Jon Carpenter's The Thing - 1982

So, I think there's a lesson to be learned about remakes with this movie. And that lesson is that your remake doesn't have to be shitty. Because this one is really, really awesome. It could have to do with the fact that it features Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley and voiceover icon Keith David all in one movie. It might be the special effects and their reliance on animatronics and prostheses, as CGI was not an option in '82 and still doesn't carry the same punch. Most likely it's because it's Jon Carpenter and his keyboard-wielding soundtrack-makin' ways turning a concept he experienced as a child into a paranoid arctic tale of alien horror. But whatever the reason, it should be a study in the successful transformation of a classic into a new classic rather than a toss-away summer blockbuster or crapfest slasher.

H2 - 2009

Rob Zombie just keeps plugging away at this movie business thing, and to, what we can probably all agree, are pretty sporadic results. I don't think I care for the stuff he's done so far (House of 1000 Corpses is awful, Devil's Rejects is pastiche and H1 was, well, a remake of an already awesome movie, so...) But this trailer looks pretty promising. It's already full of incredible violence and we get to go inside Michael Myer's head, perhaps, which is something we've never been able to do before. What horrible creepiness might lie therein? Let's find out already!

Unfortunately this movie took the spot on his to-do list of Tyrannosaurus Rex, but you can already see that in comic book form as The Nail, if you want.

Sorcerer - 1977

Forget the fact that this movie probably rules and that you've never heard of it despite the fact that it features Roy Scheider and was directed by William Friedkin. Forget that this trailer means there's an entire narrative version floating out in the world somewhere. Forget the killer seventies trailer throaty dub voice, and just bask in the truly brilliant construction of this thing. A series of completely unconnected images, most featuring guns or explosions, underneath a soundtrack that can only be the synth baby of John Carpenter and Goblin, while providing absolutely no information about the plot of the film at all. I could probably watch this shit all day. Now THAT's how you make a fucking trailer!

PS: Apparently it's also a remake of Clouzot's Wages of Fear.