asian originals. A select few remakes do a fairly decent job and try to stick to the original atmospheric elements. You’ll be surprised that some of these American movies were based on A-Horror.
Obviously, lots of spoilers ahead, because of course there are.
The Grudge (2004) was an almost-perfect remake of the Japanese original, Juon (2002). Well, that’s probably because both films were directed by Takashi Shimizu. The remake also had an advantage in that it was produced by Evil Dead creator, Sam Raimi.
In the remake, Karen, the character played by Buffy... er... Sarah Michelle Gellar, moves into a haunted house with a ghost that holds some serious grudges and haunts the sh*t out of anyone who dares to enter her home. Almost everything is the same, including the Japanese setting, which did alienate some American audiences. Despite this, the remake did extraordinarily well and was followed up by two sequels. But it does make you wonder: why bother remaking a film if it's just going to be a carbon copy of the original?
The Ring started it all for the Asian horror remake boom. The Ring (2002), directed by Gore Verbinski, is a remake of the J-horror film Ringu, directed by Hideo Nakata. Both films were based on the horror novel Ringu by Koji Suzuki.
The remake, starring Naomi Watts, does a pretty decent job of sticking to the original plot, which follows a reporter investigating several deaths linked to a cursed videotape. But the remake did have more jumpy scare tactics than the original, and also showed Samara’s face, which takes some of the creepiness away. In the original, Sadako’s face was never shown.
After the success of The Ring, Hollywood figured it would try its hand at remaking another J-horror hit with Dark Water. Like The Ring, Dark Water (2005) was based on a novel by Koji Suzuki. Hideo Nakata also directed the original Dark Water in 2002. While the plot does stick to the original - a mother (Jennifer Connelly) and daughter move into a haunted apartment during a custody battle - the remake focuses too much on family drama. It steers away from the supernatural elements of the original film and unnecessarily delves into the fallout of divorce. The original film received much more critical acclaim than the remake.
The remake was pretty spot-on with Takashi Miike’s original and even had some of the exact same scenes. Its plot is in the same vein as other J-horror films (Ringu, Kairo) in that technology becomes haunted. In the film, the characters receive a voicemail from their future selves revealing how they will die.
While both the original and remake got bad reviews in their respective countries, Miike’s version was actually a bit terrifying. The remake was diluted, to say the least.
The Uninvited (2009) is the less-than-notable remake of the Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters (2003). The original is based on an old Korean folktale about an evil stepmother. The original film, directed by Kim Jee-Woon, had an arthouse vibe that was completely lost in TheUninvited. The plot of the remake was pretty much the same. A girl returns home from a mental institution after the death of her mother to find that her father is planning on remarrying a stone-cold b*tch (Elizabeth Banks). The remake, which was directed by Charles Guard, was criticized for its predictability and lack of creativity. It just fell far too short of the original.
The original Thai film Shutter (2004) was a complete hit, with many saying it was the scariest Asian horror movie since The Ring. However, its American remake, unlike The Ring’s, was (sh)utter garbage. The remake stuck to the original plot, more or less. A photographer and his girlfriend hit a girl with their vehicle, and later see images, or spirit photography, of her ghost in their photos. The remake, perhaps because it was directed by Masayuki Ochiai, does retain the original's Japanese setting, but the acting is just so shoddy it makes the entire thing laughable. But despite the remake’s negative reviews, it still did surprisingly well at the box office.
