Perhaps inadvisably, I had high expectations of this remake of what I consider to be something of a masterpiece from Wes Craven back in the heyday of horror. Something about the trailer made it seem that they genuinely hadn’t screwed it up as much as you might expect from a modern remake, and the involvement of Craven himself, if only on production duties, really boded well.

Clearly, something is diminished over the 37 years since the still cultish original. The greatest absence I find here the perhaps couldn’t be avoided is that of David Hess; not only on the highly memorable music duties of the original but also in the lead part of Krug. Hess’ contribution to the original can’t be underestimated. He lent a genuinely unsettling edge to that role and his dreamlike score and songs added another layer entirely to the most disturbing moments in the story. John Murphy’s score here works but it’s nothing compared to those particularly early-seventies sounds.

Much of the more jarring elements of the original are stripped away here too, most notably a quite beloved aspect of mine in the comedy cops. Though the final act of the movie still treads the same ground, too, the manner of revenge is far more realistic (no chainsaws, no ummm biting, nor the ultimate wacky dental work: though I must say the very last scene here relieved me immeasurably).

But let’s not forget, this movie is also based on an Ingmar Bergman movie before it is a remake of the Wes Craven flick. I found myself wondering how much scepticism would surround this movie had it been called “The Virgin Spring” and marketed that way. There is something about this story that is really done a disservice by its seventies horror reputation. It’s extraordinarily pure, almost Shakespearean. In Craven’s original, I remember the very Lady Macbeth way that the girl’s mother is the inciter of much of the revenge. In this version, the parents are much more a team in the crazy final act, and there’s something about the many shots of them simply looking at each other or walking together towards another encounter that I found immensely powerful. These guys truly didn’t get up this day expecting to do all the things they end up doing, and you genuinely feel that simultaneous immediacy of yet shock at their decisions as the story progresses. Of course it’s not a movie to watch over and over again but for a modern remake you really have to marvel a little about the respectful and mature tone this one takes.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.